An addiction is when something begins to control your life and interfere with your daily activities, work, and relationships. For example, an alcoholic might wakes up to a glass of vodka instead of a cup of coffee. But with the boom of technology, the signs of addiction can be found in places besides the bottom of a glass – it can also be found in the form of cell phones.

Here are five tips to help you defeat cell phone addiction:

1. No Phone for 30 Minutes After Waking

One of the hallmark signs of a phone addict is someone who wakes up and reaches to check their phone before they even got out of bed. The first 30 minutes after you wake up should be dedicated to kick-starting your day. This means getting right out of bed, freshening up, meditating, stretching, and cooking a healthy breakfast. No phone!

Start your day doing healthy, positive things to build your inner fortitude to attack the day ahead.

2. Create No-Phone Time Zones

Most people always have their cell phone on-hand. For some people it’s even required. Sure, you might “need your phone for work,” but whenever your phone dings, it’s rarely related to the thing you’re working on. If you’re constantly distracted by your phone notifications, you won’t remain focused on the work in front of you. As a result, your focus, productivity, and mental health will suffer.

Try to create no-phone time zones for whenever you work. For at least 2 hours of your day, especially when your most productive work happens, silence your phone and stay completely dedicated to the work in front of you.

3. Turn Your Phone Off in the Car

It’s impossible for the human mind to be thinking about two things at once. Multitasking, in fact, is simply switching rapidly between two tasks that you’re attempting to complete at the same time. Oh, the thing about multitasking? Humans are terrible at it.

So, why do people continually try to multitask between texting a friend and zooming down the highway? The risk isn’t worth it! Turn off your phone as soon as you step in the car.

Need your phone for directions? Memorize the route or print it out before you leave. Need your phone for music? Copy your playlist to a blank CD.

While this may sound extreme, you need to remember that your life and other people’s lives are at stake. Staying on your phone for hours at a time on the couch is one problem, but routinely checking your phone while you’re driving can lead to a fatal mistake. Do your best to keep your phone off whenever you’re driving.

4. Get Real

When you’re with someone sharing a conversation, a meal, or a cup of coffee, nothing should be more important than that person – not the flowers by the lake, not the birds in the sky, and certainly not your phone.

Burying your face in your phone while you’re in the company of your friends, family, or even strangers, is extremely rude. You’re essentially telling them that they’re worth less than a brick of glass and plastic made in ten minutes by some robot in a factory. Phone addiction, especially when it makes conversation impossible, breaks down friendships and can ruin relationships. Come on people, it’s time to get real.

5. Don’t Lose Sleep Over It

If you find yourself up late at night on your phone, whether for video games, TikTok, or text messaging, you are losing precious sleep over your addiction. The moment you stop putting effort into caring for your basic needs and start wasting that effort on your phone, you are allowing your phone to dictate your health and well-being.

To prevent this, shut off your phone an hour before bed to ensure that your last hour is spent in a meaningful way that allows you to wind down. That way, you’ll get to bed on time to start the next day fresh. Your phone isn’t worth losing sleep over.

Now it’s your turn. Do you find yourself in one of these scenarios? What’s your plan of action to ensure that your phone isn’t dictating your life?

Article by Tova Payne