Minimalist Living Tips For Healthy Cell Phone Use In Everyday Life
These supercomputers, affectionately called cell phones or smartphones, have become indispensable tools that enhance everyday life. Does this include Healthy cell phone use?
My challenge to you is to reduce the time you waste using your cell phone to see if it will directly affect increased productivity, health, wellness, and overall happiness.
Health and wellness? Yes!
Too much of even what would initially be considered a good thing can be bad for you. Too much food, too much exercise, and even too much work can lead to wrong results.
Along with the cell phone’s ability to improve your quality of life, it can also have negative side effects on physical and mental health that can do more harm than the initial gain in quality of life.
Excessive cell phone use has been linked to triggering a multitude of addictions, lessening social skills, causing depression, and a host of other mental and physical ill-effects.
What if I told you my minimalist living tips for healthy cell phone use could lessen or eliminate all cell phone-related ill effects?
I hope you find value in them.
Mental Healthy Cell Phone Use
Are you mentally addicted to your cell phone? Are you addicted to the artificial sense of connection with our cell phone provider? Addictions are usually a bad thing.
Even if you do not believe you are addicted, some cell phone use can be mentally unhealthy. Studies show the blue light of our electronic screens before bed suppresses a chemical called melatonin that aids in restful sleep.
We all know the negative results of not regularly getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep. As a Minimalist, I don’t like burning the candle at both ends. LOL.
“In the report, based on a survey of more than 440,000 Americans, about 35 percent said they usually got less than 7 hours of sleep a night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which conducted the study, recommends that adults ages 18 to 60 get at least 7 hours of sleep per night”.
LiveScience.com
Extreme cell phone use hampers our ability to concentrate, be productive, be creative, be mentally healthy, and achieve overall happiness.
Here are some Minimalist tips for mentally healthy cell phone use.
1. Go on a cell phone diet.
Try to consciously avoid the need to be connected 24 hours a day. Take scheduled breaks to form internet connectivity and cell phone use. Avoid the knee-jerk behavior of checking your phone every few minutes.
When you are bored or idle, train yourself not to reach for your cell phone mindlessly. I understand that when you are in line for some reason or during downtime, you would like to check your email or social media.
But nothing has changed from two minutes or ten minutes ago. Train yourself to use that free time for something more productive, relaxing, and enjoyable.
Taking time to relax, clear your mind, and daydream allows your subconscious to do its job and stitch together everything you saw, felt, and learned during the day.
Scheduled times in the day or a day in the week to abstain from cell phone use. Don’t freak out. Slow down and breathe. You can do it. It can be done.
You don’t have to leave your home without your cell phone. Take baby steps. Leave your phone in a drawer and go to lunch, do housework, or listen to music for your home entertainment system.
You will be surprised how freeing it can be.
Let me know your results in the comment below.
2. Take a break from Social Media
Taking a break from social media can be liberating. Sometimes, watching everyone’s highlight reel can be taxing. Try taking a day off. If it feels good, try taking another, then another.
I don’t use social media for personal use anymore, so when I disappear, no one misses me. I suggest you post or alert the followers of your scheduled absence. You may experience a real friend or two reaching out for a friendly face-to-face get-together.
Social media, text, and email notifications can be distracting and stressful. Try periodically turning them off. I always found it strange that we readily allow almost anyone around the world to access us at the push of a button.
There was a time when the ping of notifications would cause my heart to race and anxiety to instantly build, not knowing who, what, when, and where the notification was sent.
The fear of missing out can be real. Now I only turn on notifications during business hours if at all. To some, it may sound crazy but I believe everyone will find value in following this practice.
Make More Time for Good Friends and Family
As a Minimalist, I believe I should pay special attention to making more time work for things I consider essential in my life. Cell phone use can sometimes lessen the quality of special moments in our lives, and we should be mindful of that.
Loved ones should not have to wait for you to check social media, email, or text to get your undivided attention. Involuntarily checking your cell phone every ten minutes should not lessen their quality time with you.
Most of all, avoid accepting phone calls when spending quality time with good friends and family, no matter how hard they try to convince you it is not a problem.
Believe it or not, there are times it would be better to turn your phone off or put it away to enjoy experiences with good friends and family fully.
Give it a try. You can do it.
Physical Healthy Cell Phone Use
Cell phone use can be physically unhealthy and even dangerous at times. Something as simple as texting causes 11,000 Injuries a Year. Believe it or not, radiation is the most significant physical danger accompanying cell phone use.
Breaks to form internet connectivity and cell phone use. Avoid the knee-jerk behavior of checking your phone every few minutes.
When you are bored or idle, train yourself not to reach for your cell phone mindlessly. I understand that when you are in line for some reason or during downtime, you would like to check your email or social media.
