Most of our time spents on our screen, and the maximum of that screen time is dominated by our smartphones. Numerous apps have made our lives simpler, but as they say, an excess of anything is wrong.
This smartphone addiction affects almost every person these days and is not just a millennial phenomenon. In fact, at a recent family gathering of mine, us, children of the family found all our parents glued to their phones more often than us!
App developers work hard to make apps that simplify the users’ tasks, thereby making them a habit. The US especially has the highest app usage amongst other markets.
But Holidays are not the time to be juggling with those numerous apps on your phone.Instead, it is to spend quality time with your near and dear ones off the screens.
And, there is an app for that too.
While it may sound ironical using an app to stop using apps, but well, only a diamond can cut a diamond.
There are many apps available today which will allow you to limit your time on the phone and keep your smartphone addiction under control.
Here are the coolest ones:
#1 Forest:
The app gamifies being away from the phone.If you want to ignore your phone and put it down temporarily, you can begin by planting a seed in the Forest. As time goes by, the seed will grow into a tree. If you can’t resist the temptation of checking your phone, your tree will wither.It motivates the user to beat his/her phone addiction by encouraging a sense of achievement and responsibility.
#2 SPACE:
This app allows you to set goals for your app usage and track your progress against these goals over time. It's tools such as notification blocking, screen dimming, and regular interruptions.This app helps curb the addiction by making you understand your habits and take control of when and how we use our devices.
#3 Stay Focused:
Stay Focused is an app use tracker which helps you focus by restricting the use of blocked apps that you choose or your phone altogether based on various limits like Daily or Hourly usage limits, Number of screen-unlocks, etc.I had been using this myself to avoid distractions and consider it an excellent tool to increase productivity and maintain self-control.It even has a strict mode that disallows your incorrigible self even to uninstall the app or change its settings by giving in to the temptation for a stipulated time.
#4 AntiSocial:
This app is also one of the widely used apps for self-control.AntiSocial works in the background of your phone without you even knowing it. It accumulates all of your activity and delivers an easy to understand report. It benchmarks your usage against all other users.The app provides 3 optional blocking modes to help control phone use and even block apps that you overuse.
#5 Your Hour:
Are you a Craver, Habitual, Dependent, Obsessed and Addicted when it comes to your phone? This app tracks your usage and lets you know about your device habits. You can set your overall usage times and unlocks that, once you cross to make the color of the dashboard change.It also comes with a Clock Timer that appears on all your apps so you can see time slipping away and feel guilty of wasting your time.
#6 AppDetox:
AppDetox allows you to set your own rules for stopping procrastination and detoxifying your digital habits. If you violate your own laws, it will send messages reminding you to take a break and stay the heavy usage.Digital detoxing is necessary for making the best of your holiday time, in fact, should be a year-long thing keeping your addiction in check, like a new year resolution maybe?I also had compiled a set of the best apps to keep you healthy for 2019.
#7 OFFTIME:
This one’s a little more hardcore as it blocks your calls and text notifications too. But you can make exceptions for famous people and even set up custom auto-replies to them while the app is into play. There is also an activity log that keeps a tab on all that happened while you were on your digital detox.Its latest update allows you to invite your partner, friends, and colleagues to a shared OFFTIME.
App development is done keeping user experience and simplicity at its center, but when these apps start to get the better of us, we should remain in control.In today’s world of hyperconnectivity, everyone needs time to themselves off the screens. These Holidays are for catching up with family- listening to your grandmother’s stories than uploading them on Instagram, making real conversations than maintaining that meaningless Snapchat streak.
We wish you the best of holidays and a winter full of cherished memories!
