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

by Catherine Price

First, identify several situations in which you regularly find yourself reaching for your phone to kill a little bit of time (by “little bit” I mean anywhere from ten seconds to ten minutes). For example: taking the lift, waiting to cross the street, taking a cab, using the bathroom, having lunch. Next, choose two or three of those situations – ideally ones that you know you’ll encounter today – and commit to being still. Tomorrow, choose a few more, and do the same thing. From now through the end of our time together, try to make small doses of stillness a regular part of your day. There are many ways to be still. Stare at the ceiling. Notice the people around you. Taste what you’re eating. Look out of a window at the sky. It doesn’t really matter what you do, as long as you don’t reach for a distraction.