Every day, your brain sends you thousands of invitations. 

Some of the invitations are helpful, such as, “Hey, you should brush your teeth before you leave the house” or “You should buckle your seat belt so you can stay safe.”

Some aren’t so helpful, such as, “You should check Instagram instead of working on that project that’s due tomorrow.”

In this article, we’re going to learn how to resist the not-so-helpful invitations that our mind sends us, particularly in the context of phone cravings.

Your Brain and Cravings

If you’ve ever tried to reduce your phone usage, or even just tried to focus on work while your phone is sitting next to you, I bet you’ve experienced a craving to pick up your phone and do ___________.

You fill in the blank. Get on Facebook. Scroll on Tiktok. Check your email. Google that random movie star from the movie you saw last night. Cyber-stalk that acquaintance from 5 years ago that suddenly popped in your head.

Here’s the thing: your brain is trying to help you.

It invites you to do things because it either wants you to a) experience a pleasant feeling or b) avoid an unpleasant feeling.

The unfortunate thing is, however, your brain often gives you terrible invitations.

I want you to think about your brain as a wacky friend, or as a small child. It’s a curious little bugger. It loves new information, it loves to be entertained, it hates to be bored.

It doesn’t always give the best advice.

So when it tells you, “Oh! You should stop writing that essay and check to see if *insert influencer’s name here* has posted anything today!” …. I’m sure you know, logically, that it’s unnecessary and distracting at best.

But it’s just so hard to resist sometimes! And it’ll only take a few seconds… right?

*45 minutes of scrolling later* 🙁 

I have a truth bomb for you: As great as your brain is, YOU DON’T HAVE TO ACCEPT EVERY SINGLE INVITATION IT GIVES YOU.

Learning to resist phone cravings will help you be more in control of your screen usage, your time, and your life.

By the way, if you’re serious about saying “no” to your phone more often, check out these steps, which I used to reduce my phone time by 2 hours a day.

So, how can you resist the craving to pick up your phone?

There’s a simple way, and it’s a method taught by Dr. Jud Brewer, who is an expert at breaking bad habits. (This method was tested on smokers who were trying to quit, and it was 5 times more effective than the American Lung Association’s program.)

Dr. Jud says that the secret is mindfulness, and more specifically, curiosity.

Practicing mindfulness when you experience a craving means that instead of acting on the craving or trying to suppress it, you simply notice it. Be curious about it.

Pay attention to how it feels in your body and your mind. 

Think to yourself, “Hmm, that’s interesting. I’m feeling a craving to open Snapchat” (or whatever it is).

Just sit and observe how you’re feeling for a while.

Eventually (probably within minutes or even seconds), the craving will fade away on its own.

Whenever I do this, my silly cravings usually last only a few seconds. And I never feel bummed that I missed out on doing the pointless thing my brain told me to do.

Conclusion

Remember, you don’t have to do everything that your brain tells you to do!

Just like you would do to a wacky friend or a small child who suggests “Hey, let’s have ice cream for dinner,” you can say “No, thanks. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” 

This becomes a lot easier to do if you don’t give in to your brain every time. 

So the next time you’re tempted to pick up your phone when you don’t really want to, try this technique out. Stop and pay attention to the craving for a while, and be curious about how it feels.

Before you know it, I bet your brain will have moved on to something else.

Best of luck!

Want to learn 3 practical steps to stop doomscrolling as soon as you realize you’re doing it? Check out this article.

Before You Go…

If you want to learn more about how you can hack your brain and change your thinking to take control of your phone use, check out my mini-course. These are the steps I took to overcome my phone addiction, which has saved me over 2,190 hours and made my life oh-so-better.