National Cell Phone Courtesy Month

I was looking through the National Day Calendar for some blog ideas, and discovered that July is National Cell Phone Courtesy Month. (It also happens to be National Ice Cream Month, and National Baked Beans Month, and includes National Nude Recreation Day.) Rather than posting a “get off my lawn” style post about how it should be every month, or a list of tips about being more courteous with your cell phone, I’m going to try and flip the script a little – here’s how to make your phone more courteous to you.

Judith Martin (Miss Manners) described the phone as similar to having the mail carrier insist you read your mail RIGHT NOW! Click To Tweet

I believe it was Judith Martin of Miss Manners fame who described the telephone being similar to having the mail carrier ring your doorbell and insist that you read your mail immediately. That was bad enough, but smartphones are designed to be like that doorbell-ringing mail carrier. They notify you of every little thing, and demand your attention right then.

Find out how to make your phone more courteous and less distracting to you. Click To Tweet

Here are some tips to make your phone more courteous and less distracting to you.

• Turn off notifications. I’m relentless about this. I’ve limited my phone’s notifications to calls, text messages, calendar reminders, and very little else. Rather than having a phone that seems almost alive with notifications, mine tends to be pretty quiet except for things that demand my attention.
• Set your wallpaper to black. Beautiful wallpapers make great visuals. Great visuals distract you from what you picked up your phone to do. Increase your productive time by setting yours to black.
• Set your screen to grayscale. Colorful icons give you a visual reward every time you pick up your phone. Set it to grayscale to reduce that dopamine hit.
• Limit your home screen icons. Put quick, in and out apps on the home screen – maps, calendar, Keep everything else off the home screen.
• Type to open apps not on the home screen. Typing makes you think about why you’re opening the app, and take just enjoy effort to make that thought a question.
• Set up an auto-responder. These behave like an out of office message for email, and are particularly good for work. I also have one for when I’m at the gym, letting people know I’ll get back with them after I’m done with my workout. The better ones can be set to allow certain calls or texts through the wall.
• No phones where you sleep. My phone never enters the bedroom. It charges on the other side of the house. First, because I’m not exposing myself to blue spectrum light, I sleep better. Second, I’m not tempted to fool with it as I’m getting ready for bed.