How to Break Up with Your Phone, Revised Edition: The 30-Day Digital Detox Plan

by Catherine Price

Where do you charge your phone? • At what time do you put it away for the night? • When do you check it for the first time in the morning? (This can be a time or a situation—for example, “I don’t check until I get to the office.” You could also have different times for weekdays and weekends.) • Where do you keep your phone while you’re at work? • Where do you keep your phone while you’re at home? • Where do you keep your phone at meals? • Where do you carry your phone? • What do you use your phone for? (For example: practical purposes like navigating, social purposes like calling and texting, or educational and entertainment purposes such as listening to podcasts.) • What are the situations in which you have decided that you don’t use your phone? In the elevator, waiting in line, or when you’re bored or feeling socially awkward? • Which apps are tools that enrich or simplify your life? • Which apps do you know are dangerous/the most likely to suck you in? This can be a particularly useful question to answer because it limits what you have to worry about. If you know you’ve got three apps on your phone that tend to steal your attention, then you can put yourself on high alert when you use those particular apps—and not worry as much about the other things you do on your phone. (Or you could delete those three apps. Just saying.) • Based on your answer to the previous question, which apps/websites do you block—and when?