Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about a small trip to make screen
Speaker 1: time more mindful. By making it slightly harder to open
Speaker 1: and log into your phone, you will probably stop yourself
Speaker 1: a few more times than you might have, and that
Speaker 1: can make it more possible to concentrate on everything else.
Speaker 1: Today's tip, like another this week, comes from Amantha Ember's
Speaker 1: new book time Wise. This book is all about smart
Speaker 1: strategies to get more done while feeling better about it.
Speaker 1: In the book, Amantha quotes entrepreneur Kevin Rose about how
Speaker 1: to start picking up the phone less. Kevin Rose had
Speaker 1: been feeling frustrated to find he was picking up his
Speaker 1: own more than a hundred times a day, which is
Speaker 1: not that unusual really, many people clock two pickups or more.
Speaker 1: But he didn't like it, so he made one little tweak.
Speaker 1: He put a rubber band around his phone. As he
Speaker 1: told Amantha Ember, when you see that rubber band, it
Speaker 1: just reminds you to pause for a second, and you
Speaker 1: think to yourself, do I really need to pick up
Speaker 1: and use my device right now? Oftentimes the answer is no.
Speaker 1: I think he is onto something. A few years ago,
Speaker 1: I cracked my phone pretty badly and it was a
Speaker 1: little while before I could replace it. I wound up
Speaker 1: putting my phone in a little plastic baggie so I
Speaker 1: wouldn't lose the pieces of the glass. I could still
Speaker 1: use it, but I had to open the baggy, and
Speaker 1: then I had to be very careful that I didn't
Speaker 1: slice my fingers. Needless to say, when checking my phone
Speaker 1: required a lot of care, I became a lot more
Speaker 1: careful about picking it up. It just wasn't worth it
Speaker 1: to check social media for the third time in twenty
Speaker 1: minutes because I was bored. A rubber band does something
Speaker 1: very similar, albeit without the risk of cutting your finger.
Speaker 1: If you put the band right across the phone, you
Speaker 1: will probably have to pull it off in order to
Speaker 1: log in, or even if the phone still registers your
Speaker 1: face and logs you in without removing the rubber band,
Speaker 1: you will still need to move the rubber band to
Speaker 1: read anything, which makes the experience less immediately gratifying. The
Speaker 1: rubber band doesn't stop you, It just slows you down,
Speaker 1: and in that small space of time, you can ask
Speaker 1: if this is actually what you mean to be doing
Speaker 1: with your time, or if you'd like to be doing
Speaker 1: something else. In Kevin Rose's case, he said that using
Speaker 1: the rubber band reduced pickups from about a hundred a
Speaker 1: day two more like thirty. That is a lot of
Speaker 1: time freed up for other things. So if you are
Speaker 1: feeling like you're picking up your phone more times than
Speaker 1: you would like, do something to make it less convenient.
Speaker 1: A rubber band works, or putting it in a baggy
Speaker 1: or a zippered carrying case or anything along those lines.
Speaker 1: You might even consider wearing a watch so you don't
Speaker 1: need to look at your phone for the time. There
Speaker 1: is absolutely nothing wrong with using a smartphone, but like
Speaker 1: all things, it is best done mindfully. I would guess
Speaker 1: that not all two pickups a day or so are
Speaker 1: done with full intention. A rubber band or something similar
Speaker 1: just ensure is a bit more mindfulness without a loss
Speaker 1: of much time when you do really need to check
Speaker 1: in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: At i heeart media dot com that before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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