Have you ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling on your phone, only to realize you've wasted hours of your day? What if you could turn your phone into a tool for focus instead of distraction?
In today's fast-paced world, our phones have become both a productivity powerhouse and a time-wasting trap. If you've ever felt frustrated by how often you pick up your phone or wished you could use it more effectively, this episode is for you.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover how to assess your actual phone usage (and why you're probably underestimating it).
- Learn simple tweaks to transform your phone from a distraction machine into a focus-enhancing tool.
- Get three actionable strategies to use your phone for productivity instead of mindless scrolling.
Hit play now to take control of your phone habits and start using your device in a way that supports your goals!
Send Me a Message - Have a question, comment, or just want to say hi? Message me here, I'd love to chat!
Work With Me - Interested in working with me 1-on-1, taking a class, or joining one of my coaching groups? Message me here to get the scoop.
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Life can be overwhelming, but on this podcast, you'll discover practical strategies to overcome overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and negative self-talk, manage time effectively, set boundaries, and stay productive in high-stress jobs—all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
I feel like phones have the potential to be
our greatest productivity tooland also our biggest distraction
.
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former Overwhelmed
(00:22):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that today's
working woman experiences, andin each episode you'll get a
strategy to bring more calm,ease and relaxation to your life
.
Hey friends, if I sound like Ihave a little bit of a cold
(00:42):
today, I think it's just springallergies, so pardon my less
than ideal voice this week.
I'm happy to report, though,that we have had some warm and
sunny temperatures in St Louis,and I've had the windows open,
which is probably causingallergies, but I don't even care
because I'm so happy for thesun.
But I digress.
Okay, here's what we're here totalk about today.
(01:02):
I was pondering the other day asI was using my phone at my
daughter's horse lesson and itended up dying when I still had
like 20 minutes left to wait forher.
If anyone's kid out there doeshorse lessons, you know that it
is a several hour endeavor, likeI am gone for four hours.
You have to get there early andget all these things done and
(01:23):
then you do the actual lessonand then you have to undo all
the things for the horse andblah, blah.
But anyway, I spend a lot oftime waiting and I try to be
productive during the time thatI'm just sitting in the car
waiting for her, and I use myphone all the time, and I was
marveling at all of the thingsthat we can do on our phone.
I mean, I can essentially do myentire job on my phone if I had
(01:47):
to.
I'd prefer not to, but I couldif I had to.
But then on the flip side, youcan just totally waste so much
time.
I'm sure we can all think ofsomeone right now in our mind
who we spend a lot of time with,who's basically addicted to
their phone and is constantlypicking it up and is not present
, and maybe that person is you,or maybe it's somebody who you
(02:08):
spend a lot of time with.
But I feel like phones have thepotential to be our greatest
productivity tool and also ourbiggest distraction.
So what I want to talk abouttoday is how to make your phone
work for you in a good way.
I'm going to talk about how youcan transform your phone from a
distraction machine into afocus machine, and we'll do a
(02:31):
quick reality check on yourphone habits and I'll give you
three easy ways to make yourphone work for you and not
against you.
So first of all, let's thinkabout how often are you using
your phone?
I would bet that 100% of peoplethink they use their phone less
than they actually use theirphone.
It's funny if you have aniPhone you can check under
(02:52):
screen time, like settings,screen time, and apparently, if
you have an Android I don't haveone, but I looked this up for
you Android people there's adigital wellbeing where you can
look and see how much timeyou're actually spending on your
phone.
So I went to go check this formyself and it wasn't turned on,
like the feature wasn't turnedon.
So I turned it on because Iknew I was going to do a podcast
(03:13):
on this.
I don't have like a long historythat I can share with you, but
I can tell you for sure todayand the day is almost done now
but I have picked up my phone 99times and if you would have
asked me, I mean literally 99,like I looked at the setting on
the phone, sounds like just anumber I'd make up, but for real
that was it.
And if you would have asked mehow many times did I pick up my
(03:35):
phone today, I would have saidlike 30 maybe so I think that we
are unconsciously a lot oftimes picking up our phone.
I notice it in other people.
In fact, I kind of called outthe handsome man friend on this
and he's like, you totally do ittoo, and I don't think he was
wrong.
I just think it's easier tonotice about other people.
Anytime there's a moment ofsilence, you're just picking up
(03:58):
your phone.
So the first thing that Irecommend that you do is just to
see how often you're actuallyusing your phone and, if you
dare, ask your kids or yoursignificant other how much time
you think you're spending onyour phone, and then you'll also
be able to see in there yourmost used apps.
Are they helping you or arethey just keeping you busy?
Like, for example, today Ispent two hours on social media.
(04:20):
I would say for me, about anhour of that is legitimate work
and another hour is just, youknow, checking on stuff,
scrolling through reels,whatever.
