Curse of the Smartphone

I love my iPhone. I mean, I really love it. It's rarely more than a foot from me, whether I'm working (texting back and forth with writers), playing (taking pictures) or sleeping (until the alarm wakes me). I say with complete earnestness that having that amount of access to information, leisure and high-quality photography has changed my life. But for all of the good things it brings, it also creates plenty of negative impacts to on life. Here are a couple of tricks I've learned to help manage the blessing and the curse that is the smartphone.

Exercise some restraint. Just because you can check your work email 24 hours a day doesn’t mean you should. And if my phone is next to me when I wake up in the middle of the night, I will. If you need to use your phone as an alarm clock, leave it on the other side of the room.

Stay focused. If your phone is on your desk where you can see it, you’re going to respond to every text, call and notification (better yet, turn off push notifications altogether). Leave your phone in your handbag or coat pocket when you can. You’ll be more productive if you aren’t constantly tempted by social distractions.

Stay in the moment. How distracting (and, let’s face it, rude) is it when your dinner companions are texting at the table? Chances are that whatever message you’re tempted to send, it can wait. Showing the people around you that you’re present, engaged and listening to them is better than updating your Facebook status.

Leave work at work. It’s easy to text a coworker after hours to ask him or her a question, but it’s stressful to get a text about work at 9pm. Unless it’s genuinely important, don’t send or answer work texts outside of work hours.