We live in a world where technology is very present in our lives. Five minutes of social media browsing turns into an hour without us noticing. Our web browser has so many tabs open, we forget what we were doing in the first place. There are so many streaming apps that we end up binge watching shows that can last for at least 6 hours!
This kind of attachment to technology can distract us from our priorities. It gets tempting to stay a little longer. And as we do, we get drained and end up feeling upset, anxious, or overwhelmed.
These eventually affect our productivity, quality of life, and mental-emotional health. But technology can also be very helpful when used the right way. It’s not too late to unlearn these unhealthy tendencies and start cultivating better habits. Instead of drowning in technology, invest in these self-control apps that will help you live more intentionally.
When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‘Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need. – H.H. The Dalai Lama
When we focus on the things we feel are not enough, we lose some sense of control of our thoughts and actions.
Gratitude is a powerful tool in cultivating self-control. Instead of focusing on what we don’t have, we can turn our attention to what we DO have right now. When we are grateful we see the world with brighter eyes. We are able to be in the moments we’re in and learn to take time to respond to situations instead of acting out of impulse.
It’s no secret that gratitude helps improve mental health well-being, recover from eating disorders, and to increase focus and productivity at the workplace. In 2019, Psychology Today released a study that proves how gratitude boosts people’s self-control, making them less likely to give in to the temptation of cheating.
Here are a few apps that you can use to effectively integrate gratitude in your life.
Presently is a journaling app available on Google Play that helps you record and journal about what you are grateful for each day. It provides quotes and prompts to give you inspiration when your mind blanks out about what to write for the day. You can set daily reminders to help you keep up with daily journaling and you can easily share your journal entries to friends and family.
The app is very simple and straightforward. It presents your entries in a chronological way so it makes it easy for you to revisit your moments of gratitude each day. It also highlights your “gratitude streaks” by identifying, for example, “5 Days of Gratitude” if you were able to journal for five days straight. And if you missed a day, you can go to the calendar feature and “travel back in time” to journal about what you were grateful for a few days ago.
If you are trying to cultivate more self-control with the amount of time you tend to use on your phone, Flipd is a popular choice by many. It is a self-control app for Android that locks your phone and keeps you from using your phone for a certain amount of time. It also offers ‘Mindful Moments,’ which are preset amounts of time that are designed to keep people off of their phones. The Mindful Moments feature covers categories such as work, sleep, and study and offers various amounts of time that will not only keep you off your phone, but be more present in the moment to do other things such as practicing gratitude. You can also play relaxing sound recordings while doing some self-care or meditation, which are also featured content in the app.
If you find yourself overthinking a lot, you’ll probably be familiar how exhausting it feels at the end of the day to be lying in bed but can’t fall asleep because of all the thoughts and worries going on in your mind. 3 Good Things is a self-control app for iphone that is inspired by the work of psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman to help you increase your level of happiness and positivity by journaling three good things that happened in your day before you go to sleep.
In a society that tends to make us focus on the negative, cultivating gratitude and positivity can be a struggle to focus on. Fortunately, this app will help you rewire your brain to look at the other side of things. Instead of going to bed with a thousand and one worries, this app will help you trim it down to three positive grateful thoughts. Not only will you think less, but hopefully it will also help you sleep better.
For nature lovers who still can’t take their eyes off their devices (Isn’t it ironic?), the Forest app puts together your love of trees and your intention to decrease the time spent on your phone. This app incorporates gamification elements to make your self-control habit training a lot more interesting!
Every time you choose to stay away from your phone and focus on other things, such as writing in your gratitude journal or meditating on things you are grateful for, you plant a tree in the Forest app. And the more time you spend away from your phone, the more that your virtual tree will grow. You can eventually earn coins from the amount of time you spend “disconnected” from your phone which will help you purchase more saplings to grow into trees for your “Forest.”
Another great thing about this app is when the users in the pro version of the app use their coins to purchase trees, part of the revenue that the app earns is given to actual tree planting organizations. Not only is the use of this app helpful in helping you cultivate more gratitude and self control, but it also helps you express your love and gratitude to Mother Earth.
It’s really great to know that technology has many ways to help us develop better and healthier habits for ourselves and our well-being. Practicing gratitude on a regular basis will help us appreciate the big and little victories in life as we learn to have more self-control over the things that might be keeping us from a life of contentment and joy. Be patient with yourself, remember to journal your experiences, and don’t forget to have fun with it. And be grateful that you have chosen to do this for yourself.
Practicing gratitude on a regular basis will help us appreciate the big and little victories in life as we learn to have more self-control over the things that might be keeping us from a life of contentment and joy.