Out Of Signal

How much of your time is spent in a phone black hole? As part of our #Screenbreak campaign, tackling the health and well-being implications of being glued to our devices, we ask three women to take our five-day ‘mindful scrolling’ challenge.

- Charlotte Philby

‘I PICK UP MY PHONE TOO MUCH AND GET SUCKED IN’

Edwina Gieve, 38, is co-founder of vintage-inspired clothing label Clary & Peg

‘I’m very aware I look at my phone too much, and that I’m in the grip of a habit/obsession that sort of disgusts me, but I don’t do anything about it. I blame the fact that I have my own business, so I need to be available and looking at my mobile. But, in reality, I don’t have to be browsing Instagram when cooking dinner for my children or while I’m out with friends. I do try hard not to constantly seek out my phone – I bought a watch, so I don’t have to look at it for the time. And I do my best to put it on airplane mode at 10pm every evening (mostly more like 10.30pm), which gives me a self-imposed break between then and 7am, because I’m not a great sleeper and I really don’t think it helps. But I still find myself picking it up too much and it makes me sad. One of my issues is that my head is too full, so if I receive an email or text, I want to respond straight away. Otherwise, I’ll more than likely forget its existence and be haunted by guilt at 3am, unable to sleep, because having an endless to-do list makes me feel panicky and anxious. However, I find that when I have the time to get things done and finally look at the to-do list on my phone, those crucial things that I needed to do disappear, as I get distracted by something else – be it Instagram, Whats App or a news story.