So once you figure out howyou're spending your time on
your phone and if you like thatbecause let's just say I picked
up my phone 99 times today andit was all related to you know
(04:42):
things that were productive forme and things that I wanted to
do.
Do I really need to be pickingit up that much?
In general, I mean, that justfeels like so much.
Anyway, you have the opportunityto do a couple things to really
make your phone more of aproductivity tool.
The first one is optimize yourphone for focus, not for
(05:04):
distractions.
Everyone knows, like my family,if you really need to get a
hold of me, just call me twiceand then it will actually ring,
because otherwise I won't see it.
And when I'm coaching myclients, my phone is near me but
(05:25):
it's turned upside down becauseI don't even want to see it.
Like if somebody's calling orwhatever, it doesn't matter, I'm
not going to answer and I justdon't want to be distracted.
So where can you turn off thenotifications?
And think about if you've gotan Apple Watch too.
One of my clients was tellingme that she was doing a good job
at putting her phone in theother room and I said that is
good because that was somethingshe was working on.
(05:46):
I'm like what about the watch?
She's like well, I haven'ttaken the watch off yet.
So I feel like if the phone'snot distracting you, the watch
could be distracting you.
I actually got rid of my AppleWatch.
For that reason it's like Idon't really need to know 24-7.
So think about what works foryou.
Turn off all the non-essentialnotifications and you're in
(06:08):
charge of how often you pick itup and how often you look at it.
Then the other tip is torearrange your home screen so
put your productivity thingsfront and center, like your
calendar, your note, the focustimer, and then make the time
wasting apps.
You can set time limits on them.
You can put them on the secondor third screen so you have to
scroll to get to them and thenutilize the settings on the
(06:31):
phone where you can be on do notdisturb or focus mode during
work hours and at night, soyou're not constantly being
interrupted.
The other thing that I recommendis to evaluate if you're using
your phone first thing in themorning, if that works for you.
I've written articles on thisbefore and I've had people come
up to me and say what I justreally enjoy that time in the
(06:52):
morning.
That's kind of my chill timeand I like to look at my phone
first.
So if it works for you, that'scool.
But if you end up justscrolling and then you just get
sort of that yucky feeling,consider just, I know most of us
use our phone for an alarm.
So turning off the alarm on yourphone and then going and doing
something else Like myrequirement for myself is before
(07:14):
I play around on the phone.
This does not include weekends.
On weekends I love to lay inbed and just scroll through
reels and, you know, do mindlessthings.
I like it.
I enjoy it.
It's part of my fun time.
But during the week, when Ihave to get up and get going, I
have to drink a full glass ofwater and do my journaling
before I use my phone.
So you could make up a rulelike that for yourself.
(07:36):
If you feel like it doesn'tserve you to use your phone
first thing, you could even putit in another room.
One of my clients was tryingnot to use her phone at night
and she found it really hardwhen it was on her bedside table
.
So we had the funniestconversation because she's like
I don't mind putting it inanother room, but how am I going
to wake up?
So she had to buy an old schoolalarm clock.
I only ever see those anymorein hotels.
(07:58):
So you can think about asolution like that for yourself
if you feel like it's reallydistracting you, to have it at
your bedside table in themorning and then think about how
you can use your phone as aproductivity tool to get more
things done.
Something that I like to do isuse the voice memos when I have
ideas for things.
If I'm driving, I'll use thevoice memos to like record ideas
(08:21):
for an email I want to send outor a podcast idea that I have.
You can also use the timers andthe reminders and the calendar
to set up time blocking typethings to say I'm going to work
on only this for 20 minutes.
I'm going to set a.
So there are lots of ways thatyou can really make your phone
(08:44):
work for you.
So, in summary, look at howyou're using your phone and see
if you like it.
Then think about optimizingyour phone to reduce
distractions.
I know some people who getnotifications on their Facebook
and their Instagram and LinkedInand all this stuff and that
your phone is just constantlydinging and our bodies respond
to that like it's some sort ofemergency, when it's clearly not
(09:07):
.
And then we talked about tryingto use the phone for true
productivity.
The biggest thing I use minefor is the timer when I'm just
doing really focused time tryingto work on something.
So, for today, make just onelittle change.
Whether it's silencing yournotifications, moving your apps
to another screen, checking yourscreen time, whatever it is,
make one little change.
Whether it's silencing yournotifications, moving your apps
to another screen, checking yourscreen time, whatever it is,
(09:29):
make one little change and seeif you can make your phone work
for you instead of against you.
Speaking of phones, if yourphone is in your hand right now
because you're listening to thispodcast, I would love if you
would rate the podcast and writea review.
That would be amazing if youwould take a minute to do that.
