Several months ago I decided I was tired of looking at my phone so much. Any moment of pause in my life (at a red light, while waiting in line at Chipotle, etc.) and even moments when I was with people, I would subconsciously pull out my phone and look at it. Look for nothing and anything. I needed to see an update to feed the addiction to updates.

I started weaning myself off by removing non-essential apps from my phone. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, CNN, etc. Anything that provided updates, particularly news updates or social updates, got cut. Since I left email on, I had to be sure I cancelled un-needed email news feeds. Otherwise I'd use my email as a chance to feed the addiction. That worked for a while, but then I'd simply go to the Safari app and look at Twitter or something through the web browser. So I went a step further and REMOVED THE INTERNET FROM MY PHONE. By that I mean I removed my web browser. To do so, on an iPhone, you can't delete Safari but you can disable it in the settings. I did that for two or three months, then put Safari back. I broke my habit well enough to where now I'm just using Safari to look something up that can't wait until I'm at a computer.

It was really hard at first--I'd pull out my phone out of habit, then I'd remember I have no updates to go check out, and feel dumb as I put my phone back in my pocket. But now I'm so happy I did it, and I feel this is a better way to live life. Yeah, I still check the news senselessly, and I burn time on Facebook, but I do it when I'm at a computer. Not on my phone where other events are likely going on around me. My wife noticed the difference, but best of all was my kids noticed. My 4 year old asked my wife one day why I don't look at my phone anymore. That was the best reward. Anyway, perhaps others would like to be on their phone less, and my experience may be of help.