Smartphones that we carry with us everywhere are great little devices that are fun, informative, and able to communicate with the rest of the world – but they can also be incredibly distracting. If you’ve decided that your phone is taking up too much of your time and attention, there are many ways to make it less distracting.
This is sometimes called phone minimalism and can encompass anything from turning off a few notifications to buying a brand new handset that was built with minimalism in mind. Depending on how simple you want your smartphone experience to be, choose accordingly..
Delete some apps
It’s not really smartphones that distracts, it’s all the apps we install on them. If you want to embrace mobile minimalism, get rid of as many apps as possible, maybe even all of them. To remove an app from the Android app drawer, hold and drag upwards. remove buttons; Press and hold an app icon on the iPhone home screen and Uninstall App.
If you need help figuring out which apps you spend most of your time on, your phone can help you here. Open Settings on Android and then Digital Balance and parental controls To see how much time you’ve spent on each of your apps recently. On iOS, from the Settings selection Screen TIME. The same screens offer options to limit app usage, which is another way to be a more minimal phone user.
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You don’t necessarily have to delete the accounts associated with these apps, though this is also an option. Note that even if you uninstall apps like Twitter and Instagram from your phone, you can still access them from the web (and people can still contact you through them). on your phone.
Manage your notifications properly
Maybe you want to keep certain apps on your phone for some reason, but wish it didn’t interrupt your day so much. Both Android and iOS now have many notification options that you can tweak: Notifications and Application settings From Android Settings horse Notifications From iOS Settings to toggle and mute some (or all) apps on your phone.
Your phone can also mute itself for certain periods of time. Open Settings on Android and then sound and vibration and Do not bother: This mode can be activated manually or on a timer, and it’s up to you which apps (if any) are allowed to display notifications and receive audible alerts and sounds. You can also specify specific contacts who can still reach you when Do Not Disturb is enabled.
On iOS, open Settings and then Focus: You can set certain rules for different scenarios (like being in the office or driving between places) and there is a standard for it. Do not bother option too. Helps limit distractions you can set certain lock screen and home screen combinations, and as with Android, you can select apps and contacts to which customized rules are not applied.
Make your phone less attractive
Aesthetics is a big part of minimalism, and with a simpler color scheme and simpler wallpaper you can quickly reduce your phone’s visual appeal (see options below). view and wallpaper and style in Android Settings and Screen brightness and Wall paper in iOS Settings).
Pixel phones have a special bedtime mode that dims the screen and switches to grayscale mode: in Settings, select Digital Balance and parental controlsThen sleep time mode to open it manually or set it to run on a schedule. iOS doesn’t offer anything suitable for this feature, but you can put your iPhone in grayscale mode; From Settings, tap on it. AccessibilityThen Screen and Text SizeThen Color Filters.
Another option for Android phones Minimalist Phone: Basic is a launcher app that implements a monochrome, text-based interface and also offers extra tools to manage the time you spend inside apps and suppress notifications when you don’t want to be disturbed. This is an interesting approach and you can easily switch back to your phone’s normal operating mode if needed.
Buy a minimal phone
Here you have another option to buy a phone designed to be minimal. A set of features phones are available here nokia, for example, from at least $ 50. You can make calls and text messages, but there’s no Instagram or Snapchat to distract you from the real world (Google Maps is loaded on these handsets, so you can still get from point A to point B).
Then there Light Phone II, a $300 phone built to be as light as possible (which may have inspired the name). There is an electronic paper display, only the basics in terms of functionality (a calculator is as advanced as can be), and the interface consists of only lines of text and a few carefully selected icons. Switching to something like this can severely reduce your phone usage.
Offered by something similar smart phone, which will set you back $400. It’s a bit more advanced than the Light Phone II – it can take photos, for example, and there’s a base map app included – but again it’s mostly a monochrome interface that uses only text and has almost nothing in the apps. You will not spend hours of your life browsing social media on Wisephone.
