Your Phone Is Killing You

I was talking to a friend the other day and discovered he had fallen down the stairs and slipped a disc in his neck, leaving him temporarily paralyzed.

How, you might ask, did this happen?

He was walking down the stairs while watching a YouTube video on his phone. He misplaced his foot on the wooden stairs while wearing socks, landing him at the bottom of the stairs, paralyzed before he knew it. Luckily, he has regained full mobility with only mild neck discomfort and a new physical therapy routine.

My friend is lucky that his phone compulsion did not kill him this time. But think about all the times you have walked across the street looking at your phone, driven through intersections, or during a walk in nature.

I am not going to sit here and bore you with facts like how social media apps are engineered to be like slot machines and keep you addicted. Or how notifications and interactions give you small dopamine hits that keep you compulsively picking up your phone and checking apps for no reason. Or how colorful blue light screens light up your brain, similar to smoking crack (and honestly, smoking crack is probably way more fun than looking at a screen with a hunched back for 30 minutes). You can do your own research or watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix (don’t do it on your phone).

What I will do is give you some very practical tactics on how to reduce your phone compulsion to almost zero. No, it’s not going to be fun. Yes, everyone is going to think you're weird. No, you don’t need to buy a flip phone.

The goal? Make your phone the least interesting thing in your life, let’s begin.

1. Delete all your fun apps

This includes Instagram, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Facebook, BeReal, Email, etc... Delete any app that isn’t essential or comes pre-downloaded. Keep things like Uber, flight apps, Google Maps, health apps, and food apps. If it's something that you don’t compulsively check, you can keep it; if not, toss it. Congratulations, your smartphone is now dumb.

Note: You don’t have to delete your accounts; just delete the application and data entirely from your phone.

Pro Tip: If you really want to get crazy, delete Spotify/Music. This will really force you to be with yourself. This is something I am experimenting with now.

2. Turn off your notifications

The only notifications I leave on are for communication and important apps. I leave on things like banking notifications for payment and fraud purposes. I get notifications from text and Messenger. Calendar, Reminders, Health, etc... Essentially, don’t block things that will get you fired from your job or ruin your life, but that Starbucks promotion notification can go.

I choose to have my notifications displayed as a list; this way, when I check my phone, I won’t see anything that is not urgent. It keeps everything below the fold.

Pro Tip: You can get away with deleting Slack/Email from your phone. Just tell your boss to call you if it is that important. Otherwise, it will probably get resolved on its own or can be done later. If they don’t pay for your phone or phone bill, you're in the clear after 5 PM, IMO.

3. Clear your screen

Apple did this amazing update called the App Library, where you can access all of your apps from one place. Here is what you are going to do: remove every app from your home screen. This way, when you pick up your phone, there will be no apps that you feel the immediate need to check; you will go to your App Library to find them. Inconvenient, you might say? Good, that’s the point. You can leave Message, Phone, Camera, and Settings in the menu bar. In the widget screen, I have weather, calendar, battery, notes, and a habit tracker for easy access.

4. Your phone is really about to suck

This is probably the biggest step of all: put your phone into grayscale. Yes, it will make some apps kinda gross, and your phone will be boring and unpleasant to look at. Good, that’s the whole point: not wanting to pick it up. Now I realize, for example, that this really inhibits looking at food on Yelp while traveling. Simply make your Accessibility Shortcut the Grayscale option for your Control Center and Action Button. This will allow you to easily switch back and forth, with the idea of always ending on the Grayscale Screen.

5. Time to focus

Even with all this, you will probably find yourself getting distracted. The most important time to reduce distraction is leading up to bed. In the Sleep category of the Apple Health app, you can select a sleep schedule and add a Wind-Down time period. This essentially puts your phone into Do Not Disturb for the allotted time before your set bedtime. I set mine to 1 hour and read a physical book.

To continue this the next morning and keep my focus at the gym, I have Do Not Disturb scheduled from 5 AM to 8:30 AM. I also have downtime set up from 8 PM - 4 PM on weekdays, further limiting the use of my phone use.

Pro Tips:

• Never have your phone next to you. When you are working, set your phone away from your desk and set a timer (45 minutes ~ 1.5 hours), and do not get up and check your phone until the timer goes off.

• Never have your phone next to your bed. Set your phone away from your bed so that when your alarm goes off, you physically have to get up to retrieve your phone and stop the alarm.

6. If you are going to use them, limit them

Now, you are probably saying, “bUt i STilL wAnT t0 USe iNsTÀgraM”. Great, you can and you should, just not on your phone. There are three ways you can go about using the deleted social apps.

1. Use a web browser. Yes, it's weird looking at Instagram in a web browser. You know what I am going to say… good, it should be. Remember, we are trying to limit your use.

2. Use a separate device. Do you have an old phone or tablet laying around? Use it for your social apps. It will be awkward and clunky. Sucks right? Good, it will make you want to use it less.

3. Download and delete. This is my least favorite, as you will likely leave the app on your phone and start accessing it at some point. Do your best to delete after every use.

The fantastic part about the Apple ecosystem is that when you set up an App Limit (which you should do for all social media applications), it translates to all Apple devices. So it does not matter if your IG time is up when using it on Safari or downtime has come for bed while you are using X on your iPad, the App Limiter or Downtime reminder will tell you.

Note: Want to post a story on IG? Save the photo to your camera and upload it when you use the app later. Nobody will realize they are seeing your sunrise 6 hours later, and your friend’s “fire” story will be there when you get to it.

7. This one is for my lads

Once again, I will not bore you with how bad porn is for your brain, etc. But you should avoid watching it on your phone at all costs (context is a powerful thing). To make this as inconvenient as possible, watch this video. If this is not enough for you, there are apps out there that can totally block it.

Pro Tip: Just don’t watch/look at porn or thot scroll on IG/TikTok. It’s gross.

8. If all else fails, pay

I realize this takes some effort, still requires some self-control, and is painful, but it is free. If you need something more powerful, apps like Opal and Cold Turkey can truly lock your device and apps. These can help you use your phone less and achieve more focus in your life. If this fails, consider rehab or a flip phone.

I have been doing steps 1-7 for a few months now and will say it really works. I am currently averaging a little over an hour of phone screen time daily. I realize it will be hard at first (you will feel like a crackhead), and it will probably be weird the first few times your friends see your phone. But I ask you, what is the cost of a peaceful mind and control of your compulsion to you?

Cheers,

Hop

P.S. - If none of this impacted you, think of it this way: 1 hour of a 16-hour waking day is 6.25% of a day. Do you really want to spend 6.25% of your life looking at a screen and seeing other people live their lives? 12.5% at 2 hours, 18.8% at 3 hours… you get the depressing idea.