How to Break Up With Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life

by Catherine Price

WWW: WHAT FOR, WHY NOW, AND WHAT ELSE Any time you notice that you are about to reach for your phone, take a second to ask yourself: What For? What are you picking up your phone to do? (For example, to check your email, browse Amazon, order dinner, kill time, and so on.) Why Now? Why are you picking up your phone now instead of later? The reason might be practical (I want to take a photo), situational (I’m in the lift), or emotional (I want a distraction). What Else? What else could you do right now besides check your phone? If you do your Ws, and then decide that you really do want to use your phone right now, that’s totally fine. The point is simply to give yourself a chance to explore your options for that particular moment, so that if and when you turn your attention to your phone, it’s the result of a conscious decision. Identifying your goal ahead of time also prevents an impulse to share a photo on social media from devolving into another thirty minutes spent absent-mindedly scrolling through your feed.