Hacks for staying on task (and off your phone)

Did you know that the average person spends over five hours on their phones daily? The top 10% of smartphone users pick up their phones over 5,000 times a day. As a creator, you may find yourself constantly picking up your phone to check off tasks like promoting your business on social media (which may be a considerable part of your content marketing strategy). Although work is important, self-care is equally, if not more, important to your overall success. If this is you, you may be in need of some time-tested productivity hacks to stay on track.

Sometimes there’s a thin line between grabbing your phone to engage with your audience and becoming a victim of mindless scrolling. With phone apps being addictive by nature (hello, dopamine boost), it’s more important than ever to use them with intention and not let them take control of the time you can spend being more productive or doing something good for your wellbeing. 

Before learning to let go of your smartphone, you need to understand your current phone habits. Take the time to dig into how long you’re using your phone every day and which specific apps you’re spending the most time on. Seeing your phone usage in hours may open your eyes to just how much time you’re “losing” by mindless scrolling on your smartphone.

After all, numbers don’t lie. To check your daily phone usage, head into “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls” settings if you’re an Android user or “Screentime” if you’re an iPhone user. The numbers may shock you, but own it and commit to shifting how you use your phone by trying out a few of the below phone productivity hacks. 

Turn off all phone notifications

There’s nothing that will call your attention more quickly to your cell phone than an app alert. These app notifications make us feel like we must reach for our phone to see what’s going on before it’s too late. Hint—it’s never too late.  If staying on task is your goal, you must leave the FOMO behind by turning off app notifications.

Pro-tip: Many smartphones allow you to set “quiet“ hours, which will pause all notifications during your specified time window. Try doing this to slowly but surely give your phone some downtime. 

Practice not starting or ending your day scrolling through your feeds

Our phones are sometimes the last thing we see before bed and the first thing we interact with in the morning. Instead of always having your phone at an arm’s reach, keep your phone away from your bed and in time in a completely different room. The further you are from your phone, the less your brain will crave it—out of sight, out of mind. Practice this often, even if that means buying an actual alarm clock instead of using your phone. 

Create “business hours” for the social media accounts that support your business

Social media is active 24 hours a day, but that doesn’t mean you have to be—even if it’s for your business. Instead of posting or checking your social media at random times of the day, create a strict schedule of when you’ll perform specific social media-related tasks. Some tasks to consider scheduling time for include:

• Responding to comments and messages
• Posting new content
• Engaging with your followers
• Social listening

Try adding “unplug” days to your schedule

The idea of not using your phone for a full 24 hours sounds almost impossible to some, but it’s worth trying to help you spend less time behind the screen. Start by just setting unplug hours where you don’t reach for your phone for any reason. Then move on to a full day.

If you find yourself overthinking what you may be missing out on, try putting your phone on airplane mode as a way to remind yourself to get back to the task at hand. Unplugging will give you back more time to do things that you love or have been procrastinating on due to “not having enough time.”