Getting Off Your Phone and Getting Into Study Mode
For God’s sake, it’s that one week everyone decided to schedule everything on. You have a midterm or a paper due for every class, the best social functions of your life seem to be happening all the days you should be studying, and your friends suddenly remember to text you now that you don’t have time to chat. Basically, nothing is fun, and everything is distracting.
If you’re like me, you will go to the library with the intent of getting everything done. Feeling accomplished that you’ve even arrived, you’ll select your seat from amongst the masses, spreading yourself out across the table (maybe a little too far given the way your new neighbors move all their belongings away from you). You’ll confidently set down your huge Starbucks and get to work. Or you think about how you’re going to get to work, until you get busy answering text messages, picking Pandora stations, and people watching. To eliminate at least one of these distractions, I have a few recommendations for the faint of heart like me, who just can’t set down their phone without some sort of bribery.
1) Pocket Points
There’s this cool app called Pocket Points that makes keeping your phone locked a little easier. The app tracks the amount of time you leave your phone locked while the app is open. Sadly, it uses your location to determine whether or not you’re in class or in the library, so you can’t use it overnight in the dorm (we’ve all tried). Depending on the amount of time you refuse to answer your texts or scroll through Instagram, you will earn points that translate into discounts around campus, including incentives like fifty percent off a large pizza or online shopping bonuses.
2) UNICEF Tap Project
If giving yourself discounts starts feeling a little selfish, you can open UNICEF’s Tap Project on your phone. As long as you don’t move your phone or leave the web page, every few minutes provide someone in need with clean, drinkable water at no cost to you. In the end, you are given a total of how many days of water you have provided to someone, making you feel good about the fact you left your crush hanging when he Snapchatted you an hour ago.
3) Do Not Disturb
By pushing the little crescent moon button on your swipe-up screen (sorry to all those who lack iPhones), you can effectively turn off all your notifications. That’s right. No text messages, Snapchats, phone calls, or anything else will go through to you. Don’t worry, they’re all still there on your phone, you just won’t be forwarded any push notifications. Out of sight, out of mind.
4) Rethink
Is your social media really more important than your grades? Will your significant other get you through college? Is your Twitter feed so funny that you literally cannot stay away? It’s annoying that adults assume that we have some sort of a phone addiction, but it becomes apparent how much time we spend on them by the fact that we can’t even study without checking to see what’s going on. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe thinking about the reasons “why not” will help us all tone down our phone usage, especially when it comes to school.