And I would love if you wouldrate the podcast and write a
review.
That would be amazing if youwould take a minute to do that.
And I would also love to hearfrom you.
(09:49):
Remember, on Thursdays, I canalso answer listener questions.
So if you send me a message inthe show notes, there's just a
link there that says send me amessage.
If you send me a message, youwill DM me on Instagram and tell
me what kind of questions youhave and what kind of podcast
you'd like to see.
I love to answer your questions.
(10:12):
All right, have a great week.
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegauthier.
com.
See you next week.
I feel like phones have the potential to be
our greatest productivity tooland also our biggest distraction
.
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former Overwhelmed
(00:22):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that today's
working woman experiences, andin each episode you'll get a
strategy to bring more calm,ease and relaxation to your life
.
Hey friends, if I sound like Ihave a little bit of a cold
(00:42):
today, I think it's just springallergies, so pardon my less
than ideal voice this week.
I'm happy to report, though,that we have had some warm and
sunny temperatures in St Louis,and I've had the windows open,
which is probably causingallergies, but I don't even care
because I'm so happy for thesun.
But I digress.
Okay, here's what we're here totalk about today.
(01:02):
I was pondering the other day asI was using my phone at my
daughter's horse lesson and itended up dying when I still had
like 20 minutes left to wait forher.
If anyone's kid out there doeshorse lessons, you know that it
is a several hour endeavor, likeI am gone for four hours.
You have to get there early andget all these things done and
(01:23):
then you do the actual lessonand then you have to undo all
the things for the horse andblah, blah.
But anyway, I spend a lot oftime waiting and I try to be
productive during the time thatI'm just sitting in the car
waiting for her, and I use myphone all the time, and I was
marveling at all of the thingsthat we can do on our phone.
I mean, I can essentially do myentire job on my phone if I had
(01:47):
to.
I'd prefer not to, but I couldif I had to.
But then on the flip side, youcan just totally waste so much
time.
I'm sure we can all think ofsomeone right now in our mind
who we spend a lot of time with,who's basically addicted to
their phone and is constantlypicking it up and is not present
, and maybe that person is you,or maybe it's somebody who you
(02:08):
spend a lot of time with.
But I feel like phones have thepotential to be our greatest
productivity tool and also ourbiggest distraction.
So what I want to talk abouttoday is how to make your phone
work for you in a good way.
I'm going to talk about how youcan transform your phone from a
distraction machine into afocus machine, and we'll do a
(02:31):
quick reality check on yourphone habits and I'll give you
three easy ways to make yourphone work for you and not
against you.
So first of all, let's thinkabout how often are you using
your phone?
I would bet that 100% of peoplethink they use their phone less
than they actually use theirphone.
It's funny if you have aniPhone you can check under
(02:52):
screen time, like settings,screen time, and apparently, if
you have an Android I don't haveone, but I looked this up for
you Android people there's adigital wellbeing where you can
look and see how much timeyou're actually spending on your
phone.
So I went to go check this formyself and it wasn't turned on,
like the feature wasn't turnedon.
So I turned it on because Iknew I was going to do a podcast
(03:13):
on this.
I don't have like a long historythat I can share with you, but
I can tell you for sure todayand the day is almost done now
but I have picked up my phone 99times and if you would have
asked me, I mean literally 99,like I looked at the setting on
the phone, sounds like just anumber I'd make up, but for real
that was it.
And if you would have asked mehow many times did I pick up my
(03:35):
phone today, I would have saidlike 30 maybe so I think that we
are unconsciously a lot oftimes picking up our phone.
I notice it in other people.
In fact, I kind of called outthe handsome man friend on this
and he's like, you totally do ittoo, and I don't think he was
wrong.
I just think it's easier tonotice about other people.
Anytime there's a moment ofsilence, you're just picking up
(03:58):
your phone.
So the first thing that Irecommend that you do is just to
see how often you're actuallyusing your phone and, if you
dare, ask your kids or yoursignificant other how much time
you think you're spending onyour phone, and then you'll also
be able to see in there yourmost used apps.
Are they helping you or arethey just keeping you busy?
Like, for example, today Ispent two hours on social media.
(04:20):
I would say for me, about anhour of that is legitimate work
and another hour is just, youknow, checking on stuff,
scrolling through reels,whatever.
So once you figure out howyou're spending your time on
your phone and if you like thatbecause let's just say I picked
up my phone 99 times today andit was all related to you know
(04:42):
things that were productive forme and things that I wanted to
do.
Do I really need to be pickingit up that much?
In general, I mean, that justfeels like so much.
Anyway, you have the opportunityto do a couple things to really
make your phone more of aproductivity tool.
The first one is optimize yourphone for focus, not for
(05:04):
distractions.
