The average person spends 76 days a year on their smartphones. If the average life expectancy is 80 years, that means we will spend a total of 16 years of our life on our smartphones.*
We need smartphones just as much as the next person, but that number is shocking! And as you can imagine, if you’re spending that much time on a smartphone, there are some detrimental effects on your wellbeing and mental health that come with it.
The rise of mobile working and the BYOD culture (I know what you’re thinking but it’s bring your own device) leads us to be constantly connected. It blurs the boundaries between work and non-work, hindering our ability to actually relax and switch off from work (and we all need a little bit of “me time”).
The erosion of these boundaries can make us feel forced to work longer, later hours, and skip breaks, not allowing us to fully switch off and relax outside of work in order to recover from the day. This in turn leads to added stress and anxiety, employee dissatisfaction, work-life imbalance and eventually to burnout.
Any of those feelings feel familiar? Well you’re not alone; 77% of ALL full-time workers experience burnout on the job, and the issue is on the rise as a result of the distractions from our phones.** Removing these distractions have been seen to significantly reduce anxiety, depression and employee burnout.
Having a work-life balance is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and your mental wellbeing. It may seem like a challenge to find that balance but that has been Holds’ mission since its inception in 2016 - to help motivate people to put down their smartphones, remove the distractions and spend time on the things that matter in your life.
Removing the distractions of our devices and reducing screen time, has been shown to allow people to live more in the present, improve personal connections and overall wellbeing. Work-life balance is crucial and we believe the solution to finding that balance comes from educating on the issue of how smartphone usage is connected to mental health and wellbeing issues and motivating the community to remove those distractions in an engaging, fun and playful way.
We’re not alone in our quest to help solve this issue. We have partnered with a number of companies such as Danske Bank and Telia who we are working together to raise awareness and help their employees to make positive behavioural changes to limit the distractions at work and at home.
If you are passionate about removing the distractions in life and about improving wellbeing for yourself or your employees please contact us Here. We would love to hear from you and chat more about how Hold can help.
To explain a little bit, Hold is a mobile app that rewards you with real-world rewards for the time you spend off your phone - helping you to switch on when you’re at work and switch off after work. For every minute not on your phone you get points, those points you can redeem in the Hold marketplace for discounted cinema tickets, free coffee, raffles to win Disney prizes and Universal music artist merch, or you can donate your points to charity to help climate change or mental health research. Hold with others to focus during meetings, while working, or at the dinner table at home with your family. See who can get the most points, spending the most time off of your phone and on the things that matter.
**Deloitte - wellbeing Survey