I have always suffered from FOMO. It drives me insane. The invention of social media and the smartphone did not help my FOMO at all. It probably made it worse. I ended up spending up to 7 hours a day on my phone every day, and worse still, I had nothing to show for this addiction.
The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.
– Michael Altshuler
Goodbye Notifications
I was determined to take back control of my time, so I switched off my social media app notifications. I thought I would crumble without knowing what everyone else was posting. I used to check my phone anyway initially. Eventually, the lack of notifications meant a lack of distraction, and I would find myself getting caught up in whatever I was doing. I would still see the icon when I picked up my phone to respond to a message or a call, so I would still check the apps throughout the day, although less often.
Enter the App Library
Then Apple created the “App Library”. It was a game changer. Suddenly, all my apps were in my phone’s app library, and most couldn’t be seen. The apps I used most often were still most prominent, though, so my most often used social media apps were still visible when I accessed the library for something else, which prompted me to open them. Then Apple made it possible to hide them. I could set it so they were never prominent in the app library. What a pleasure! Now they were truly out of sight and therefore out of mind!
Discovering Focus Mode
What the App Library did was stop me from accessing my social media apps as often as I used to, but it didn’t stop me from constantly picking up my phone because of other notifications. I was still spending about 6 hours a day on my phone. Very alarming. I wasn’t sure how to change the habit until I accidentally activated Sleep Mode. I had set the amount of time I wanted to sleep every night and the time for my alarm, not realising that this automatically activated Sleep mode. Sleep mode sends a notification 45 minutes before my set bedtime to let me know it is wind-down time. This is when sleep mode automatically activates. I started noticing in the mornings that I have notifications that I had missed during the wind-down and sleep times I had set. After investigating, I discovered what I had done and was pleasantly surprised. I had completely forgotten about my phone until the next morning because I didn’t receive any notifications at all!
I now have a work focus setting that activates as soon as I drive into our office parking lot. I also have a personal focus setting that activates when I get home, and of course, my sleep focus setting. My screen time has reduced to around 4 hours a day, which is way better than 7 hours a day. Each focus mode is set to allow calls and messages from family and close friends. I also allow “Intelligent Breakthrough” in some modes which allows priority messaging through.
Another benefit is that I no longer suffer from FOMO. I find that I only access my social media apps once or twice a day, often for work and not for personal use. I do still doom scroll about once a week just to chill, but I only really do it on Instagram. It’s my favourite social media app.
Just when I thought I was ready to be the master of focusing, we went back to the office full-time. 🤦🏽♀️ Now I just need to figure out how to shut people out while working in an open plan office…sigh. Please share any tricks or tips you might have.
That’s it from me today. Thanks for popping by. How do you control time spent on your cellphone. ? Let me know in the comments
Grounded African 