Most people consider a new day as a fresh start, but according to Techtimes, 46 percent of Americans admitted to checking their phones first thing in the morning. Is that really how we should be starting our day? Checking your phone immediately after waking up may trigger a feeling of stress and anxiety by seeing new messages, emails, to-dos, and other things. This disrupts your chances of starting your day with a calm mind.

Not only do our devices affect our morning, but they also affect our ability to get things done in our day to day life. 

“Using your phone in the morning can affect your brain’s ability to prioritize tasks,” Dr. Nikole Benders-Hadi, a pediatrician said. “The information overload that hits you before you’re fully awake interferes with your ability to prioritize tasks.”

According to Rescuetime, most people spend about 1 minute and 15 seconds on their phone each time they pick them up. This means we’re losing 37.5 minutes a day during working hours to our phones. That is the time that we could be managing better. 

Phone addiction is a serious problem and over 50 percent of people admit to phone addiction. This issue can cause people to lose sight of what matters such as family, friends, and future goals. Issues, such as phone addiction are becoming more and more of an issue the further we progress with technology. According to Disturbmenot, 45 percent of American children ages 10-12, have a smartphone. This shows how early this can progress in young children.

It might seem difficult, but reducing the amount of time spent on your phone is easier than you would think. Start by putting your device out of reach. This can come in handy, especially when it comes to getting better sleep at night. To quickly improve sleep, don’t charge your phone in the bedroom. That way, it won’t be the last thing you see in the evening, the first thing in the morning, or temptation in the middle of the night. Roberts, a marketing professor at Baylor University, suggests starting to put your phone in the trunk or glove box while driving. That will have an immediate effect on your safety. If you put it out of sight and out of reach,  it will be less tempting to look at.

Reducing phone addiction can also be helped by looking at the emotional aspect of it. By thinking about how you might feel after checking social media, it might steer you away from checking it so often. Also, spending time on your phone may be a good way to pass time in certain situations, but not necessarily in others, such as eating dinner with family and spending quality time with people you love. Not making some changes can drive a wedge in relationships. Spending more time with your phone than your spouse or making them feel less important when you’re constantly checking social media when spending time with them.

While lowering the amount of time spent on your phone might seem hard, in the long run, it can really help your mental and emotional health, sleep and can help better your relationships. Following little steps such as eating dinner and sleeping without your phone being present and taking an hour out of your day to decompress without your phone can change your life.