If we had two extra hours in your day, what great things would we do?

Imagine we read a really good book! Or we had a good conversation with our Mom. Or spent down-time doing our favourite hobby: art, cooking, music, and poetry, as an example.

I recently had three friends despair about their social media usage. One friend mentioned that he was wasting too much time on their phone. Another friend had to delete the Instagram app when they found themselves addicted to it. And I went for coffee with another friend who mentioned they could’ve used their time more wisely had they not spent four hours on their phone everyday.

I myself have to watch how much I am on my phone. While I don’t play games, I spend time on social media. However prolonged usage leads me to comparison, to jealousy, and to feeling low. My threshold in taking in this stuff is low.

Do we have a problem with our phones?

As leaders, we have a limited resource of time that we use everyday to accomplish great things. We use our tools wisely. We are the master of our phones; they are not the master of us. 

Are we in control of our phones, or are they in control of us?

I would like to propose a virtuous attempt to regain freedom in our lives over the attention our phones demand of us.

By looking at the cardinal virtues, where all virtues come from, I think we can gain back what we might have lost: our precious time spent with others, for developing ourselves, and avoiding the occasion to comparison and jealousy. Let’s briefly look at the 4 virtues.

• Prudence—practice good decision making by cultivating good habits for phone usage.

• Justice—give others their rightful due by putting away our phones in the company of others, so that we can give them the gift of our presence.

• Temperance—moderate social media and phone usage so that we can be emotionally healthy and use our time for other good, and most often, better things.

• Fortitude—courageously saying “no” to our phones and saying “yes” to reading, spending time with others, praying and journaling, and working.

Now, here are 4 practical ways we can grow in virtuous phone usage. These have helped me, I hope they will help you!

Turn off push notifications

My experience is that push notifications demand our attention. I turned off all push notifications related to email, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. I have my phone on silent – except at work, and I give myself the power to check my messages when I need to.

Two-A-Day

Why check social media every other hour? What a waste of time! I took on the practice of checking it maybe a few times everyday. I might check it later in the morning and in the evening. I try and look at other people’s content first before my own, so I practice charity towards my neighbour. 

9-to-9 Rule

I had a priest friend encourage me to practice a habit of phone usage when I told him I was struggling with jealousy and comparison. His resolution was to put his phone on airplane mode between 9 pm and 9 am. I practiced it for the better part of a year, and found much freedom. Now my desert time is about 10 pm to 8 am, but the idea is the same: fast every day from our phone for a certain period of time.

No Phone Sundays

A good friend of mine tried the habit of not using their phone at all on Sundays. What a great thing to do! One day out of the week was devoted to rest, prayer, and family. The phone was put away. I tried this and it’s been great.

Monitor Screen Time

My iPhone tracks screen time. As the habit of virtuous phone usage takes time, consider setting small, incremental goals. So if we spend four hours a day on our phone, perhaps we could try the first week getting it down to three-and-a-half. By looking at our screen time, we have an objective measurement and can evaluate progress.

Consider how much time we use on our phones. If we limited our phone usage, what great things would we do with those extra 2 hours?