Did you know that research has shown that most Americans spend a full month of the year on their cell phones? In an effort to help you reduce your phone usage, I’ve compiled a list of twenty small daily habits that you can adopt. Let’s take a look at the first ten tips and see how they can help you focus on what’s truly important in your life.

1. Stick to Your Plans
   Try to stick to your appointments and be on time. This shows respect for the time you’ve dedicated to your loved ones, and it helps you build deeper relationships.
2. Spend Meals Without Your Phone
   When your phone is next to you, conversations with friends and family members become superficial, and empathy and companionship are lost. Put the phone away and enjoy the taste of the food and the company of those around you.
3. Beat Social Networks
   Social network feeds are designed to keep us scrolling. But you can use tools like the News Feed Eradicator extension on Google Chrome to delete the Facebook feed and replace it with an inspirational quote.
4. Participate in Unscheduled Conversations
   Avoiding face-to-face and phone conversations in favor of chatting weakens our social relationships. Try to replace some of those chats with conversations instead.
5. Devote Time to Silence
   When you spend all your free time on your phone, you have little time for deep thinking. Choose to tire yourself in better ways, like writing or attending a play, to take you to unexpected places.
6. Create Value Before You Consume It
   Start your day with your own thoughts instead of someone else’s. The state of your attention determines the state of your life, so the more regularly you think, the clearer your vision will be.
7. Buy an Alarm Clock
   The blue light of your phone before sleep disrupts your body clock, and looking at your phone first thing in the morning puts your brain on alert. Leave the phone out of the bedroom at night and use an old-fashioned alarm clock instead.
8. Leave Your Phone Out of the Bathroom
   Using a cell phone on the toilet has serious health consequences, and mobile phones are dirtier than toilet seats. Reserve bathroom time for what it’s meant for.
9. Quiet Your Phone’s Main Screen
   Delete unused apps from your phone and quit the main screen. This makes it easier to find what you’re looking for and reduces the likelihood of being distracted by other apps.
10. Use Weaker User Experiences
    Mobile apps and websites are designed for optimal user experience. But by using the web version of an app instead of the app itself, you can have a less pleasant experience that will make you visit the app less often.
    These small daily habits can help you reduce your phone usage and focus on the important things in your life.

Stay tuned for part two of my list of twenty things you can do instead of scrolling up and down!