More Life, Less Phone?

ADHD & Marriage News - July 14, 2026

Quote of the Week

“We think ‘I want to spend less time on my phone,’ which feels restrictive. We need to be thinking ‘I want to spend more time on my life.'"

- from an interview on Fresh Air, NPR

More Life, Less Phone?

I hear regularly about one partner or another being glued to his or her phone. It seems almost a part of life. ADHD partners can have a particularly hard time of it, as it’s hard to resist the ‘immediacy’ of a text or call.

So this tip on moving away from the phone is an interesting one. As humans, we don’t respond so well to restrictions, particularly restrictions of things we really DO want. We respond better to dreams and inspiration. “I want to spend more time on my life” sounds pretty darned great, doesn’t it?

For those with ADHD, moving away from the draw of a phone may take some extra structure. For some, this means that if you are going to get more time to spend on your life, you actually need to be away from the phone, or at least its draw.

Here are some simple ideas:

- Set times of day where the phone is left in a specific location NOT near you – for example the front hall or a purse

- Set ‘do not disturb’ settings for specific times that are important for family life – example might between 5 and 7pm when the family cooks and eats together or regular Friday date nights.

- Have one day a week without phones for the majority of the day (Saturday or Sunday probably works best) and leave it behind, next to your bed on its charger.

This last tip might take some getting used to, but it could provide a whole lot of time to ‘spend more time on your life.’ On that day, you might have an automated text response such as “I will not be answering texts today but will respond to you Sunday evening after 7pm.”

Time is our most precious commodity. You DO have a choice to not give it to others willy nilly and use your phone less often…you just have to create a system that helps you do it.

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