After being without a phone for four weeks, my new one finally came in on Tuesday. While it was super exciting that I was able to easily communicate with my fiends and family, it instantly became a huge distraction. I had a midterm on Thursday and needed to study, but setting up my phone and getting up to date on everything I’d missed got in the way. Before I knew it, I had let my phone consume two hours of my day. After realizing this I came to the conclusion that I was not going to allow myself to get distracted by my phone as easily as I used to. That two hours of occupation was way too long and I was not going to let it happen again.
Since Tuesday I have done very well of not being extremely dependent on my phone. I went the entire week without texting in my classes and the number of times I check my social media per day has drastically decreased than how it used to be. In addition, I was also able to block it out almost all together when I was studying the morning of my test. I only picked up my phone twice to respond to texts and I did that at stopping points in my studies rather than the second they appeared on my screen. I think being more aware of when I get distracted and being able to take a step back and realize how much I allow them to control my actions has made them easier to shut out. While I still need to limit the amount of time I check things when I wake up, overall I think I have made major improvements in not being consumed by my phone.