We are increasingly experiencing situations where we are talking to someone who, while still maintaining eye contact with us, keeps on checking his smartphone. While talking to us, he also handles e-mails or chats with other people. We also tend increasingly to behave in the same way.
We do not turn off our phones, or e-mail even during the night so as not to miss a call or a message. No wonder, mobile phone addiction has already become an internationally recognized psychiatric diagnosis called nomophobia (from "no mobile phobia").
The addiction to mobile phones has grown relatively quickly thanks to feeling we must be available whenever someone contacts us. It usually develops during tough periods when we are working on complex projects, when we must meet demanding deadlines or when we do not have enough people to finish a task. Others soon get used to the fact that we are constantly available and they will start demanding more and more.
If you feel you have to constantly check your mobile phone, take it as a serious warning signal. Try the following exercise to reduce your mobile dependence as recommended on bizjournals.com.
1. Monitor yourself
Start by paying more attention to when you check your phone. Think about why you do it so often. Is it because of too much work, or because you feel bored or lonely? Then start thinking about how you could better spend the time you spend needlessly checking your phone. Try to check it, for example, only between meetings.
2. Set clear intervals
Start with 15 minutes. After you have managed not to check your phone for a quarter of an hour, proceed to 30 minutes then 1 hour. When you wait 90 minutes, then you are ready to spend the entire evening without checking your phone.
3. Stop responding to e-mails immediately
Focus on accumulating more e-mails in your inbox. Learn to read e-mails and respond to them at a particular time rather than individually as soon as you receive them.
4. Keep formal writing
When writing e-mails, use formal salutations, grammar and punctuation. Not only it will look more professional but it will also slow down your tendency to respond to all messages as quickly as possible.
5. Consider removing e-mail from your mobile phone
If e-mail in your mobile phone is not really necessary for your work, try it remove it. You may be surprised to learn that you will not not miss the e-mail. If it is really necessary to respond to something, use your computer.
To what extent do you think you depend on your mobile phone? How does the addiction limit you?
-kk-