Improve Productivity: How to Free Yourself from Your Smartphone

Smartphones have been a godsend for the regular home entrepreneur and business owner. A computer in your pocket, a phone on the go and more, there’s more power in that little device than an entire office packed just a few decades back.

But that magic comes at a cost beyond the financial and environmental toll it’s taking. And the price you pay is your mind. When there’s an actual buzz phrase like “attention economy”, you better know that somebody is monetizing your clicks and swipes. That’s not a problem in itself, except when those tempting apps are distracting you from the serious work of running a business.

Even if you rely on your smartphone for work, you shouldn’t be checking it all the time. You’ll work much more efficiently if you put aside certain times of day for responding to emails and maintaining your social media marketing presence. And as for your personal social media presence – that’s best kept out of office hours!

So having resolved to actually cut your smartphone usage, how can you make it easier on yourself?

First things first: set yourself some boundaries so you know what you’re trying to achieve. Say, no apps between 10am and noon on the first week, and build it up from there. Remember, a lot of the time you’re not checking the phone because of actual content you’re expecting to find, but for the dopamine hit of discovering something new.

Once you’ve got boundaries, it’s a lot easier to keep to them. But like any addiction, quitting it is about giving yourself permission to succeed. When you say you “can’t” do something, you telling yourself that an outside force is pressuring you to stop. When you say you “don’t” do something, on the other hand, you’re already defining yourself as a new person. Next time you go to pick up your smartphone outside of your allotted app time, don’t tell yourself “I can’t go on Facebook at this time,” tell yourself “I don’t go on Facebook at this time.”

You can use your smartphone to help you quit it, too: switch off push notifications that you don’t need for work, and push your personal-time apps off of your home screen so that finding them is less automatic and more time-consuming. You can also find apps that will lock inessential processes in pre-allotted times.

If you take your business seriously, you need to take your tools seriously – and that’s what your smartphone is. For more ideas on how you can professionalize your smartphone experience, check out Saving Spot’s new visual guide to quitting apps.