Do you often receive comments that you are looking at your phone again in company and do you want to cut down? We have listed a number of tips that will help you.
Get rid of that iPhone addiction
It’s stressful, all those notifications all day long. Then the phone vibrates again or the screen lights up because a new message arrives. Do you want a little more rest with iPhone use? Then read the following tips and try to reduce.
1. Use Do Not Disturb mode
If you don’t want to be disturbed, just turn on ‘Do not disturb’. This can be done very simply by opening the control panel of the iPhone (swipe up from the bottom of the screen) and tapping the moon icon. Do not disturb silences calls and notifications if they arrive while the device is locked. That means you won’t see any notifications until you turn off Do Not Disturb.
You can manually switch Do Not Disturb on and off, but it is also possible to add times. After that time, Do Not Disturb will be turned on automatically. Incidentally, you can indicate to allow calls from, for example, favorite contacts. You can also indicate that a second call from the same person will arrive within three minutes. That way you don’t miss any urgent messages.
2. Organize your notifications
You can also reduce by simply allowing fewer notifications. As a result, you are less likely to be distracted. Via ‘Settings> Notifications’ on your iPhone you can see the notifications of all apps one below the other. Here you can indicate per app whether or not you want to receive a notification and how. For example, you can indicate to disable everything or only certain types of messages, such as badge app symbols or notifications on the lock screen.
Also take a look at the settings of apps themselves to block specific notifications. For example, on Facebook you determine whether you want notifications when you are tagged in photos or when it is someone’s birthday.
3. Don’t take your iPhone to bed
If you also use your iPhone as an alarm clock, there is a good chance that when you wake up, you will also immediately go through what you missed at night. But the bright screen is not always nice in the morning and you may wake up more calmly without immediately going through all the social media timelines. You may also fall asleep better at night if you keep the phone in another room.
4. Let an app help you
Get motivated by apps that want to reduce your phone usage. The best app for that is Moments. In the free version you can keep track of how many minutes per day you watch on your iPhone. That may be so confronting that you automatically reduce, but if it does not help, you can purchase the full version for 5 euros. This allows you to work harder, for example by setting a daily limit or determining that you are not allowed to watch your phone for the next hour, for example. The app will then close you out for an hour, after which you can continue.
There are other apps that are a bit less invasive. Forest costs a euro and lets you plant virtual trees if you don’t look at your phone for a while. That way you create a forest. So Forest more or less turns your iPhone miners into a game.
5. Delete time-consuming apps
You can also consider simply removing apps that require a lot of your attention. Think of Facebook or Twitter. By removing time wasters, you can slow down your focus on the screen of your iPhone. Give it a try, if you don’t like it, you can of course download the apps again, but you might like it after a week. Removing Facebook, for example, has an additional advantage: a longer battery life.
Buy an Apple Watch
It may seem like a problem moving and it is not a very cheap solution, but an Apple Watch can make your iPhone stay in your pocket more often. All messages arrive on your wrist. There you can process them directly. If it is not important, you will see that immediately. And by using the Apple Watch, it is not very attractive – if your iPhone is on – to also take a look at other apps.
Do you have any tips for cutting down? Let us know in the comments.