---
title: Your Phone Belongs to You, You Don't Belong to It
teaser: 'Sometimes we can become addicted to the fast-paced nature of our industry.
  It doesn''t have to be this way. You can disconnect from it all, and the first step
  sits right in your hand.

  '
tags: happiness,productivity,work culture
author: Rob Whittaker
published_on: 2022-06-13
---

How many of you have work applications installed on your phone? I'm not talking
about apps that you are developing. I'm talking about Slack, email, Microsoft
Teams, or anything similar. How often are you distracted by these apps when you
are at home and not at work? By the end of this article, I want to convince you
that you should disconnect from these services. Your life is your own; live it.

It's essential to separate where you work and where you live. This has become
even more challenging since we started to work from anywhere. This change in
work practices has forced many people to work, live, and rest in the same space.

We can no longer leave the office at the end of the day and put some physical
distance between ourselves and work. The change to work from anywhere has also
made us accessible in new ways. People feel they have to be "present" for their
employer to see that they are working. This displays a lack of trust between
teammates and their managers.

How often has a notification distracted you from what you are doing? How often
has this happened when you have finished the day and should be resting? Finally,
has this happened on a device you own and spent your hard-earned money on?

This isn't right. Your phone is your own, and you should take ownership of it.
Also, your time is your own. Do you want work to distract you when you should be
resting? I'm guessing this isn't your ideal scenario. Time-off is an essential
part of any creative process. As a designer or developer, be under no illusions
that you aren't in a creative role.

I want you to take the time to check what lives on your phone. Does it need to
be there? I want to challenge you to remove all unnecessary applications from
your devices. This isn't about deleting everything. Instead, take the time to
reflect on your lifestyle and mindset. Feel free to keep channels that connect
you to your friends, but get rid of work-related ones. I understand that there
are scenarios where you need to keep things. Some people need PagerDuty because
they expect they will be on-call. You can still use your work computer for these
notifications. I'm only advocating that you don't let them seep into your
personal life. I still have my work calendar because I want those time-related
notifications. That is where I draw the line.

From my own experience, I find it much easier to switch off from work when I'm
at home. When I'm bored, I'm not drawn to check in on things on Slack. I'm not
refreshing my email to look for the latest updates. Instead, I appreciate all
those things that are more worthy of my time. (In fact, I tend not to use a
computer outside of work hours.)

This article is very tactical and talks about what you can do to help solve a
problem. At the same time, I want you to think about your time and how much you
own it. How much rest are you getting? How much time do you think about work
when you should be doing other things that you love? Life is about living, and
work is there to help you do that. Live your life.