If you find it impossible to tear yourself away from your phone, then you could do worse than taking a leaf out of Ed Sheeran’s book.
The singer developed some (ahem) bad habits with his mobile, which became so distracting that he decided to take extreme measures and ditch using one altogether.
Ed says he hasn’t looked back since making the decision six years ago after his mental health began to suffer because of the stress of constantly receiving text messages and feeling the need to instantly reply back.
Speaking on The Collector’s Edition video series, Ed told host and series founder Ben Clymer that he “got really, really overwhelmed and sad with the phone.”
“I don’t carry a phone, no,” he said. “I haven’t had a phone since 2015. I just spent my whole time in a very low place. I got rid of it, and it was like a veil just lifted.”
He continued: “I didn’t so much cut contact with people, I just limit contact with people.”
These days the singer does that by email, which has resulted in him “feeling better about everything.”
“Every few days I’ll sit down and I’ll open up my laptop and I’ll answer 10 emails at a time,” he explained.
“And I’ll send ’em off and I’ll close my laptop. And then I’ll go back to living life and I don’t feel overwhelmed by it.”
Ed announced to fans in 2015 that he was taking a break from his phone and email and quitting all social media after he felt like he was “seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes.”
“I’m taking this opportunity of me not having to be anywhere or do anything to travel the world and see everything I missed,” he wrote in a post on his Instagram account.
“To my family and friends, if you love me, you will understand me buggering off for a bit,” he added.