There’s a simple solution to that:

100% reduction in time wasted on your phone. Guaranteed.

Or, if you’re not as cuckoo as me and if you’d prefer not to turn into a caveman, you could try any of the following (in order of boldness).

Makes your phone much more boring. And you wouldn’t pay attention to boring things, right? If you’re not convinced, here’s an article for you to enjoy.

Android

• Enable developer options. Open Settings, then About phone, and then tap seven times on the Build number (actually, newer devices have developer options as default!)

• In the developer options scroll down, select Simulate color space from under the Hardware accelerated rendering section.

• Choose Monochromacy as the color space.

iOS

• Open Settings app in iOS

• Go to General and then followed by Accessibility

• Under the VISION section, locate Grayscale and toggle the switch ON

DISCLAIMER: if you’re reading this in the future (you most probably are), countless iOS and Android system updates have probably already rendered these instructions useless.

Place the 2–4 most used apps on your dock at the bottom. Put everything else into a single folder on another screen.

Or, even better, don’t have any apps on your home screens and only use the search/spotlight function to find apps. You can even search content within apps, like finding someone’s phone number by typing their name.

Search is your new best friend.

“I call her Google, because she got everything I’m searching for”
– Genereux Philip

On average, we’re distracted every seven minutes. After every distraction, it takes about 25 minutes to refocus on the task at hand. Nowadays humans have shorter attention span than goldfish, thanks to smartphones! THAT’S NUTS.

So be a good lad and eliminate those notifications.

You might want to leave phone calls and text messages on but remove all the other notifications from your settings. When you want to check something, open the app and do so.

Don’t let the app control you to open it.

“My world came to an end when I turned off all notifications”
– No one ever

For instance:

• Slot 1: 9-10am (morning check)

• Slot 2: 1–2pm (lunchtime)

• Slot 3: 7-8pm (evening check)

Have a place for your phone where you can’t easily reach it (a safe with chains around it should do just fine). Set that as the ‘default location’ for your phone and only take it away during your scheduled time slots.

Another way to do it is to set-up phone-free periods during the day. Schedule them when you’re busy doing something else, in order to make the break a bit easier.

Ah, what a gorgeous app.

Flipd locks your phone for a set period of time, and once you do, there’s no going back. Trust me, I’ve tried. Even restarting your phone won’t disable the app, so it’s damn near impossible to cheat!

Lock it and forget it. I love it.

Remember Nokia ‘The Rock’ 3310?

The phone that could run for a month on “low battery”? The phone that was flood, hurricane and apocalypse resistant? The phone that had NO WIFI, NO BLUETOOTH and NO CAMERA?

Imagine if we could go back to those golden times.

Imagine a life without gazillion daily notifications and quadrillion “low battery” alerts.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
– Albert Einstein

Um, yea, thanks Al. But the point is that you can actually relive those golden times. Buy a ‘dumb phone’!

What’s even better, after hours of intensive research, I compiled a comprehensive list of the best ‘dumb phones’ on the market:

• Nokia 3310

That’s it.

Or, if you want to spend an extra $350 for no reason, buy the Apple of ‘dumb phones’.

Pick one day a week to turn off your tech and reboot your life.

Unplug all electronic devices and give the middle finger to FOMO.

It’s a ritual that pushes you out of the norm. Make time for silence, spend time in nature and nurture your relationships. Read, exercise and plan ahead. Create a List of 100 Dreams and pursue those dreams during the Sabbath.

And when the FOMO finally comes knocking, remember what a wise man once said:

“Don’t be afraid to miss out from what others do. Be afraid to miss out on the present.”
– Me

I just spent 55 days without my phone. Miraculously, I’m still alive.

I’ve never been happier, less stressed or productive. I’ve never had so many actionable ideas and thoughts. I’ve never had more time in my hands.

The thing is, my written words are nothing but.. written words. You need to experience to understand it.

Try it out, at least for a while. You’ll be amazed at how quiet it can be.