Sure, you could book your next vacation on a remote island without access to Wi-Fi. Or you could just make a few adjustments to your life to avoid being quite so dependent on your phone. Here are some tips for being on your phone less — no distant destination required.

1. Unplug for a day. March 7 is the National Day of Unplugging, an effort to get people off their phones and into more real-life interactions. Even though the day has already passed, you can still participate by picking a day each week to shut down your phone and find something else to connect with.
2. Modify your settings. When your phone is constantly pinging, beeping, buzzing and vibrating, it’s all too tempting to reach for it to make it stop. Instead, try shutting off your notifications. You don’t have to know about each sale the moment it happens. You may even save some money in addition to time from your phone.
3. Spend quality time away from your phone. Don’t bring your phone with you everywhere you go. Back in the day, you managed just fine in the bathroom without it and probably slept better without having it in bed with you.
4. Practice phone etiquette. If you’re in a real-life interaction, then put your phone in silent mode. You don’t need to message friends if you’re already at dinner, at a checkout stand, etc.
5. Take a break from social media. You don’t have to shut down all of your accounts but you don’t really need to see what your high school buddies are up to these days while you’re on the road. So consider removing social media apps from your phone.
6. Use the grayscale feature. It turns out that a lot of the attraction of the phone is having all those colorful apps call out to you. So make them less appealing.

If your friends and family have joked about the time you spend on your phone, you might have a problem and these tips can help you disconnect, even for just moments at a time.

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