The Real Reason I Made My Phone Passcode Insanely Long (And Why You Should Too).

By Michael Sitver, Curator/CEO of The Morning Short

There’s a reason that you should make your phone’s passcode really long, and it has nothing to do with security…

I realized recently that I had no idea how often I looked at my phone. It was practically subconscious; I could type my 4-digit passcode in without even looking, and I did, quite frequently.

This was problematic, because whenever I got uncomfortable or bored, I just turned to unlocking my phone…It was a crutch. It also made it really easy for me to get distracted by my phone.

I recently changed my passcode from four to ten digits (they’re semi-random digits too). I also disabled touch-id for unlocking (I still use it for Applepay, etc.). This isn’t just more secure from theft. It’s more secure from me.

My passcode is now impossible to type in without looking or thinking. It requires my full/undivided attention to get right.

I used to snooze my iPhone alarm without waking up. That doesn’t happen anymore.

I used to check my email upwards of 30 times in a day. I do get a lot of email, but that was excessive. That doesn’t happen anymore.

Now, whenever I reach for my phone, I need to consciously decide “This is worth the effort of unlocking my phone”.

Sometimes this can be super-annoying (when I actually need to look at something) but it’s helped me to overcome my smartphone addiction, at least a little bit.

For the other ways I lessened my smartphone addiction, scroll to the bottom.

After about a week of this, I’m already starting to check my phone (as a crutch) much less.

I’m becoming more conscious to my usage habits, and I’m getting more productive. You don’t have to do this forever, but if you’re addicted to your phone, you really should try this for a few weeks.

Michael Sitver runs Morning Short, a tool for helping busy people read more fiction. Sign up for the Morning Short daily story, or listen to our daily podcast here. Tweet me here. Email me here.

P.S. Some other strategies I used for lessening my addiction:

• I put (almost) all of my apps into folders, and left my home screen half-empty. This way, I need to seek out anything distracting. It’s not just starting at me from my home screen.
• I did a notifications audit. I chose carefully which apps could notify me, how they could notify me, and whether they could display the dreaded “red bubble”.
• I set custom alert tones for several key notifications, so I know when I actually need to check my phone (which prevents me from needing to check it at other times).
• I deleted some of my biggest time-wasting apps.