5 WAYS TO BREAK THE HABIT

CREATE as many steps as you can between thinking about doing something on your phone and doing it, says behavioural change specialist Shahroo Izadi, author of The Kindness Method. So don’t just delete a social media app — log out of it via the webpage, too.

FOR the first ten minutes of the day, say, ‘I’m not going to look at my phone’ and observe how much you’re worrying — what do you think is going to happen? Often, it’s just a case of reminding ourselves that we haven’t actually missed out on anything that couldn’t wait.

DON’T ditch notifications (for emails, texts, WhatsApp). This can actually have an adverse effect — people start constantly checking to see if they’ve missed anything!

‘URGE surfing’ describes mindfully observing an urge until it passes and acknowledging it without trying to push it away. If you say to yourself, ‘I want to look at my phone’ and tell yourself you can check it in ten minutes, you’ll notice the compulsion will start to pass.

START planning periods throughout the day when you don’t have your phone on you — just a few minutes is fine. The important thing is to observe how dependent you are on it.