In today's always-on world, the iPhone often becomes much more than a tool—it becomes the place where work, entertainment, communication, and downtime all happen at once. Over time, this can chip away at focus, routines, and even personal relationships, creating a constant sense of distraction.
If phone use is starting to spill into work time, reduce motivation for hobbies, or leave little space for rest, it may be time to rethink how the device is used. Here's a structured guide to help create a healthier relationship with your phone and restore balance between work, life, and everything in between.
A helpful starting point is deciding what you actually want your phone to be. Instead of viewing it as a device that can do everything, think of it as a space with a purpose—much like an additional room in your home. If that room had to be dedicated to one core function, what would it support? Wellness? Learning? Productivity? Creativity?
This mental model echoes concepts from Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, which explains that pre-deciding how you want to behave in a certain environment can dramatically influence the choices you make within it. When the phone has a defined role, your behaviour naturally becomes more intentional.
Of course, your phone will still serve multiple needs. But setting a “primary identity” helps anchor decisions about which apps stay visible, when you use your device, and how it fits into daily routines.
Before improving phone habits, it's important to understand where time is currently going. The iPhone provides a built-in way to examine this:
Settings → Battery → Battery usage → Last 24 hours or last 10 days
This view shows the apps that receive the most screen time and energy usage. It's common to have assumptions about which apps act as the biggest time sinks, but seeing the actual data can be surprisingly eye-opening. Some people discover that entertainment apps dominate their usage, while others realise they're toggling between several social platforms throughout the day.
It's also important to interpret the results with context. Some apps may appear high on the list for legitimate reasons—like using YouTube for workouts, Instagram for business tasks, or Twitter for customer support. The goal isn't simply to eliminate screen time, but to distinguish between intentional use and unconscious scrolling.
Once the biggest distractions are identified, the next step is weakening their influence. Research from Stanford and Yale shows that objects in our environment—even small images—can prime automatic decisions based on the associations we have with them. App icons are exactly that: small visual cues tied to habits, emotions, and routines.
When these icons sit on the first screen of your phone, they create subtle prompts to open them—often without conscious thought. This is why redesigning the phone's layout can be so impactful. Removing certain apps entirely works well for some people, while others prefer simply moving them to a later screen or placing them inside a folder.
The key is to reduce the number of visual triggers. Even a simple change like moving an app off the home screen can significantly reduce usage, not because of effort or discipline, but because the prompt to engage with it appears less frequently.
Notifications are one of the strongest drivers of compulsive phone use. They interrupt focus, pull attention away from both work and rest, and create a constant sense of urgency. Many apps are intentionally designed this way—it's part of their engagement model.
Visiting: Settings → Notifications allows you to customise how each app interacts with your attention. Disabling notifications entirely for addictive or time-consuming apps is often the most effective option. However, a more flexible approach might involve turning off banners, removing lock-screen alerts, or allowing only essential reminders.
Nir Eyal's book Hook discusses how notifications act as triggers in habit-forming loops. When these triggers disappear, the loop weakens. Without constant pings, the phone becomes quieter, calmer, and far less tempting during moments when focus is needed.
Even when notifications are off and apps are hidden, the simple presence of a phone can create mental load. Studies have shown that having a phone visible reduces cognitive capacity, even if it's face down and not in use. This makes it harder to fully engage with work, hobbies, or conversations.
When possible, placing the phone in another room during focused work or personal time can make a dramatic difference. For situations where the phone must stay nearby, two practical approaches can help:
None of these steps are groundbreaking—but they're practical, accessible ways to transform the relationship with a device that plays a major role in modern life. Work–life balance improves not through dramatic changes, but through small, intentional adjustments to how time and attention are managed.
By redefining how the phone fits into your day, removing triggers, quieting distractions, and creating moments of intentional disconnection, it becomes possible to create a healthier rhythm between work, rest, and personal wellbeing.
And if you're reading this on your phone… this might be a good moment to put it down and enjoy a few minutes of uninterrupted life outside the screen.
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