The day you get your first smart phone you should first think, not what can I do with this, but when should I not be using this.
I love my smart phone, however one morning my 18 month old looked at a mobile phone picture for sale in a retailer catalogue and said ‘Dadda’. It was clear that I was spending too much time on it. For my daughter to associate me with a mobile phone meant one thing and one thing only, when at home, my phone and I needed to spend far less time together.My phone is so much in my life, I keep it backed up daily and look after it with all the attention it needs to operate normally. At work, I live on it. But that’s when I need it to accomplish work tasks more quickly. At home I was reading the paper, looking up the weather, reading emails, listening to music and generally stuffing around with the various apps I use to get me through the day. So, I turned a new leaf! I decided that from now on when I am home the phone is a phone. If it rings I will answer it, if it doesn’t then it sits in it’s cradle waiting to ring. I noticed a couple of things quickly:
1) My friends don’t ring very often
2) When I was playing with my phone I was not spending time connecting with my family. One weekend down and my daughter is back to yelling ‘Dadda’ when she wants to play. I’m not having withdrawl symptons from leaving the phone alone and life is just as great as it was when I had access to all the amazing apps I had access to. Try it yourself and let me know how you fared when restoring the balance.