Tag Time Wasters

Is Your Cell Phone Controlling You?

Steve Keating Leave a comment

I am old enough to vaguely remember a time before cell phones. I cannot for the life of me remember how I used all the time I now spend on my phone. I do, however, absolutely remember not being annoyed by people holding up a checkout line while talking to someone about some mind-numbing nonsense.

Research shows that the average person in the United States today checks their phone every 12 minutes, that’s approximately 80 times a day. This number, of course, varies by person but some people check their phones more often, a lot more often.

That means the average American spends 4 hours and 37 minutes looking at their phone every day. That quickly adds up over time to about 1 day every week, 6 days every month, and 70 days every year. The average American will spend 12 years staring at their phone screens over their lifespan.

I don’t know about you, but those numbers give me cause for concern. I’m pretty sure I might be above average on this.

At the very least, my cell phone use is a bad habit. It’s mindless, and it wastes a ton of time. Yes, it can add all kinds of productivity to my life, but if I’m honest, my cell phone use is a net negative productivity-wise. I refuse to say I’m addicted to a phone, but it does seem to have a level of control over my life I’m not comfortable with. So I’m going to take control back… now.

I know it won’t be easy, but I’ve done a bunch of research on this, and I think I’ve found some ideas to help me make my phone work for me instead of perhaps the other way around. Here’s my plan.

1. Identify the “Why”

Recognize what leads to excessive use: boredom, stress, or notifications. Once your’re consciously aware of that, you can take steps to minimize them.

2. Set Clear Goals

Determine why you want to cut back: Improved productivity? Better relationships? Clear goals make it easier to stay motivated.

Limit daily screen time: Set a target for phone usage through apps or your phone’s built-in settings. I’ve already started using this; it’s like magic. Truth be told, it can also be frustrating to have an app shut down on you because you’ve hit your limit. But, if you’re serious about controlling your phone, you’ll deal with it.

Try third-party apps: Use apps like Moment, Freedom, or Forest to block distractions or gamify staying off your phone.

3. Turn Off Non-Essential Notifications

Disable unnecessary notifications: Alerts from social media or other apps create constant distractions. Only keep important ones like texts or calls. So here’s the challenge with this one. You have to be honest with yourself about what’s important. A text from your kids or your spouse is, to me anyway, almost always important. A text from one of your fantasy football pals…not so much. That might sound sacrilegious to some of you, but come on, are you serious about this or not?

4. Create Phone-Free Zones

Establish no-phone zones in areas like the bedroom, dining room, or during social events. This helps build boundaries around when and where you use your phone. It may seem odd, but you DO NOT need your phone at the dinner table. Unless you live alone, there may be another human there who you could actually speak to, face-to-face. Like the olden days.

5. Replace Phone Time with Other Activities

Find alternatives to replace idle phone time: reading, exercising, journaling, or picking up a hobby. Engaging in these activities makes it easier to stay away from your phone. Find things and people to do them with that make you forget to check your phone. That’s like a double win.

6. Designate Phone-Free Times

Set specific hours when you won’t use your phone, like during meals, before bed, or in the morning. Creating structured breaks reduces mindless scrolling. There is all kinds of research that indicates that playing with your phone before bed messes with your sleep. Ditch the phone early in the evening and have a healthier sleep.

7. Establish Accountability

Involve friends or family: Share your goals and progress with someone who can help keep you accountable. Don’t get defensive when you’re “caught” breaking your own rules. You asked for accountability, so be accountable.

8. Keep Your Phone Out of Reach

Physically distance yourself from your phone: Keep it in another room or on the other side of the room to resist the urge to check it constantly. This is going to work better for you if you have notifications turned off. Or you can use the focus settings on an iPhone to turn them off temporarily or during certain times of the day.

I’m not saying any of these will be easy. I do think it will be easier if you stop and reflect on what your phone usage is causing you to miss. Great conversations with the love of your life. Quality time and real conversations with your kids. The time you miss with your kids is time you’ll wish you had back one day. I’m pretty sure you would tell anyone that your kids are more important than anything you’re doing on your phone. Remind yourself of that from time to time.

I’m looking forward to checking my phone only 40 times a day. That sounds ridiculous, but when you consider the averages, 40 times a day would be awesome.

So… who is going to join me in taking charge of your phone? And in a kind of weird twist, the more you take charge of your phone, the less you’ll have to charge it. 😎

One-Time
Monthly
Yearly

Consider supporting my efforts with a donation!
I put a significant amount of time and effort into writing a couple of blog posts each week. My primary goal is simple, to help other people. That doesn’t mean a little financial support isn’t appreciated. If you’ve benefited from my efforts and think my posts are valuable, I’d certainly appreciate whatever support you might be able to offer.
But whether you can offer support or not, I’ll continue to try and write a blog that gives back, informs and sometimes even entertains. I hope you enjoy it!

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00
$5.00
$15.00
$100.00

Or enter a custom amount

$

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

Your contribution is appreciated.

DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearly

Don’t Run Out of Time

Steve Keating 7 Comments

I have to admit that I have little patience for people who tell me that they “don’t have time.” The fact is no one in the world has more time than they do. We all have exactly the same amount of time, 1440 minutes a day. No more, no less.

 

You will never have more time than you do today. You can’t “make time” and you can’t “save time.” Stop worrying about how much time you don’t have and start using the time you do have more efficiently. 

 

For starters you must understand the difference between being busy and being productive. While “busy” people can get tired they often don’t get done. Productive people always seem to have a plan to follow and a goal to achieve. They get stuff done! 

 

Here’s a simple repeatable process that many of those highly productive people use to stay on track.

