Put Your Phone Back in Its Place
- Linsey Shelton
- Apr 21
- 3 min read
A calm (and slightly sassy) guide to limiting distractions and reclaiming your brainpower
Your phone is a miracle.
It keeps your business running, your family reachable, and your calendar clear.
But let’s be real: it also hijacks your brain with every ding, badge, and banner.
If you're a business-owning parent, you’re not just using your phone — you’re managing a team of tiny chaos agents. Between client messages, school emails, community group pings, and your own instinct to scroll when something feels hard? It’s no wonder your focus is fried.
Notifications are expensive real estate.
Every time your phone buzzes, you’re pulled out of what you’re doing and into a low-level decision loop:
Is this important? Do I need to respond? Should I check? Will I remember this later?
These interruptions aren’t just annoying — they degrade your ability to make good decisions. They steal the mental bandwidth you need for creative problem-solving, long-range thinking, and high-leverage work.
And here’s the kicker: most of those notifications aren’t serving you.
They're conditioning you to be available 24/7. Which you are absolutely not.
Start Here: A Quick Notification Audit
No shame. No blame. Just you taking back control.
Ask yourself these five questions about each app on your phone:
Would I pay money to receive this notification?
Would I want this to interrupt an important meeting?
Does this offer information I need to act on right now?
Is this essential to my personal safety, business operation, or close relationships?
Do I feel calm or anxious when I get a notification from this app?
If the answer to most of those is no, turn it off. If it’s important, you’ll check it when you want to. That’s leadership.
Want this as a printable checklist? Download the free The Phone Notification Detox.
What a Calmer Phone Looks Like
You don’t need to throw your phone into a lake — just strip away the noise.
Here’s how I simplify mine (and recommend to every Waymaker):
⚡Turn off notifications for social media, games, news, and most websites. The real emergencies? They come via phone call.
⚡Use a minimalist skin like Minimalist Phone. It removes app branding and makes everything less sexy.
⚡Search by name, not icon. If I really want Instagram, I have to type it in. That moment of friction helps break the habit loop.
⚡Set time boundaries. My phone shuts down notifications after 10 PM, and the screen goes grayscale. That’s my cue to chill.
⚡Keep it out of sight. If I’m with other humans, the phone is face down or in another room. Period.
Need help with the settings?
But What If I Miss Something Important?
Let’s talk about the Let Them mindset, popularized by Mel Robbins. It goes like this:
“Let them think you're slow to respond. Let them message twice. Let them wait. Let them.”
You’re a business owner. A parent. A whole human. You’re not here to be a digital concierge.
If someone really needs you, they’ll call. Everyone in my life knows that. That’s a boundary, not a bottleneck.
Letting go of the pressure to be constantly reachable is part of stepping into calm, confident leadership.
You're not ignoring people — you're protecting your energy so you can show up better when it counts.
Breathe. Reset. Lead.
Before you close this tab, take a breath.
Right now. Inhale. Exhale. Drop your shoulders.
You have the power to design a phone experience that works for you.
This is what it looks like to lead with intention — in business, at home, and in your own mind.
Ready to reclaim your brain?
Give your phone a job description that actually deserves your attention.
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