This one little trick will break your phone addiction

If you’re one of those people who can’t stop checking their phone every five minutes, then this life hack is for you.

Most of us are extremely dependent on our smartphones, but it’s all too easy to become addicted to constantly checking them for notifications and updates.

In fact, polls have suggested that the average Brit can’t go for an hour without checking their smartphone.

If that sounds all too familiar, then this hack could revolutionise your relationship with your phone and boost your productivity at the touch of a button.

This funny video from The Atlantic explains that the solution to your phone addiction could be as simple as dulling down your iPhone display.

The video explains that colourful phone screens encourage us to check our devices constantly – and it’s no accident that red is the universal colour for the notification bubbles which pop up from social media apps.

The colour red excites our brains, prompting us to tap the app right away to check the notification.

But this can all be beaten by setting your iPhone display to a boring – but useful – greyscale.

The grey doesn’t stimulate our brains in the same way that bright colours do, reducing the temptation to be distracted by our phones.

And, whilst it may be a bit depressing at first, greying-up your iPhone could work wonders for your productivity.

You can find this sombre option in the settings menu, under the general options.

Click on the accessibility menu, and turn on greyscale to take the colour out of your display.

This only affects the screen itself, meaning that if you take a screenshot, it will still come out in full colour.

As the video explains, this useful hack will revolutionise your relationship with your iPhone but, unfortunately for Android users, the greyscale option doesn’t come with every device.

James Hamblin, senior editor of The Atlantic, says: “There’s a reason that every notification on your phone is red.

“It is a colour that stimulates excitement in the brain.

“Say you find yourself checking your phone too much and you want to break the habit.

“Put it in greyscale and you’ll end up checking your phone much less and appreciating more of the beauty in the natural world.”