Have you noticed your triggers that have you reaching for your pocket to pull out your phone?  

A survey from Deloitte Ireland’s Digital Consumer Trends 2020 report, published 15 OCT on 1,000 people between May and June, says Irish people check their phones 58 times a day on average and 87% check their phone within the first hour of waking up. Some other quick stats:  

• A third of people check their phones within the first five minutes of waking   

• 32% - look at their phones over 50 times a day.  

• 65% of 18-24-year-olds believe they use their smartphones too much.  

• Overall, 46% of respondents felt that they are using their smartphones too much, a figure which rises to 65% in the 18-24 age bracket and 66% of 25-34s.  

• The 35-44 and 45-54 age groups are also more likely than average to believe that they overuse their smartphones at 63% and 52% respectively.  

The above stats are telling us that we’re checking our phones to the extent that we’ve created a habit that most likely does not serve us but we can’t seem to stop. If you were to spend a day being aware of how many times you reached for your phone and jotted down what the trigger was for the action, I would certainly think you will have more than a few triggers. Making it more difficult to jump out of the feedback loop that has a hold on you.   

I noticed recently I was spending too much time on my smartphone and it wasn’t all self-awareness either that brought me to that conclusion as my kids and partner would attest. At times I was in the room, but was not really in the room. I always had a great excuse as to why I needed to surf, well a lot of the time, okay not much of the time but I have an excuse I’m in the “Smart Loop” and not much I can do about it. But Smartphones are not the Devil and all bad as they enable a great way to get your news and entertainment, do task related work and keep up to date with your friends. But I guess we’re considering here how much is too much and what do we give up or miss out on while in this Smart Loop of engagement?  

My first trial was to turn off my phone notification sounds only. If I wanted, I could open the phone and see all the notifications that came in but now I didn’t get prompted. This small act was massive in cutting down my time on my phone. An example, a WhatsApp message would come into my “Friends” group and before I would look at it and most likely interact and fall into the engagement loop, typing a comment back, seeing what the response to it was and typing another in riposte etc. Five to ten minutes could easily disappear and I’d say longer now if folks are working from home. Now my engagement in WhatsApp is based on when I remember to check it versus being summoned with a sound. I still fall into the feedback loop when I get there but now I’m not there as frequently. I do have a habit of leaving my phone on the floor beside my bed at night and of course in the morning with resistance being futile, I’d check out what is going on in the world before doing anything else. But I found that leaving the phone in another room breaks the trigger and habit loop instantly. But I know a massive ask right?  

More recently I went to a Hurling final my son was playing in and guess what? I left my phone at home. Shock horror! I was away from home for nearly five hours and you know what? After the initial shock and with nothing I could do about it, I got on with it and found I had no real need for my phone anyway. I don’t think I will purposely leave my phone at home when I take off for half the day but it did show me that I can have a good time without it. I did learn something about my involuntary triggers however as I found myself reaching for my phone when there was a lull in the game, or if I saw someone else looking at their phone and I searched for mine or If I was talking to someone and when the conversation ended I again went looking for the phone. I wasn’t reaching for my phone to do a task in these instances; I was reaching out of habit and I guess to see what I would find. So it was then I realized that I’m definitely caught up in some Smart Loop habits but to whether they are good or bad, well that is up to each of us to decide.  

As a coach though I am interested because helping spot triggers, create new ones to form new habits and make a new desired change is important. To realise your goals and dreams in life can be difficult so understanding where we spend our time and how much we have to use will impact our goal attainment. For example, I have a few clients at the moment who have specific career coaching goals. This work, depending on the situation, can need focused time to follow through on exercises and processes by the client. As part of the coaching, I find that I also need to coach on how the client can find a way to start and complete the career focus work due to stop-start behavior and that includes time slipping away on a smartphone that is not aligned to any goal in particular. 

Yours in triggering useful time,