Like any self-respecting member of modern society, I have a love-loathe relationship with my phone. Voice memos and meme swaps help me feel closer to my favorite people (like my brother who lives 3,000 miles away), map apps make my not-great sense of direction an endearing quality versus a liability, and I’m not sure I’d be able to fully shake off the workday (or get ready in the morning) without a podcast pumping through my Bluetooth speaker. On the loathing side of the spectrum, the constant barrage of pings and dings certainly doesn’t help my anxiety, texting and answering emails sometimes prevents me from giving my full attention to my friends and family (and, occasionally, being mindful of cars and other people when I’m walking around my neighborhood—I know, I know), and that tempting little tech vixen messes with my sleep more than I’d like to admit.
I’ve fantasized about chucking my phone into a well and living a life free from banner notifications and Instagram stories—I’m a millennial; I know it’s possible. But the reality is, I’m a modern woman with a Slack-dependent job who needs to order her decaf iced almond milk latte in advance to save 10 precious minutes of the time she doesn’t have. But just because I can’t (and truthfully, don’t want to ) break up with my phone entirely, that doesn’t mean I can’t work on my relationship with it.
And the same goes for you. Here, I rounded up a bunch of helpful little tips—from experts and SEL.