Are You Making These Mistakes with Your Smartphone?

Technology has made us all more accessible than ever. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that our phones, email and text messages are your tools– not the other way around. Watch this video for my thoughts on how and when to unplug your tech.

(Click here to watch on YouTube if you can’t see the embedded player. Or watch the video at http://bit.ly/lmunplug.)

Hi, I’m organizing and lifestyle expert Lorie Marrero. I’ve been doing some reading, some articles about how often we are using our phones. Shockingly, I found out we are reaching for these between 150 and 200 times a day depending on the article that you read. That equates to over five hours of our day being spent on these devices. I’m sure it’s more for some people.

I also found out that we are reaching for these, 60% of us anyway, immediately upon waking, or within five minutes of waking up. That is a lot of dependence on these little devices. Now there are lots of things that we need on here. We have calendars. We have communication with important people. I get it. We need these phones.

But I want to ask you if you control your phone or if your phone is controlling you. Are you reacting instead of responding? Do you reach for it every time it beeps or do you wait because you’re focusing on something else?

I want to know when is the last time you were ever bored. Sometimes my best ideas come when I am not thinking or looking at anything, like I’m in the shower, or I’m staring out in the window in a car. I’m bored, and my brain has time to synthesize and process. I had the idea for my Clutter Diet program staring out the window of an airplane.

It’s pretty hard to be bored now when you can just pull this up and start reading Reddit or looking at Facebook. I want you to think about having that kind of time for your brain to process and for you to just be. When do you unplug, and what times are sacred in your life?

I have recently made a decision that the first hour of my day is sacred, that I don’t spend it on the phone. I don’t look at it. I don’t check email. I don’t do anything like that until I have done things that are important but not urgent, in Stephen Covey’s famous quadrant. I’m doing meditation. I’m doing certain kinds of reading and other practices like exercise before I start checking this thing.

What are you going to keep sacred? How about family dinners? Are devices allowed at the table? Do you have your devices out when you’re on a date or when you’re with a group of friends? When you’re trying to focus on something really important in your work, do you put it aside? You know you can do that. You have the option to do that.

I just want to introduce the conversation. I don’t have all the answers. You know what’s right for you, but I want you to have an awareness about this, and to consider what is sacred time in your life, and how do you want to start that first golden hour of the day. Think about it. I’ll see you next time. May you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.