A Simple Guide to Regain Control Over Your Smartphone

The smartphone could be your worst enemy or the best friend. It’s how you treat it.

Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash

From the beginning of time, the human race craved excellence. Humans Invented sharp tools to hunt more productively, fire to cook, and the wheel to commute. It’s a part of our DNA to improve efficiency. Because of this fundamental reason, it’s hard to believe that the mobile device we all have in our hand works against us. It’s just not right. Yet, it eats away a significant amount of our time. Just as I can’t blame the knife for the cut I got while chopping an onion, you don’t get to blame your mobile devices for losing out on valuable time and moments.

As Stan Lee once equated thought he words of spider-man,

‘With great power comes great responsibility’

The device you have in your hand right now is very powerful. We sent humans to the moon with computers having lesser capabilities. With such a massive computational power, there has to have some self-discipline within ourselves to get the best out of it. It is up to you to decide who the consumer is in your relationship with your smart device.

While I would not call myself a productive guru in using the phone, I have not let it consume me either. Instead, I consume it as we all supposed to and it’s not that hard. Following these easy changes in your phone can put you on the right track that will allow you to regain your lost control over the phone.

The fact that you read this article right now explains that you believe you have room for improvement. But the best news is that you decided to do something about it.

Alright, my fellow countrymen! Are you ready to liberate ourselves from the reign of the smart devices!

De-clutter the apps

There are indeed mixed arguments about a cluttered desk and the effects it has on your productivity. But having a cluttered apps rack in your phone will never help you be more productive. Therefore, it is important to exactly know where to look when you need a specific app. There will always be some apps to get rid of. This is how you look for them.

Apps that you have not used for the last two weeks. — This does not apply to all the apps on your phone. If you have not used the kindle app in 2 weeks means you have not read a book in 2 weeks and the solution for that is you open the app and read. Not to delete it. But in anyone’s phone, there are apps to get rid of as those are not useful anymore.

Some gaming apps. — Yes, you read that right. You only have to get rid of some gaming apps, not all. There are different types of games available in the market. Most of them meant to entertain you while there are some which are designed to just eat away your time. Such games have minimal stimulation and no real entertainment. Still, you keep on playing because it can take you into the game and make you spend hours and hours in it. Such games will only make you grumpier after the game. Identify such games and get rid of those. Everything else, well you can keep them as long as you are not addicted to any of those.

One social media apps. — If you are addicted to social media, getting rid of all the apps might be a simple fix. But that is not practical, isn’t it? What you could try instead is to uninstall one such app each week. If you take down Instagram this week, get it back next week and uninstall Facebook. This method will help you convince yourself that you can survive without those too.

Organizing the apps

Now that we got rid of all the unwanted apps, it’s time to decide which goes where on your phone. This might sound silly, but I can assure you, the exact placement of an app can decide how much you will use it. These are few steps you could take to make your device more productive.

Plain and simple home screen. — Just like you don’t want to return to a messy room after work, you don’t want to see a mess as soon as you switch on the phone. You need to keep your home screen as smooth as you can. Having said that, the home screen is also the place where you pay the most attention to. Keep only the apps you need to open often.

Group apps in folders — This feature might not be available in all the phones but most of the newer versions can cluster apps together to create folders. This tool can save up some valuable real estate on your phone and give a neater outlook.

Decide on resistance level — It is by nature we often tend to take the least resistance path. Even on your phone, there is a higher chance that you might use the apps with the easiest access. An app you see as soon as you unlock the phone will have much lesser resistance compared to an app that you will have to navigate through a few swipes and clicks.

Now, go to your home screen and check what apps are in it. If it is full of social media apps, then can you blame the phone for your addiction? If I were you, I would cluster all social media apps together and keep that folder on the last page. This way, I will have to swipe 2 or 3 times and click twice to open a social media app. Yes, if you really like it, you will still go through the trouble to open it. But you won’t do it as often as before.

Finally, with the saved up space on the home page, get some of your more productive apps like Medium app and the kindle app on your home page. Now when you unlock the phone again just because you have nothing to do, your first cue would be to read an interesting article that could improve your knowledge.

Notifications.

You should decide when to use the phone. Not the other way around. How you deal with notifications play a major role in this.

Minimal notifications. — My suggestion is to switch off notifications from all the apps except for the phone app. Get rid of all the disruptions that will steal your attention. Make sure you use the phone only because you want to, not because your phone wants you to look at it. Trust me, whatever you do is more important than what your WhatsApp message has to say. If it is very urgent, your friend will call you.

Use a smartwatch — A clever way to get over the phantom rings we get all the time. Switch off every single notification (including phone app) on your phone and let the smartwatch takeover the notification job. Still, be sure only to let a call disturb you.

Conclusion

Any piece of technology should never be a barrier to your growth. Especially when it is with you all the time. A smart mobile device has the capability of ruling you without even you knowing it. But a few small changes in the right direction can make that same device the most supportive friend that you can have. Apart from the obvious apps which you can get on the phone to improve your productivity such as calendar apps and to-do list apps, the tips that are shared in this will guide anyone who seeks more authority over your life.