4 Hacks for Wasting Less Time on Your Phone in 2022

There's no denying that modern technology brought the wisdom of the universe to our fingertips - but our marvelous mobile phones can come at a serious cost if we aren't careful...

Although they're infinitely useful, our phones can also commandeer precious hours of our time, distract us from more important things we should be doing, and suck us into a vortex of addictive scrolling!

We're all guilty of wasting a bunch of time on our phones, and it's not entirely our own fault...

Social media apps and lots of websites are specially designed to be addictive in nature, giving you frequent dopamine hits and targeted content that keeps you on their platform as long as possible.

Whether your poison is playing mindless games, scrolling endlessly on social, or obsessively checking your crypto portfolio... We could all stand to spend less time on our phones and more of it living in the moment with loved ones or doing something productive!

With that in mind, let’s take a look at 4 hacks you can use to waste less time on your phone this year, and reclaim all those lost hours:

4. Use a Time Tracker

We all know habits are hard to break, and being glued to your phone is one of the hardest to kick in this modern era! 

If you find yourself wasting countless hours scrolling each day, try setting up a time tracker for your most-used apps. These run in the background and show you just how much time you spend surfing the web, or in each app that demands your attention.

If sheer willpower alone isn't enough to get you to unplug, the looming realization that you wasted 5 hours on Facebook yesterday should do it!

Time tracker apps can also be great when you're trying to accomplish a certain amount of work in a specific time span, such as a few hours before a report or project is due. They include alerts, locks on certain apps, and other helpful features that help boost your productivity. 

3. Remove Apps from Your Home Screen

One of the easiest hacks to waste less time on your phone is to simply remove your app icons from your Home screen. Sounds like a no-brainer? There's actually some solid psychology behind it... 

Surprisingly, you don't have to completely uninstall your favorite apps to get the effect. Just make them harder to access by placing them in a folder, or swiping them away from your home screen.

In this way, you can't mindlessly click on time-waster apps when the mood strikes. By the time you reach the app in question, you may have overcome the desire to click through another game or social media post.

2. Get Rid of addictive apps

If push comes to shove, you can fully uninstall addictive time-waster apps like games, social media apps, and so on. Uninstalling apps is very useful since it means you have to sit through the installation process once again if you want to indulge in a scroll.

However, this may only be the best choice if you know you won’t use the apps for legitimate purposes in the future. For example, if you need Coinbase or Robinhood to check your investments, or Facebook to keep up with your work contacts, moving these apps to another location on your phone may be a better tactic.

1. Use the Pomodoro Technique

If you get stuck procrastinating at work by playing on your phone, try the Pomodoro technique to get your head back in your workflow. In a nutshell, the Pomodoro technique involves working for 25 minutes nonstop, then taking a five-minute break. You segment your working periods into these sessions. For each hour of work, you’ll have 10 minutes of total resting time. After practicing this method for a while, you might not even reach for your phone during your brain breaks! 

This technique is effective because it takes advantage of the natural human workflow. We simply aren’t wired to concentrate or focus for hours on end - but humans are particularly good at working in short, concentrated bursts.

This allows you to work effectively and give your brain enough breathing room to relax in between work bursts. Try this the next time you need to grind out some major work or studying over the course of a single afternoon or evening.

All in all, our phones can be some of the best inventions ever created; it just falls on us to use them responsibly and maturely for their intended purpose! 

Exercising a bit of restraint with your phone "screen time" will not only free up hours of your day, but break the addictive and toxic cycle many of us get stuck in. Don't forget: As useful as it is, the internet is also designed to lure us into traps of comparison and consumerism, sparking anxiety and feelings of lack.

Reclaim your happiness, presence, and productivity this year by using your phone wisely. It might just make 2022 your best year of self development, life improvement and greatness ever! All the tools you need are at your fingertips...

Justin | Greens Steel Lifestyle Contributor
Maine, USA