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 to make your phone less interesting. Many
Speaker 1: of us spend big chunks of our days staring at
Speaker 1: our smartphones. I'm not saying that time is all wasted.
Speaker 1: I mean you're listening to this, and maybe you're doing
Speaker 1: amazing other things on your phone, like reading More and
Speaker 1: Peace on the kindle lapp, or sending brilliant emails that
Speaker 1: convince a client to order years more of work, or
Speaker 1: maybe you're learning another language so you can go volunteer
Speaker 1: in a disaster zone. But I'm guessing a lot of
Speaker 1: the time is not so profound. We wind up reading
Speaker 1: articles with clickbait headlines and looking at photos on Instagram
Speaker 1: of someone else's dessert. We do this because we're bored.
Speaker 1: We do it because it's easy, and it's totally fine
Speaker 1: to have some mindless downtime, but maybe five hours a day. So,
Speaker 1: given that few of us magically developed more willpower, how
Speaker 1: can we limit the phone checking habit so we can
Speaker 1: free up time Before Breakfast listener named Abby recently wrote
Speaker 1: in with a great suggestion about what worked for her.
Speaker 1: Abby runs her own business and has a two year
Speaker 1: old daughter. When the little girl was born, Abby writes
Speaker 1: that she got in the habit of spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time on her phone because she was looking at
Speaker 1: it while holding the girl or rocking her. But after
Speaker 1: she got out of the hold meal the time stage,
Speaker 1: I found myself still addicted. Abby writes, I tried a
Speaker 1: few methods to stay off my phone, but I was
Speaker 1: always thinking about it. She writes that she knows that's ridiculous,
Speaker 1: but anyone who's checked to make sure she's still got
Speaker 1: her phone on her on the way to the bathroom
Speaker 1: knows exactly what Abby is talking about. Anyway, she says,
Speaker 1: the best solution I found was to make my phone
Speaker 1: less interesting. Here's how she did it. I unfollowed all
Speaker 1: celebrity and blogger account that I followed. I realized that
Speaker 1: I didn't need to know what was happening in their
Speaker 1: everyday lives. Also, the comparison game with these accounts is
Speaker 1: unfair to do to ourselves. It turns out that when
Speaker 1: people pay photographers to follow them around all day, their
Speaker 1: lives feature gorgeous outfits and zero dirty dishes. Not exactly realistic,
Speaker 1: as for non celebrities. Here's what Abby writes. I also
Speaker 1: muted my casual friends on Instagrams, such as old college acquaintances.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to unfriend them completely because I want
Speaker 1: to know what they're up to every once in a while,
Speaker 1: but I don't need daily updates. Instead, I can search
Speaker 1: for them if I happen to think of them. Finally,
Speaker 1: I muted all Instagram stories. I found that with the
Speaker 1: increased use of Instagram Stories, most people use their feed
Speaker 1: for major life updates. Now, when I opened Instagram, I
Speaker 1: see family updates and vacation photos, not what other people
Speaker 1: are eating for lunch. I was wasting so much of
Speaker 1: my time looking at what other people were doing, and
Speaker 1: now I spend more time living my life. I haven't
Speaker 1: gone so far as to mute Instagram Stories, but I
Speaker 1: do think Abby is onto something with her decision to
Speaker 1: make her phone boring. When I give speeches or do workshops,
Speaker 1: people often ask me which productivity apps I use? Which
Speaker 1: apps do I recommend to help people get more done.
Speaker 1: I know there are some truly wonderful ones out there,
Speaker 1: but here's the problem. Putting apps on our phones makes
Speaker 1: our phones more interesting. When our phones are more interesting.
Speaker 1: We check our phones more often, but how many of
Speaker 1: us just look at the productivity app and then turn
Speaker 1: the phone off when we're done. I'd wager that most
Speaker 1: people look at the productivity app and then click over
Speaker 1: to Twitter. Just like that, another twenty minutes disappears down
Speaker 1: the drain. Any time saved by the app is immediately consumed.
Speaker 1: That's why I use a paper planner. I actually use
Speaker 1: a pay per calendar too, though I know most people
Speaker 1: in larger organizations can't do that. But anyway, if you
Speaker 1: find yourself thinking like Abby that you're spending too much
Speaker 1: time on your phone, see what you can do to
Speaker 1: make it boring. Maybe you could unfollow a few accounts.
Speaker 1: Maybe you could remove a game that you keep saying
Speaker 1: you want to spend less time playing. You can always
Speaker 1: reinstall it if you're stuck with a lot of time
Speaker 1: you need to fill, but that extra bit of time
Speaker 1: required might make you pause. Or maybe you uninstall some
Speaker 1: social media apps and decide to check them only on
Speaker 1: your laptop. You're not cutting yourself off from them and
Speaker 1: the connections they can help make. You're just limiting the
Speaker 1: circumstances in which it's possible to check when your phone
Speaker 1: seems boring, life starts to seem more interesting. You remember
Speaker 1: that calling a friend is more satisfying than looking at
Speaker 1: some celebrities. Third outfit of the day. So what will
Speaker 1: you do today to make your phone a little less interesting?
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear what you try and like. Abby.
Speaker 1: If you have a time management strategy that's helped you,
Speaker 1: I'd love to share that with other Before Breakfast listeners.
Speaker 1: We can all help each other out. You can email
Speaker 1: me at Before Breakfast podcast at I heart media dot com.
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
Speaker 1: podcast at I heart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app Apple
Speaker 1: podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yea.