Everyone knows, like my family,if you really need to get a
hold of me, just call me twiceand then it will actually ring,
because otherwise I won't see it.
And when I'm coaching myclients, my phone is near me but
(05:25):
it's turned upside down becauseI don't even want to see it.
Like if somebody's calling orwhatever, it doesn't matter, I'm
not going to answer and I justdon't want to be distracted.
So where can you turn off thenotifications?
And think about if you've gotan Apple Watch too.
One of my clients was tellingme that she was doing a good job
at putting her phone in theother room and I said that is
good because that was somethingshe was working on.
(05:46):
I'm like what about the watch?
She's like well, I haven'ttaken the watch off yet.
So I feel like if the phone'snot distracting you, the watch
could be distracting you.
I actually got rid of my AppleWatch.
For that reason it's like Idon't really need to know 24-7.
So think about what works foryou.
Turn off all the non-essentialnotifications and you're in
(06:08):
charge of how often you pick itup and how often you look at it.
Then the other tip is torearrange your home screen so
put your productivity thingsfront and center, like your
calendar, your note, the focustimer, and then make the time
wasting apps.
You can set time limits on them.
You can put them on the secondor third screen so you have to
scroll to get to them and thenutilize the settings on the
(06:31):
phone where you can be on do notdisturb or focus mode during
work hours and at night, soyou're not constantly being
interrupted.
The other thing that I recommendis to evaluate if you're using
your phone first thing in themorning, if that works for you.
I've written articles on thisbefore and I've had people come
up to me and say what I justreally enjoy that time in the
(06:52):
morning.
That's kind of my chill timeand I like to look at my phone
first.
So if it works for you, that'scool.
But if you end up justscrolling and then you just get
sort of that yucky feeling,consider just, I know most of us
use our phone for an alarm.
So turning off the alarm on yourphone and then going and doing
something else Like myrequirement for myself is before
(07:14):
I play around on the phone.
This does not include weekends.
On weekends I love to lay inbed and just scroll through
reels and, you know, do mindlessthings.
I like it.
I enjoy it.
It's part of my fun time.
But during the week, when Ihave to get up and get going, I
have to drink a full glass ofwater and do my journaling
before I use my phone.
So you could make up a rulelike that for yourself.
(07:36):
If you feel like it doesn'tserve you to use your phone
first thing, you could even putit in another room.
One of my clients was tryingnot to use her phone at night
and she found it really hardwhen it was on her bedside table
.
So we had the funniestconversation because she's like
I don't mind putting it inanother room, but how am I going
to wake up?
So she had to buy an old schoolalarm clock.
I only ever see those anymorein hotels.
(07:58):
So you can think about asolution like that for yourself
if you feel like it's reallydistracting you, to have it at
your bedside table in themorning and then think about how
you can use your phone as aproductivity tool to get more
things done.
Something that I like to do isuse the voice memos when I have
ideas for things.
If I'm driving, I'll use thevoice memos to like record ideas
(08:21):
for an email I want to send outor a podcast idea that I have.
You can also use the timers andthe reminders and the calendar
to set up time blocking typethings to say I'm going to work
on only this for 20 minutes.
I'm going to set a.
So there are lots of ways thatyou can really make your phone
(08:44):
work for you.
So, in summary, look at howyou're using your phone and see
if you like it.
Then think about optimizingyour phone to reduce
distractions.
I know some people who getnotifications on their Facebook
and their Instagram and LinkedInand all this stuff and that
your phone is just constantlydinging and our bodies respond
to that like it's some sort ofemergency, when it's clearly not
(09:07):
.
And then we talked about tryingto use the phone for true
productivity.
The biggest thing I use minefor is the timer when I'm just
doing really focused time tryingto work on something.
So, for today, make just onelittle change.
Whether it's silencing yournotifications, moving your apps
to another screen, checking yourscreen time, whatever it is,
make one little change.
Whether it's silencing yournotifications, moving your apps
to another screen, checking yourscreen time, whatever it is,
(09:29):
make one little change and seeif you can make your phone work
for you instead of against you.
Speaking of phones, if yourphone is in your hand right now
because you're listening to thispodcast, I would love if you
would rate the podcast and writea review.
That would be amazing if youwould take a minute to do that.
And I would love if you wouldrate the podcast and write a
review.
That would be amazing if youwould take a minute to do that.
And I would also love to hearfrom you.
(09:49):
Remember, on Thursdays, I canalso answer listener questions.
So if you send me a message inthe show notes, there's just a
link there that says send me amessage.
If you send me a message, youwill DM me on Instagram and tell
me what kind of questions youhave and what kind of podcast
you'd like to see.
I love to answer your questions.
(10:12):
All right, have a great week.
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegauthier.
com.
See you next week.
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