How to be more “present” in real life And get off my phone

[plugitinsilly]

I’m always distracted, loads of stuff whirring round on my mental to do list, kidding myself I need to “look it up” on my phone to get it don but then procrastinate and get lost down an iPhone rabbit hole... Poor attention span which I’m sure isn’t helped by flitting from thing to thing on the internet.

Too much time on my phone and not enough engaging with my wonderful family. It’s getting me down. Sounds easy to snap out of, so why am I struggling to do it?

I could have written your post! I spend an hour or so in bed on my phone in the mornings in my day off. I really need to be more present in my life. I really feel I wasted my day yesterday. Today I have given myself a few jobs to do. Phone is going out of reach.

I could have written this thread. I seem to have completely lost my reading mojo and can't watch a tv without googling things/checking news.

Am going to stop taking the phone with me when I go to bed - and try to put it away in the evenings as a starter.

Great thread! I make a point of leaving my phone upstairs in my bedroom some afternoons, and I always feel better for having some "unplugged" time. I need to make more of a habit of it.

I've read a good book called digital minimalism which is very eye opening. But here I am, so not terribly effective! I'm kidding myself that while breastfeeding I'm allowed free rein on my phone, but it kind of seeps into life more generally. I both love and hate it.

I use a bullet journal so I have a real to do list rather than a mental one. I did have an app that you could set to block websites and apps but then I read it was dodgy so deleted it. It was only blocking mn!

Tbh so.me is quite dull now that corona has hit. Mn has gone bonkers and suddenly twitter is the voice of reason. So Im spending more time on twitter these days.

@rayn I have just bought Kindle version of the book. I could do with breaking this addiction and others too.

I’m doing better than normal though the kids and I have just laughed out heads off discovering TikTok. Not sure I should’ve added that to my life but there we go.

I need to get in the habit of busying myself instead of sitting on my phone. Like now. I should be doing an online shopping return but have just fallen in the trap of checking fb/insta/mn before doing anything

I agree with another pp. Leaving the phone in the bedroom during the day really helps; out of sight, out of mind!

This is me! And I feel so guilty about it. It's addiction. I can't even watch a film without looking at my phone.

Some advice here sounds good.

lets not forget that phones are designed to be addictive. I have the same issues as many of you. I wonder if having a note pad out on the go would help and you can just jot down a to do list of things to research or order etc? Then do them all in designated internet allocated times?

Also a friend of mine deleted apps with automatic sign ins (Facebook, instogram etc) so it wouldn't be as easy and automatic to just click on them mindlessly

One thing that helped me was allowing myself unlimited access to my phone during certain hours of the day, and putting it on silent and not using it all during others. It has now become second nature for me to ignore my phone from 3 pm to 6 pm, when I spend time with my kids after work (normally, that is - lockdown has changed everything). There are days when I break this rule, but they have become rare. The fact that I allow myself unlimited phone time in the morning means that by the time 3 pm has come, I'm glad to be off it.

I read something the other day about switching your phone screen to be only black and white so it's less appealing. On a Samsung it's under 'colour adjustment' - I've just switched mine over.

Not doing as well today, the lack of structure makes me default to picking up my phone...

My phone died this morning and i couldn't get my charger to work. I coloured with the boys and was just present. I noticed that because I was colouring it encouraged my 3 year old to slow and colour rather than just scribble as he was copying me. It's been a lovely morning