Do you spend copious amounts of time on your phone every day? Are you addicted to your cell phone? I know at times I feel like I am, finding myself on my phone for hours at a time.

There are many positives to the cell phone, as it makes things so much easier for us to complete things, as well as making things more accessible for us. There is a negative side to the ever advancing technology, though. The phone distracts you.  When you are constantly checking your phone, it lessens your focus, in turn, lessening your productivity. Not only does it lessen your productivity, but it also It lessons the substance within the relationships you have with people. If you are constantly checking your phone, instead of focusing on the person you are with, then the relationship will also be affected negatively.

On this episode, James is joined by Dr. Josh Davis, who is the director of research and lead professor at the NeuroLeadership Institute. Davis explains the importance of limiting the amount of time spent on your phone, and the increase in productivity that will follow this practice. He also talks about his book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done, which explains strategies to get the most out of your day.

Key Points

• Dr. Josh Davis joins James to discuss how to break your cell phone addiction and, in turn, create 2 extra hours of productivity to your day
• Going to help us today to curb our cellphone addiction, and strategies that can help us do so.

• If something is getting in the way of life, we need to pause and realize what we are doing is not healthy for us.
• The average person checks their phone 100 times a day. Imagine what you could do with your time if you lessened that.
• Number of hours range, but if you spend more than 2 hours a day on your cellphone then chances on there are things you are missing out on.

• Your cell phone brings about a loss for productivity.

• Phones allow space for flexibility with scheduling, but create less productive days, as people can constantly change things.
• It makes it harder to make decisions and can derail our entire days due to a loss of productive time.

• Steps to be less addictive:

1. Do not use your cell phone as an alarm clock. Starting the day off with a real alarm clock, not your phone. Leads you to look at your notifications, and then you begin your morning on your phone.
2. Do not allow notifications to pop up.
3. Do have some spaces in your house for no phone zones

• It’s not enough to just stop these habits, you must attack them, and replace them with something.
• Due to the dopamine system in your brain, you need to learn to retrain your system.
• The dopamine neurons become active when we are expecting a reward. Can be a vicious cycle when you are trying to find this with notifications on your phone. Retrain this system so, instead, you get excited for something else.

• No phone zones in the house is a great way to train yourself, as it changes mindset through behavior.
• Examples include full rooms, or even just spots in a room.
• As a result of being in a no phone zone room, then you are forced to discover what you are going to do in that moment. After doing this for a period of time, you will start finding other things to do in general, creating new habits.
• It is incredibly hard for people to use their phone for the sole purpose of completing one task.

• 5 steps to maximize productivity

1. Recognize your decision points
2. Learn to manage your mental energy
3. Stop fighting distractions
4. Leveraging your mind and body
5. Learn to manage the workspace you are in

Check out Josh’s book, Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done

Also check out James’s 47 Day Hacker Habits to learn how to make your days more productive.