I love my phone. I hate my phone. Sound familiar?
It’s my camera, I listen to music, track my runs, stay connected to the people I love, get inspired and do my weekly shop (not inspiring!).
It’s also really hard to put down, distracts me most of the time, and is a rabbit hole for which I can wonder for hours. If I’m honest I know that the more time I spend on my phone the less happy I become. It effects my sleep and I battle with staying content with my own life (especially when my feed is full of idyllic beach holidays).
Anyone else feel like that?
We know we’re kind-of addicted, we know that it’s something we should probably address but somehow we manage to avoid actually doing anything!
Here’s a selection of the excuses I make to justify my phone use;
- I need it for work.
- What if I miss an important message?
- Someone might have a child and they’ll be 5 before I know they exist!
- How will I wake up without a phone alarm?!
The real truth is that I am in a constant state of distraction. And what’s worse is when I reach for my phone I give my family unspoken permission to disconnect and disengage too.
Trying and failing
I’ve tried various things from tracking my phone use – deleting apps, stopping ALL notifications, leaving my phone downstairs – but whatever I do my phone use slowly creeps up and up and up.
But I don’t want this to be normal. It’s time to bring in the big guns.
Enter my 5 year old daughter. If you need accountability I would recommend finding a small person and asking them to keep you on the straight and narrow, they transform into small army generals/ tiny dictators and they take no prisoners!
So we had a chat about how I wanted to use my phone less and sadly she agreed (this broke my heart). I told her I was really serious and we decided we would make a ‘Phone Home’ for my phone. My husband coined the term ‘Phone Coffin’ but I’m just not sure it has the same ring to it!
My daughter has decided that my phone will live in the box from when we get home after school to when she goes to bed. However she did write a note which says the only exception is that I can use my phone for adding things to my online shopping order, I think she’s worried I’ll start forgetting she needs five cereal options available for breakfast!
And so here we are, the box is made and I hope my phone will happily live in it for the majority of our summer. I know I’ll probably fail but then my conscience and my not-so-small blonde ‘phone monitor’ will keep me on the straight and narrow.
Wish me luck!
If you want to get inspired for your own hands free summer, I’d recommend getting your hands on the book Hands Free Mama, it will change things!