Why I got off my phone and you should too

How being more present will help you improve your work life

My name is Jackson Antonow, and I recently released the book, “Enemy in Your Pocket: How Using Your Phone Less Will Change Your Life and How to Do It.” I will be previewing part of the second chapter, “Why You Should Put Down Your Phone,” and the final two chapters that showcase how decreasing your phone usage is a tool to improve your happiness, success, relationships, and overall life quality.

Here are some tidbits that can help you improve your work life: 

Save time for more fulfilling activities

Let’s take a look at the average screen time. Many studies have been conducted on average screen time, but most are focused on overall screen time (cellphone, TV, and Ipad) or are from an unreliable or skewed source. 

So, I conducted my own study of 250 participants aged 13-25 and found an average screen time of five hours and 32 minutes every day. Let’s assume our participants were sleeping 7.5 hours a day, which is the average recommended amount of sleep for teenagers and adults. This leaves us with the assumption that our participants had 16.5 waking hours left. Using their phones at the average screen time with this many waking hours means the young adults in my study spent 33% of their day staring at their mobile phone, and this number doesn’t even include the time spent on computers, video game consoles, or watching television. 

While 33% of a person’s day being spent on their phone is alarming, I find putting this time into context over a lifetime more beneficial. Let’s assume we start using our phones at age 12, with this average screen time for the rest of our lives. I picked 12 because this is the age at which I first received my mobile phone and at which over 70 percent of children already have a phone.

The average life expectancy of an American is 77.28 years old, so this means that if we use our phones like the average teenager, we will end up wasting 15.05 years of our lives on mobile phones. Fifteen years. If someone told you that you were going to live to 62 instead of 77, you would be mortified. Don’t waste 15 years of your life scrolling through social media or sending pointless texts when you could be fostering friendships, succeeding in your professional life, or finding new hobbies. 

Finally, my favorite way to put the average screen time usage into context is by looking at the advantages of decreased phone usage on a yearly basis. Let’s look at the difference in saved time between our participants who spent 33% of their day on their phone versus someone who only uses their phone an hour a day (the goal I recommend to my readers). 

Those who only use their phone for an hour a day waste 15 days in a year, while our average phone user wastes 84 days. This means the hourly phone user takes advantage of 350 days a year, while the average person only takes advantage of 281 days, a 2.3-month difference. Imagine the advantages you have over your peers when you allow yourself over two more months in a year. You completely separate yourself academically, professionally and even socially, not only in that year, but every year for the rest of your life.

Improved grades

The topic of school may seem irrelevant to some in the workforce, but I promise the concepts will apply to everyone. I remember thinking grades were only a reflection of genetics; that people were born with the ability to achieve perfect grades and there wasn’t much I could do about it. In high school, I  quickly “found out” I wasn’t one of those chosen few and assumed a 4.0 was something that was just out of my reach.

Fast forward to my first semester of college, my grades were not going as planned. Even when I was trying to do well in classes, it just felt impossible. In my psychology class, where I was putting the most effort in, I fell below the average for every single exam. To make matters worse, at this time I needed my grades to be good if I wanted a chance to make it into my university’s business school. If I didn’t fix my grades quickly, I would be forced into taking a major I wasn’t interested in. 

Knowing I needed to make a change, I started to take a mental note of my habits, and my smartphone usage was one of the first things that came to mind. I noticed that whenever I was studying, I constantly was pulled away by my smartphone. I couldn’t focus for more than five minutes without finding myself craving the device. I knew that if I could fix the relationship with my phone then I would be able to improve my grades.

I spent the winter break before second semester reading and searching on YouTube for ways to decrease my phone usage. I felt prepared to attack my second semester in a more productive manner, and I did. While I didn’t achieve a 4.0, I attained 4 A’s and an A- in that semester. This increase in performance from my first semester allotted me attendance into the business school, but I didn’t stop there. The next two semesters, I achieved two 4.0’s for the first time in my education career. A task that felt impossible a year ago, I now had accomplished twice. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I wasn’t born as the prodigal son. I promise you my grades were not a product of a genetic predisposition. This success was 110% a product of time and focus. When I allowed myself 4 hours and 30 more minutes in a day with increased focus, obviously my grades improved. Also when the majority of my classes are graded on a curve, the extra 2.3 months over my peers proved extremely helpful when final grades came out. 

Now, let’s bring it back to those in the workforce. The message here is not that decreased phone usage will allow you to achieve better grades, but rather it will give you more focus and increased time, which will always benefit us. Whatever business we are in, or wherever we are in life, having more time and focus is a recipe for success. 

Tips for success

While a lot of the tips in the book build off of each other to give a comprehensive plan to decrease your phone usage, I wanted to leave you with two tips to start decreasing your phone usage:

1. Delete unnecessary apps 

I define unnecessary apps as anything that does not help us communicate with our colleagues, friends or family, travel, or play music. Everything else can be moved to one of the other devices. This means social media, ESPN, video games, and news apps, can all be moved to other devices. And yes, LinkedIn is included in that category of social media. While it has a more professional lens than Instagram or Facebook, it can still suck us in like any other social media. Unless you are actively using it to network, I would recommend deleting it from your phone and only accessing it on your computer. 

I think it is obvious how video games and social media can keep us addicted to our phones, but I recommend being conscious of your news intake because it can induce unnecessary stress or overwhelm you. Yes, it’s important to remain updated about the world around you, but we do not always need to be updated every second. News can be digested in healthy portions throughout our days, instead of overloading ourselves by constantly scrolling. 

2. Completely power down your phone when you aren’t using it

This is a tip I am using right now as I write this article, and one of the tips my friends use the most. Powering off our phones makes our phone take more time to use, which makes it more bothersome to access and less addictive. It creates a barrier for us that doesn’t allow us to use our phone immediately. It is easier to stay off our phone when we no longer can instantly pick it up and start using it. 

Although powering it on might only take ten seconds, the time it takes forces us to think about what we are doing. This is especially important when attempting to work on a project. I know we have all been in a situation before where we have been working on something, got frustrated, checked our phone, and then completely derailed our progress. Powering off our phones can help stop this process as now we have a chance to realize we are being counterproductive, instead of allowing our impulses to take over. 

I hope this article has been helpful to you and can help you in your personal and professional life. You check out my book here.

I’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts, ideas, or questions in the comments below and join the conversation.

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Meet Jackson

Jackson Antonow is the author of “Enemy in Your Pocket: How Using Your Phone Less Will Change Your Life and How to do It.” He wrote THE book in an attempt to help others fix their phone addiction and improve their lives. Jackson is also currently a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.