Make your phone boring

Make your phone boring

The drug we all typically reach for to maintain a world of instant entertainment and distraction straight into our eyeballs is none other than our phones.

It is practically impossible to be well and truly bored in this day and age, when your phone as it’s currently designed is always within arm’s reach - which is why our battle for boredom begins by dumbing dumbing down your smart phone.

1. Turn on grayscale mode

Our phones produce remarkably high resolution images that the human brain simply did not evolve to experience in nature.

This means, our brains light up like Christmas trees right alongside all of those thousands of pixels flashing on our screens.

On the one hand, this creates awesome viewing experiences if you want to watch a movie or play video games.

But the problem is, we often get sucked into those movies or video games when we actually just unlocked our phone with the intention of doing doing some actual work.

And the reason for this is, our brains almost immediately go chasing the dopamine White Rabbit from app to app without even realizing it.

The solution is actually quite simple. But I can almost guarantee the initial reaction from most people will have one of resistance because it involves turning your phone permanently to grayscale mode.

All this really does is, it puts your phone into black and white mode. It’s crazy how impactful simply taking away the color from the screen actually is.

The reason this is so effective and why you’ll probably resist is because it instantly makes your phone less beautiful to look at.

We spend a lot of money on our phones because they are beautiful and fun to use.

But the truth is your

phone is probably using you more than you’re using it.

Of all the hacks I’ve experimented with over the years to change my relationship with my phone none have been more powerful than this one simply because it instantly makes my phone less interesting.

2. Turn off all notifications

Those notification bubbles are eliciting a physiological reaction that will drive you towards a particular behavior.

These companies have spent billions of dollars on research to determine that they do work which is why they use them.

Notifications are impossible to ignore. It takes mental bandwidth and willpower to see a notification and not address it.

Most of the time, these notifications aren’t even important - which means we’re leaking attention for something that doesn’t even matter.

Therefore, the no-brainer solution is to just turn off all notifications on your phone. Literally, all of them - social media, emails, text messages, missed calls, all of it. Turn them off.

Notifications are nothing more than the external world’s attempt to make their agenda your distraction

Don’t let the attention terrorists win.

3. Select the apps you use with intention

Your phone should only ever be used as a tool in pursuit of your goals. It should never be used as a distraction an escape or as entertainment.

You cannot consume your way to a life of fulfillment. It can only ever be created.

For better or worse, your phone is primarily designed as a tool of consumption - whether that’s scrolling endlessly on social media, or watching a never-ending parade of YouTube videos. Your phone is a perpetual consumption machine.

Breaking the cycle and taking control of your phone begins by selecting the apps you use with intention.

This means no games, no social media, and no YouTube on my primary phone.

4. Have a designated YouTube phone in addition to your primary phone

The primary phone is the one that you carry with you everywhere, use it for texting, emails, navigation, note taking, and google searches.

On the other hand, the YouTube phone or the social media phone is exactly what it sounds like.

It’s a $400 phone that has all the social apps on it.

There are two things that make the social media phone especially useful.

First, I rarely carry it anywhere with me and second this phone doesn’t have data which means the only way I can use it is when it’s connected to Wi-Fi or if I set up a mobile hotspot with my primary phone.

This means that really the only way I can use this phone is with intention and I cannot overstate how powerful the social media phone has been in my life.

5. Simplify the home screen

A messy desk equals a messy mind. We need to build organization systems with a bit more intention.

When we do, our productivity will skyrocket.

When you unlock your phone, it should not greet you with a dozen enticing apps.

Instead, you should see a simple folder that has your nine most used apps - inside of it things like email, text or calculator.

The reason this is so surprisingly effective in curbing our mindless phone usage is, because often we just open our phones as a reflex to boredom.

By landing on a blank home page, it is almost like a pattern interrupt that causes us to stop and just reflect on what we are actually trying to accomplish in that moment.

There’s no wrong way to use your phone - assuming you do so with intention.