Our mostly important companion these days is our smart phones. Mobile phone use was thought to have only negative effects on users, but research has proven that upon analysis of data from 45 semi-structured interviews with second-year high school students from urban, rural, and Tibetan regions of China, the consequences of mobile phone use are not always pre-determined. Teens do not merely use their device for effective communication but they also treat them as ‘life’ and ‘thought’ companions, which they invest with feelings and thoughts that animate life experiences and catalyse healthy development. Also a study assessing the closeness to technical devices and social actors showed the smartphone to be the closest device.Yes a healthy use of smartphone can be a healthy companion an enabler of productivity, This article explores five smartphone habits that can boost your productivity. While there are endless productivity-boosting apps in the Play / App Store, you can incorporate the smartphone habits below to turn your device from a time-sucking distraction into a productivity enabler.
1. Use your smartphone focus mode
In a world with massive distractions, maintaining a focus is more important than ever in today’s attention economy. We constantly battle with distractions from notifications, newsfeeds, pings, and pop-ups. Each app and service aims to gain a share of our limited attention, making it hard to focus on task. Therefore, your ability to focus is a significant determinant of your productivity and success in life.
Thankfully, tech giants like Apple are making strides to help you manage your focus with features like Focus Mode. Setting up and using Focus mode on your iOS device is a great way to minimize distractions and better manage your time. Android offers a similar feature under the name Digital Wellbeing its easy to set up. In a nutshell, this feature allows you to filter out notifications and temporarily disable certain apps when you need to focus on a task. This way, you can avoid the temptation of checking your phone whenever you receive a notification. There are various Focus Modes you can set up in iOS, including work, mealtime, and mindfulness.
2. Customise the Apps you use at Work
Customising your availability and notifications for all the apps you use in your workplace is a fundamental step that can set you up to win and increase your productivity. With remote work becoming the new normal, you probably manage your time and tasks using different work apps like Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, and Trello. Therefore, setting clear boundaries between your work and personal time allows you to steer clear of the always-on expectations of remote work and burnout that could happen, be very careful how you manage these apps as it could lead to help problems not envisaged. One way to do this is to turn off notifications for work apps when you are off the clock. In addition, silencing notifications from your workplace’s water cooler channels can help you avoid distractions when trying to focus on a task.
If you use Slack, you can also change your status to let your colleagues know when you are unavailable. This allows you to have more control over when people can reach you.
3. Use Automation Technology for repeating tasks
You might agree that doing the same tasks repeatedly on your smartphone is not the most productive use of your time. Fortunately, you can leverage built-in automation tools in your smartphone to take care of the monotonous and repetitive tasks for you.
For example, you can use the Shortcut app on your iOS device to automate the tasks you often do, allowing you to spend less time on your phone and more time on things that matter. If you do not want to make the shortcuts yourself, you can download some handy ones from the Internet.
If you use a Samsung device, you can enjoy some time-saving features in Bixby by going to Settings > Advanced features > Bixby routines. From there, you can set up routines for different times and locations. For instance, you can set Bixby to automatically turn on the “Do Not Disturb” mode when sleeping. If you are a developer you can build yours and take advantage of the mobile app automation testing tools too.
4. Ensure to track Your Screen Time
Another way to boost your smartphone productivity is knowing how much time you spend on specific apps on your device. This is particularly effective if you spend too much time on your smartphone on non-productive activities. By tracking your screen time, you can get insights into which apps you use the most and cut down on common time wasters.
For iPhone users, you can check your screen time statistics by going to Settings > Screen Time. You can also use the Downtime feature to schedule periods when only specific apps will be available, or App Limits to set time limits for using certain apps.
Android users can track their screen time by going to Settings and scrolling down to Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. From there, you can see the time you spend on specific apps and set up a daily limit for each app. Doing this regularly can help you become more mindful of your smartphone usage and make changes to break any bad habits.
5. Organise Your Home Screen and be intentional with usage
Your smartphone’s home screen can quickly become messy and cluttered, especially if you frequently download new apps. Having too many apps on your home screen can be overwhelming and unproductive, as it becomes more challenging to find what you want when you need it.
This is why it is vital to declutter your home screen and organize it in a way that makes sense for you. The first thing to do is delete apps that you no longer use. After you have deleted the apps you do not need, it’s time to organize the ones left. You can create folders for similar apps, or put your most-used apps on the home screen for easy access.
You could also add widgets to your home screen to quickly access the information you need. For example, you can add a widget for the weather forecast or your upcoming calendar events.
Another way to boost your smartphone productivity is to be more intentional with your device usage. This means being aware of when and why you are using your phone and sticking to your intended purpose for using it to avoid falling prey to a mindless scrolling habit. Journaling and meditation can be helpful for this, as they can help you become more mindful of your thoughts and actions.
It is essential that your boost Your Productivity With These Smartphone Habits because we kind of have an inseparable bond with your smartphone, it’s important to use the device to enhance your productivity, rather than hinder it. By following the tips above, you can make simple changes to your smartphone habits that will significantly impact your overall productivity.
