Do you know someone whose smartphone is an extension of their arm, who gets stressed out when they have to turn their phone off before a movie, or on a plane?
Whether this person is a friend or yourself, we’ve all become a little bit dependent on our devices.
But what if you want to change this up? Free your mind up to read a real book, or actually watch a film the whole way through without checking Twitter even once?
There may be a pretty handy method.
James Hamblin is an editor for The Atlantic, and he says turning his phone screen grey can really help him focus, and check his phone less.
All the notifications in your phone are red, and this is for a reason. Red stimulates excitement in the brain, so when you see that red flag against the contrasting blue on your Facebook feed for example, it gives you a little jolt of adrenaline.
By changing your phone to greyscale, it means the little notifications will have less of an impact than if they were in normal fire engine red mode.
You simply go to settings > accessibility > greyscale.
It looks boring, but might be a handy one for when you’re studying, in a meeting, or simply need to focus on something that requires all of your attention.