“Cell phones (including smartphones) give off a form of energy known as radio frequency (RF) waves, so some concerns have been raised about the safety of cell phone use. With respect to cancer, concern focuses on whether cell phones might increase the risk of brain tumors or other tumors in the head and neck area”.
I have not found any evidence extreme cell phone RF waves cause cancer, but I must admit I was afraid to do debt research for fear of what I may find. LOL.
Because cell phone use has become an integral part of modern life and is not going anywhere soon, I suggest you follow these minimal, healthy cell phone use tips.
1. Avoid Wearing Your Phone On Your Body
I am guilty of carrying my phone in my front pocket. I cringe when I see people talking on the phone with it wedged under a baseball cap pressing against their ears and faces. The ghetto Bluetooth may prove to be dangerous one day.
I have also seen women carry their phones in their bras, but in most cases, women can take their phones in their purses to avoid radiation exposure.
Everyone should avoid carrying phones on their bodies as little as possible. Remember, cell phones are potent transceivers. They constantly send and receive signals, whether in use or not.
Constant radiation exposure is a cause for concern. Have you ever seen an X-ray technician stay and chat with you during the X-ray? HELL NO! LOL.
They run, leaving the room as if you have the Cooties. The World Health Organization has classified long-term cell phone use as a Group 2B: Possibly carcinogenic to humans.
There is evidence in younger women that typically developing breast Cancer and impaired fertility in men may be linked to cell phone radiation. Why take the risk?
2. Go Hand Free and Not Pressed Against Your face
Taking phone calls is becoming less common nowadays. I suggest using a Bluetooth headset to lessen your radiation exposure.
Have you ever read the legal terms presented on your phone? Of course, you have not. Neither have I until recently. The companies have protected themselves, and you should have, too.
iPhone (Settings > General > About > Legal > RF Exposure).
Android Phones (Settings > Legal Information > RF Information).
Check it out.
I would like you to be aware, not to dampen things. For more info and to get Apple Inc.’s recommendations, Click Here.
3. Create Cell Phone Free Zones
If your cell phone is powered on, it’s transmitting and receiving. For more than one reason, I have instituted the kitchen and bedroom as cell phone-free zones.
To lessen my exposure to cell phone radiation, I do not allow or charge cell phones in the kitchen or bedrooms. This reduces exposure to cell phone radiation and brings people closer together because they can not be distracted by their cell phones.
The bedroom and kitchen serve a purpose other than a place to look down at an electronic device. Those are communal places where you spend precious time with good friends, family, and loved ones. NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED!
Put the cell phones down and create unique experiences.
Productivity Healthy Cell Phone Use
Cell phones are powerful computers that can enhance productivity. Spend far less wasted time having your phone use you and learn to use your phone to enhance your life.
Here are a few cell phone productivity tips to enhance your quality of life and allow you to spend more quality time with good friends and family.
1) De-clutter Your Cell Phone
I suggest everyone create a Minimalist Uniform Wardrobe to decrease decision fatigue; I suggest you de-clutter your cell phone.
Check your phone for Apps you have downloaded over the years and never used. Seriously, check your phone. Trust me, those Apps are there and should be deleted. They cause delays when thumbing past them to get to your favorite Apps.
Next comes the hard part. Use Minimalist Living Principles to decide if the remaining Apps deserve to live or die. LOL. If you believe I will have you look at each App and determine if it adds value or sparks joy in your life, you are mistaken.
I’d like you to do something more challenging that will add value to healthy cell phone use. Check each remaining App on your phone and ask this one question.
Do I need this APP on my phone?
Yeah! Do you need this quick go-anywhere access to that App or service on your phone? Can it be removed and accessed on a computer?
Recently, I decided I did not need fast, go-anywhere access to Facebook, WordPress, and the UPS App. I almost removed Google Keep but chose to keep it because I like to take quick notes there.
This will prevent you from wasting time, adding distractions, and filling time when you feel bored by clicking these Apps. Most of the time, the mobile versions lack the capabilities computer access offers.
2) Disable most notifications
You have probably done this already. I usually put my phone on “DO NOT DISTURB” at 8 p.m. After you have decluttered your phone, it now does the same for notifications on the remaining Apps.
Decide if you need to be interrupted by that App at all times of the day.
3) Increase battery life
You may have eliminated quite a few Apps at this point. Fewer Apps running in the background will significantly increase your phone’s battery life.
Now, let’s examine the remaining Apps to determine whether they need to run in the background. You can disable that capability or remove the App and access the service on the computer.
Conclusion
I would be the last one to say that cell phones are bad or evil. I just believe there are better ways to use them, and everyone should be conscious of ways to promote healthy cell phone use.
If you agree, disagree, or believe I missed something, please comment below explaining it in detail. Again. I hope you found some value in these tips.
