How to Dumb Down your Smartphone

This is a ‘how to’ guide. If you want some more reasoning as to why you should follow the steps listed below then see my essay Why I dumbed down my smartphone.

Turn Off Notifications

What compels us to check our phones 344 times a day? The promise of a small endorphin hit. How do we know that these endorphin hits are ready for us to create? A ding, a vibration or an illuminated screen. 

Removing the alert removes the scramble to check what/who is after our attention.

I have personally removed notifications, aside from phone calls. My iPhone only displays a small red circle in the corner of each app when a message has been received. This allows me to read and reply to messages when best suits me, not when my phone tells me to. 

If your friend is offended by you taking a few hours to reply to messages then let them know that you are always available instantly via a phone call. 

Don’t let other people’s expectations control how you want to live your life.  

Delete Social Media

I am not going to dig into the many negatives of social media platforms on our mental health here. I am also not telling you to delete your social accounts altogether. I am merely suggesting you remove them from your phone. 

The irony of these so called ‘social’ platforms is that they claim to promote connection and interaction when in reality, coupled with our smartphone addictions, tarnish our social lives. 

By only accessing these sites and checking in on notifications when in front of your laptop/computer, you can choose when you use them and not the other way around. 

Delete Email

I deleted the email app from my phone for the same reasons I have stated above in regards to social media and notifications. 

If something was an urgent issue that needed your attention right away, it would not be sent via an email. 

Delete Games

Need I explain?

Turn on Grayscale

Another perhaps less pervasive but in some ways equally as addictive element of smartphones is the bright colours used on their screens. 

All apps and notifications are in the most vibrant colours designed to grab and hold your attention.

If you make something less appealing, you will have less urge to use it.

Trust me, after a couple of weeks, you will forget you ever made this change. 

That is until you look at your friend's phone screen and are blinded by the lights. 

Delete News Apps

The news is full of doom and gloom. You don’t need to know most of it as much as you think.

A much healthier way to access daily news if you wish is through news sites online or tv at specific times, not 24/7.

Being constantly drip fed negativity takes its toll.

There is a certain joy in not knowing the latest breaking news. When asked “Did you see that so and so did this?” by your friend you can blissfully say “No I didn’t, please enlighten me”.

Think how many more meaningful and interesting conversations that could lead to.

Give Your Phone a Home

We reach so often for our phones because it’s the easiest way to change our state or mood.

But what if your phone was constantly in another room?

You wouldn’t get up and go and look at it every 2 minutes. 

So find a little home for your phone. A place in your home where it can permanently stay when not being used. 

You will use it less this way and if you don’t, well there’s a little more exercise in it for you. 

Schedule Phone Time

Tying in with the last point, you could schedule time when you are going to use your phone. 

There is likely some aspect of your life that you have a specific time that you partake in that activity.

Do the same with your phone usage.

Start with shorter intervals, then expand overtime as you wish.

This will not only help to reduce your overall screen time but will quickly show you how much you are yearning for your phone.

This was something that helped to reassure me that I was doing the right thing in cutting down my phone time.

Find Healthy Replacements

With all the free time you will be set to gain, you will need some activities in mind. 

What do you wish to do more of?

Read more books?

Exercise more?

Spend more time with family?

Whatever it is, make sure that you have some ideas prepared before you start your digital declutter so as not to slip into unwanted patterns all over again. 

If you are reading this then you probably wish to curtail your phone usage and I would suggest trying as many or as few of the suggestions made. 

Get in touch here to let me know if you have used any other methods which I have not covered, or if you have found this helpful.

If you are curious about how to improve other areas of your life then head over to my essays page where there are more writings on strategies and ideas I have found helpful to me.

And if you are reading this on your phone then after 3, throw it out of the nearest window.

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