Forget time management and productivity tips. Smartphone addiction is the real killer of time. Cure it and watch your productivity sky-rocket. In today’s world, our phones have become the number one enemy of productivity.

Why does the smartphone have so much distracting power

  1. Verity: Smartphones are time killers. A quick check on an email can result in more than two extra hours on the phone. Doing what really? Where are you reading this? Probably on your phone. How did you get here? Was it your true/sole intention to read on how to get rid of your smartphone’s addiction? How many distractions have you had on your phone after you did what you initially wanted to do with your phone? How many links and posts led you here?
  2. Novelty: Because of the new content you are exposed to every second, it is easy to become addicted to your smartphone. There is “No Dull Moment” on facebook, twitter or Instagram. This makes the phone a bigger time killer than the TV or any other device. The constant stream of new content. As humans we are wired to be curious, we want to know the latest and hottest, a smartphone connected to the internet is a source of new information every day.
  3. Size: Television was formerly the time killer (and still is for some), but its biggest advantage is the undoing of the smartphone. It is too big to be carried around. Our smartphones have the ability to distract us anywhere and everywhere because they are so small they can be carried anywhere; even to the dining table and toilet.
  4. Interruptions from notifications: It can take up to 23 minutes, 15 seconds to get back to where you left off after an interruption. If you let your phone interrupt you every 10mins, do you know how much man-time and resources you’ve lost in a day?

On-phone and Off-phone activities

Personally, I discovered that only 20% of what I do on my phone is actually productive and help me to achieve my everyday or long term goals. While 80% of the things I do off my phone moves me closer to my daily goals and long term ambitions. With exception to Social media influencers and people whose livelihood depends on being online 24/7, for every other person in the corporate or business world, this holds true.

Time on phone

If you check through your phones, 80% of the apps are distraction apps, most times when you are on your phone you are either viewing WhatsApp statuses or Twitter or Instagram or playing games (for the game loving ones). For most of us, the only productive thing we do on our phone is chat or DM business clients, which happens just about 20% of the time we spend on our phone, the remaining 80% is spent browsing social media, looking for the latest gist in town or on WhatsApp statuses. Now if 80% of the time on your phone is (let’s face it: WASTED) it means the more time you devote to your phone the more likely you are wasting time than investing it.

Time off phone

Now, on the flip side, when you are off your phone, the things you do which contribute little to achieving your daily goals or long term plans are few. Watching television, hanging out with a friend, playing board games, etc. We all know that hanging out with friends is a rare occasion these days. People see each other online more than offline. There is hardly anything new to watch on TV, and you can stream/download new content on your phone. That leaves us with sleep. Sleep is not an anti-productive activity, it actually helps us to relax and get refreshed for the day or hours ahead. Sleep is great, you can never have too much sleep. Then when you throw in the fact that sleep actually gets boring after some hours, you find out sleep is not really a time killer.

Save time and money by getting off your phone

Things you can get done while off your phone are numerous; Do the dishes, Do your laundry, finish that project, finish that article, plan for next week, plan your budget, sleep and relax, connect with your family, visit a friend, clean your house, wash your car etc. I can go on and on. Actually doing some of these things not only save you time, but they also save you money, money you could have paid to get them done. Devoting more of your free time to off-phone duties actually increase your chances of getting the most important things in your life done.

Time management apps on your phone will not help you

I read a lot online about using apps like rescueTime, setting priority with a todo app, using an alarm app, etc to reduce smartphone addiction. To help you stay off your phone. Believe me, the more you use your phone the more you are really distracted. You don’t use an app on the phone to help you stay off the phone. That is counterproductive. The aim is to stay off your phone and use it less frequently. Whatever time management solution you come up with that involves using the phone will fail eventually. The simple solution is to stay off your phone, do it intentionally. Make up your mind to check your phone only when you have important messages. You can even turn off your data. Just stay outside your phone, live in the real world. Do this for a week and you will be amazed by the results.

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