Simple Hack To Have More Time in Life
An easy hack to help you get off your phone and make room for little things that bring you joy.
Picture this, You finally lay in bed at the end of your day but have no clue where all of your time went. It could be because
You spent too much time on your phone, or
You spent too much time working/studying all day.
As someone struggling to maintain a healthy work-study-life balance in this phase of my life, I am certainly not here to give advice on “How to be a pro at balancing every aspect of your life”. (Feel free to send your meaningful advice if you are winging it. xD)
However, I recently discovered a simple hack to get me off my phone and take control of my time.
THE WHY
A few days ago, I was living a normal life until I realised how often I check my phone during the day. So I decided to consciously observe my phone usage behaviour for a day. By the end of the day, I concluded that a major reason why I picked up my phone so frequently was to avoid stillness. Sometimes I’d pick it up, unlock my screen and close it. Because I have my phone on me literally every second of the day, it’s convenient to scroll through it repeatedly instead of allowing my mind to be still and think about what I should do.
I’m sure you have been in this same situation a million times in your life. But do you take action or choose to ignore this unhealthy habit?
THE HACK
An easy, one-minute hack is to reduce convenience when it comes to accessing social media apps that you frequently use. Since my fingers know exactly how they should move to access Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube on my phone, I decided to remove them from my home screen. This means that I can only access social media if I specifically search for it in the search bar of my phone.
THE RESULT
Here’s how my life has changed since:
Initially, my fingers moved in the same old fashion as soon as I unlocked my phone, but only to find that there is no social media app it could tap on now.
Whenever I pick up my phone to check emails, most times I would only check my emails and nothing else.
I used to open the Instagram app at least 10 times a day. Now it has been reduced to two.
My screen time has been reduced by more than an hour. I have so much more freedom (and time) to do things I like.
This week, I encourage you to act on ways to disconnect from your phone to gain more control over your time. You can go one step ahead and remove convenience entirely by deleting social media apps from your phone. Your brain will not enjoy the idea of opening the browser, searching for the app and accessing it on a rather unfriendly interface.
Just take action and see how your life changes for the good!
See you next week! :)
Insightful with actionable strategy. As usual a great post. Keep it up 👍