I've been carrying around a smartphone in my pocket for more than 10 years - I started off with the first iPhone and have since gone over to Android, dabbled with the Windows Phones for a few years and then ended back up with an iPhone again. Through my years with my phone I've learned that it can be a great asset and help me with a number of my ADHD difficulties; however, I've also felt the dark side of the phone as well. Games, social media, email and all those notifications.
ADHD makes it really easy for us to get off track so we want to be making sure that we're not letting our phones dictate our next actions. Through trial and error phone designers have been making it harder and harder for us to put down our phone. Since we have ADHD this means that it is almost too easy for us to get distracted when we pop open our phone to just check the time. The screen lights up and suddenly we're hit with a hundred different ways our attention should go.
This week we'll be focusing on ways to set up your phone to be less distracting and we're going to work on setting up our phones intentionally to make sure that we're paying attention to what apps we have on our phone and where those apps are located. We'll also be looking at other ways to reduce the constant stream of distractions that our phones can produce.
Find the full show notes at: HackingYourADHD.com/ADHDPhone
This Episode's Top Tips
1. Purge any apps that you don't need on your phone - both unused apps and also apps that pull you in too much.
2. Organize your apps so that your most useful apps are easy to open and your distracting apps are hidden.
3. Turn off most of your notifications and make use of your Do Not Disturb feature.
4. Check out your phone's screentime feature and set some sensible restrictions on how much time you are spending on your phone.