 

Determine what to do: Ask yourself, “does this need to be done and if I do it what goal or objective does it get me closer to? If you can’t state with a high degree of specificity why something needs to be done then it may be busywork. Don’t do it!

 

Schedule time to do it: Do you control your calendar or does it control you? Only put things on your calendar that will lead to your goals and objectives being achieved. Once it makes it to your calendar, it must be done. The simple fact is that the most productive people have more discipline in this area than less productive people.

 

Focus: Use time management tools like block time and appointment bracketing to make sure you’re using your time well. Do not allow other people to interrupt you. Do not interrupt yourself with email or social media that can wait. And don’t kid yourself into believing that it can’t wait.

 

Stay hyper aware: Things change! As your priorities shift don’t be afraid to adjust and adapt, be sure to keep your goals and objectives in mind. Because something was vital at some point in the past does not mean that it is still vital today. Reevaluating your priorities from time to time is one of the most productive activities you can do.

 

Always be improving: Constantly be looking for ways to maximize your efficiency; never do anything because it’s always been done that way. Look for a better way. That said, never invest a minute trying to improve something that doesn’t need to be done in the first place. Shaving ten minutes from a thirty minute project that doesn’t need to be done is still wasting twenty minutes and don’t tell yourself otherwise. 

 

Don’t overestimate your capacity: Successful people don’t say they will do more than they know they can do. If you know it will overload you and cause you to lose focus then don’t commit to doing it. It is perfectly acceptable, in fact it is necessary, to say no to things that don’t get you closer to your goals and objectives. 

 

If you find yourself running out of time at the end of a day then something must change. Highly productive people would tell you that nothing can change if you don’t change first. 


So will you?

First Things First

Steve Keating 4 Comments

I teach a Time Management program. I probably shouldn’t since there is actually no such thing as time management. No one has ever managed time. Time does it’s own thing, relentlessly ticking off second after second regardless of what you may need to accomplish.

I hear people saying all the time that they don’t have enough time but the fact is they do. They have all the time in the world. No one who has ever lived has had more time than you have right now. They didn’t have less either.

1440 minutes a day is what each of us gets to accomplish what we will. No one has ever gotten more and barring the coolest tech not yet invented I doubt they ever will.

So time management is a bit of a misnomer, it’s probably better described as event management. The events that make up your day are what chews up your time. The people who seem to have more time are the ones who have mastered the mindset that everything they do during a day is an event. 

They see breakfast as an event, they see their morning stop at the coffee shop as an event. They see every phone call as an event and they know that when they have a day full of events they stop adding more. If they do add more they drop something else off their list of events.

Managing the events that make up your day teaches you a very important life lesson: no one has too little time, what they have is very poor prioritization skills.

People without prioritization skills end up doing less important things at the expense of more important things, often at the expense of the most important thing.

They do the easy thing, they do what they like, they do what they have always done. If any of those things happen to be the most important thing, the most productive thing, then that’s a happy coincidence. But successful people don’t rely on coincidence.

If you’re really going to be a good life event manager then you’re going to need to have a serious conversation with yourself. That conversation should be centered around your life goals, your values and your objectives. Most people who fail in doing the most important thing first do so simply because they don’t know what the most important thing is. 

Set goals, real goals. Goals that align with your values and principles. Write those goals down and make a plan to achieve them. You’ll be amazed at how much time you really have when pretty much everything you do gets you closer to one of those goals. 

Quit trying to manage time and start managing your life, that’s your true path to success.

Should You be Reading This?

Steve Keating 14 Comments

20120812-185949.jpgYes this, should you be reading this blog? I wish more people would read my blog. I wish more people would read my tweets. But that’s just me.

In reality, it’s possible that this or any other blog just might be a complete waste of your time. In fact, it’s possible that the whole “Social Media” thing might be one gigantic waste of time.

It might be, but it doesn’t have to be. Social Media is like everything else in your life, it’s more productive if you have a plan and an objective for using it.

Here’s an idea for you, I’ll tell you right now you’re likely not going to like it, but it will be very informative for you. Keep a time-log for a week or even just a few days. Log how many minutes or heaven forbid, how many hours, you spend each day on various forms of social media. BE HONEST!

You are the only judge as to what is the “right” amount of time. Once you have an honest answer as to how much time you’re spending on Social Media then recall your life before Social Media. What did you do with that time then?

Was it a better use of your time? Did you spend the time in real conversations with people face-to-face? Did you procrastinate less? Did you accomplish more at work? Did you worry less about “having so much to do?”

No one but you can answer those questions. I can however, encourage you to answer those questions honestly for yourself. Keeping a time-log for a few days will help you do that. It’s so easy to burn an hour or two on Facebook or Twitter that a whole morning can get away from you. Your time-log will prove to you how often that happens.

Once you really know how much time your spending on Social Media then and only then can you begin to determine if it’s worth the time you’re committing to it. Once again, be honest with yourself. What do YOU get from it? How does it help YOU?

This is YOUR call, only you can say for sure if it’s worth your time. Only you can measure your Social Media ROI. Your ROI (return in investment) will be determined by your plan and objective for Social Media. If your objective is to just burn several hours a day then you should be able to reach your objective rather easily.

If you use Social Media to learn from other people then you must be able to state what you learn and how you USE it. Somehow I feel the need to mention that honesty thing again here…

If you’re using Social Media to sell then you should be able to measure what you’ve sold that you wouldn’t have sold if you weren’t online. Honestly?

There are many uses for Social Media and I could go an and on but I think you get my drift.

Social Media can add value to your life or dilute the fullness of your life. It depends on how you use it. I’d be a knucklehead to think I have any idea of the “right” way for you to use it, it’s a very individual decision. I can however, tell you there is a right way and that means there must be a wrong way too.

You need to know the difference.