Mum – get off your phone!!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets this 

I spend a lot of time on my phone.

I hear so many people complain about not being able to switch off and forever being pinged and people hating social media and all the whatsapp groups they’re part of, all the apps etc etc.

There’s lots of things you can do to limit the noise  and distraction and you can use these tips for personal and work life

*You* are in control of how much you are bothered and distracted and pinged.

Things that have helped me over the years:

 Having my notifications on all my social media off – there’s never any annoying little red box pop up and distract me

 I have my phone constantly on mute unless I’m waiting for an important call. My family also have their phones on silent and the occasional time I hear a ‘ping’ it’s always really surprising!

 I have scheduled notifications for things like emails and other apps where I want to make sure I don’t miss anything – you can set these to however many times you want in a day

 I only have my watch connected to my personal phone number so I can see when family call me and to my calender so I don’t miss anything

 I never take my phone to bed, only in rare situations if i’m home alone. Everyone in our family leaves their phone downstairs on charge overnight.

 I archive certain whatsapp groups where I don’t need to check very often and mute other groups where I do want to see if there is a message everyday but don’t want to be notified

 I have a separate number for work and personal life – I used to have separate phones but that became too complicated !

 I have certain times in the day where I catch up on messages, emails and social media

 I try – though not very good at this one, to only open an email or whatsapp once – so if I don’t have time to reply, then I don’t open it! If I need to come back to it, I mark it as unread.

Every now and then, declutter your fb groups you’re part of, unfollow people or things that are no longer of interest and unsubscribe to emails.

It’s like decluttering in general- if you get rude if something that you do actually need or miss, you can add it back in again.

You’ll be surprised how much you don’t miss by not checking every group message and fb notification as it comes in..! And much freer and uncluttered your brain can feel !

You’ll also be surprised how many messages and emails either get answered by others in the group or they’ve worked it out themselves by the time you get to read it.

And when I’ve taken a few hours away from my phone, how much you have not missed!

It means you don’t get stressed watching or listening to everything come in.

It’s just picking the phone up in the first place which can be a bad habit to crack!