How to turn our phone from an addictive game into a tool that serves us. These are the steps I take everything I get a new phone. In this guide I show the changes that helped me make my phone use more intentional, reduce my screen time, and enjoy life more.
This guide is very practical and doesn’t talk much on the “why”. I recommend reading the guide on a separate device then your phone, so you can follow along and make modifications easily while reading.
Feel free to customize the steps to your liking, take what you like and leave what you don’t.
If something is unclear please text me and ask for clarification, I want this guide to be grandma friendly!
Why iPhone? We don’t need much from our phone. It should do what we need it to, do it well, and not do much more then that. iPhone lets us ignore tech specs, focus on few things that matter to us and get a device that works, for cheap. If you do want to use an Android, I recommend Blocc Ratio launcher.
Do not get the newest iPhone. We’re gonna aim for a 2nd hand device, either someone we know is throwing it out or we found a good deal online. We only look for price, storage and size.
Screen size - We do not want the max/plus one. Get the regular or mini size.
Price - You don’t need to spend more then 300 euros, but up to you.
Storage - Not very minimalist of me, but I like to get a device with lots of storage, at least 256gb. That way I don’t need to think about my storage when I take videos. If you don’t take many videos, get less.
if you already have an iPhone, now is the part you factory reset it or delete all your apps.
Our goal in this step is to leave our device with only the apps we want to be using regularly, and our home screen with only the apps we use on a daily basis. All other apps can be either deleted or accessed through the spotlight search.
From now on, before downloading a new app, try to accomplish the same goal using the browser or (even better) use another device if possible. Downloading an app is the last resort.
When we open our apps, they prompt us to enable notifications.
From now on, our default answer is no.
Don’t worry, if you need the notifications the apps will make it very easy to turn them back on.
After some time, if we realize we want notifications from a certain app, we turn them on, customize them in the app settings, and turn off badges to avoid annoying red dot.
For example, turning on WhatsApp notifications only from individuals and not groups.
