The habit I decided to monitor for this activity was going on my phone while completing work. I sometimes struggle to efficiently complete homework because I will interrupt myself too frequently to check my phone and scroll on social media. To measure this habit, I set a timer at 15 minute intervals during each working session. I did this over the course of 3 days: Friday, Sunday, and Monday. In these 3 days I had 5 different working sessions which each took about 2 hours. To not interrupt my work further through logging I either logged “work” if I was being productive, or “phone” if I was wasting time on my phone. I found that I was on my phone for about 20% of these check-ins which implies that nearly 15% of the time that I intend to be working, I am actually just wasting time on my phone. However, this is far from a perfect measurement of the situation. For one, I knew that I would be getting these check-ins which deterred me from going on my phone during times when I otherwise would. Additionally, there are some times where going on my phone is necessary towards completing my work (texting a classmate etc.) although this was rarely the primary reason. Each time that I would log “phone”, it made me less inclined to go on my phone for future check-ins which may also skew the numbers.
As I logged instances of phone use, I would start to reflect on why I came to my phone in the first place. Although there are various reasons, the main ones were that I got a notification or I was avoiding completing work that was particularly challenging or unenjoyable. If I was working on a problem set and could not figure out how to solve a problem, rather than think hard and really try to understand the problem, my first instinct was to distract myself and check my phone. Similarly,if I found success in a problem or made some noticeable progress with my work, I would justify going on my phone as a reward, which would only hinder the momentum that I had been building up. I found that it was very helpful to have my phone on do not disturb. Even more helpful than this, leaving my phone in a different room can completely eliminate this problem but is often unrealistic as there are certain sitautions where I need to communicate with someone.
