Smartphones. Love them or hate them, they are a huge part of our lives and likely here to stay. We all know that they can kill our productivity, distract us and become a security blanket of scrolling and dopamine hits.

While there is nothing wrong with the occasional scroll, YouTube video or escape from reality, most of us have gone over to the dark side, when it comes to screen time. It’s mostly negative and some positive.

This is why it’s time to take back the power. Yes, we can still look to our phones as entertainment. But it’s also time to turn our phones into a productivity tool that helps us achieve our goals and become who we were meant to be.

1. Turn on Do Not Disturb

This is the first key to taking back the power that your phone has over you. Your time is valuable. Constantly being interrupted and distracted all day will leave you accomplishing very little.

Tip: Make exceptions for loved ones. My wife, parents and kids are the only ones that can get through the wall. I’ll respond to everyone else when I have a moment.

2. Habit Tracker Apps

Habit tracking apps can help you finally develop those positive habits that you say you want to develop, but never actually do.

Download an app, start with 1-3 habits you would like to do every day and start tracking.

For example, if your goal is to lose weight your three habits could be:

• Drink 2 Litres of water per day
• Track Food
• Move body for 15 minutes

Recommended App: Habit Tracker

3. Set Timers

Try the Pomodoro Technique. When trying to be productive and get stuff done, set your timer for 25 minutes. For these 25 minutes, do nothing but work on your tasks. When the timer goes off, set a new timer for 5 minutes. During this time, do anything you want. Rest, scroll, get some coffee/water, get up and walk around, anything.

Once the timer goes off, set another productivity block for 25 minutes. Repeats this process a few times and take a longer break in the middle of your day.

This method allows you to be productive for 50 minutes of every 60 minutes, compared to most people who are maybe productive for 10 minutes at best.

It also allows you to take adequate rest, stretch, walk breaks throughout your day. At the end of the day, you will have accomplished so much more than you normally would have.

4. Track Your Health and Fitness

While not everyone is willing to do this to achieve their goals, I highly recommend tracking your diet using an app.

Nutrition: Ultimately, the only way to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn every day. In order to know how much you are eating, you need to track your food intake. This should take you about 3-5 minutes per day. You can’t tell me that you are okay with watching TikToks for 60 minutes a day (no judgment) but you don’t have 3-5 minutes to track your diet to get the body you want. You don’t have to be perfect or unhealthy about it. Just track it for a bit. You’ll learn so much about food and nutrition during the process.

Recommended App: MyFitnessPal

Step 1: Calculate Your TDEE to determine how many calories you should be eating based on your activity level. https://legionathletics.com/tdee-calculator/

Step 2: Track your food using MyFitnessPal. Try to hit your numbers as consistently as possible.

Step 3: Stay consistent and watch the weight come off.

Fitness: The key to any exercise is to start small and make progress. The only way to see if you are progressing is to actually track it. Pick something you enjoy doing (for me it’s strength training) and find an app to track your progress.

Recommended app for Strength Training: JEFIT

5. Create a List of High Priority Tasks.

I wrote an entire book on this subject. This is your Daily Mission. These are the five or so tasks that are non-negotiable that you will complete every day, rain or shine.

Find an app that allows you to write down the stuff you need to get done and start hammering off the list. Use the Pomodoro Technique and start actually being productive. Once you are through your High Priority tasks for the day, then you can procrastinate. Do whatever you want to do. Rest easy knowing that you won the day. Then do it all again tomorrow.

Recommended Apps: Habit Tracker (again) and Microsoft To Do

6. Other Recommended Apps

Track anything important to you. For me, it’s Fitness, Finances, Reading, Personal Development, and Family. If you aren’t intentional about where your time goes, you’ll get to the end of the day (and eventually the end of your life) and realize you’ve wasted it.

• YNAB – Personal Finance Budget App
• Google Calendar – I’d be lost without this. Set reminders/alarms for important things, so that you don’t miss them. Birthdays, activities, appointments, trips, etc. Run your day or it will run you.
• Spotify – Try out a personal development podcast or listen to some music. Especially if you are commuting, don’t allow for wasted time.
• Kindle/Apple Books/Reading app – Reading is one of the greatest personal investments you can make. It is calming. It stimulates the mind. It teaches us lessons. It allows us to learn about specific topics. It provides so many benefits. Nobody has ever sat down to read for an hour and regretted doing so after. We regret binge watching Netflix and wasting our time on other things. But we never feel bad about ourselves for taking some time to read. It is quite the opposite. We feel great after we have finished a book. It is never time wasted. You have a phone in your pocket, which means you always have a book at your fingertips.

I am currently writing this article on my smart phone. 60 minutes of writing this article has been very personally rewarding for me. I could’ve spent those 60 minutes scrolling on Instagram (which I might do later). But I chose to spend my time on productivity and personal growth. I feel good about that.

All of this is to say that your phone can be a detriment and a distraction, if you let it.

But it can also be the greatest productivity tool available to you. It’s up to you to lean towards the benefits of this technology. YOU are in control of your phone. Not the other way around.