• How to Break Up with Your Phone

  • The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life
  • By: Catherine Price
  • Narrated by: Emily Rankin
  • Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (327 ratings)

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How to Break Up with Your Phone  By  cover art

How to Break Up with Your Phone

By: Catherine Price
Narrated by: Emily Rankin
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Publisher's summary

Packed with tested strategies and practical tips, this book is the essential, life-changing guide for everyone who owns a smartphone.

Is your phone the first thing you reach for in the morning and the last thing you touch before bed? Do you frequently pick it up “just to check”, only to look up 45 minutes later wondering where the time has gone? Do you say you want to spend less time on your phone - but have no idea how to do so without giving it up completely? If so, this book is your solution.

Award-winning journalist Catherine Price presents a practical, hands-on plan to break up - and then make up - with your phone. The goal? A long-term relationship that actually feels good.

You’ll discover how phones and apps are designed to be addictive, and learn how the time we spend on them damages our abilities to focus, think deeply, and form new memories. You’ll then make customized changes to your settings, apps, environment, and mindset that will ultimately enable you to take back control of your life.

©2018 Catherine Price (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A slim, insight-packed volume that's both a primer on the toll smartphone overuse can take on our mental and physical health, and a practical manual for a 30-day reset designed to put you on a path to moderation, this is a book whose message couldn't feel more timely, or more urgent. (No, really: after finishing the whole thing in one horrified sitting, I immediately pre-ordered 3 more copies for friends and family.)" (Sarah Karnasiewicz, Health)

"The most important book I've read in years. Life-changing." (Sali Hughes, The Pool)

"...a comprehensive, step-by-step solution to spending less time with your phone and more time doing the things you love." (Booklist)

What listeners say about How to Break Up with Your Phone

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No PDF? No problem.

The review bit: Good book, good voice actor, can't wait to give the detox a try. I've already started casually implementing some of the tips and I feel it's helped me be more mindful. This is not about "getting rid" of your phone. It's about having a healthier relationship with it. I highly recommend it if this is an area of your life you want to improve.

About the headline: As of writing this comment, there's no PDF for this book and it sorely needs one. But guess what? This book attracts mildly obsessive people, and a mildly obsessive person (me) wrote up a list of the chapters and time stamps (as they would be formatted in the app's clips/bookmarks) for each day of the 30-day detox! I didn't include what the days "titles" are, because copyright, but I hope this will help people through their detox a bit. Enjoy, kiddos.

Week 1: Ch. 16
Day 1: Ch. 16/10:29
Day 2: Ch. 16/11:34
Day 3: Ch. 16/13:58
Day 4: Ch. 16/19:11
Day 5: Ch. 16/25:00
Day 6: Ch. 16/33:54
Day 7: Ch. 16/36:04

Week 2: Ch. 17
Day 8: Ch. 17/03:34
Day 9: Ch. 17/09:49
Day 10: Ch. 17/20:46
Day 11: Ch. 17/24:26
Day 12: Ch. 17/27:48
Day 13: Ch. 17/30:22
Day 14: Ch. 17/33:25

Week 3: Ch. 18
Day 15: Ch. 18/01:16
Day 16: Ch. 18/03:00
Day 17: Ch. 18/06:00
Day 18: Ch. 18/10:00
Day 19: Ch. 18/15:12
Day 20-21: Ch. 18/19:20

Week 4 and Beyond: Ch. 19
Day 22: Ch. 19/00:56
Day 23: Ch. 19/04:35
Day 24: Ch. 19/07:00
Day 25: Ch. 19/09:02
Day 26: Ch. 19/14:05
Day 27: Ch. 19/16:27
Day 28: Ch. 19/21:05
Day 29: Ch. 19/30:23
Day 30: Ch. 19/31:54

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123 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must-read for anyone with a smartphone!

I just finished listening to this book but have already started implementing some of her ideas. One day in and I already feel calmer during my commute. I truly was or am a phone Junkie. I travel for home health and caught myself checking my phone at every stop light. Yesterday my usage app said I unlocked my phone 84 times. That's mind-blowing! if nothing else read or listen to this book before you stick a smartphone or tablet in your child's hand. Good stuff!

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Desperately Needs a PDF

Very good concepts but it is difficult to apply the 30 break up through audiobook alone. It desperately needs an accompanying PDF. Another user included time stamps for each day is a savior!

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely Book, But No Chapter Titles? Really?

Fabulous book. Read the other reviews for more info. This is more about how it was implemented in Audible.
Audible decided to exclude any descriptive chapter titles in favor of basic ones "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2", etc. Even for things that aren't chapters at all. It's weird and I hate it. So here is a guide to each "chapter" number and its corresponding title. I've also added the time stamps for each day of the week (stolen from another reader hehe) to create a 1-stop shop review.

1. Audible introduction
2. An Open Letter to My Phone
3. Introduction
4. Part 1: The Wake Up
5. Chapter 1: Our Phones are Designed to Addict Us
6. Chapter 2: Putting the Dope in Dopamine
7. Chapter 3: The Tricks of the Trade
8. Chapter 4: Why Social Media Sucks
9. Chapter 5: The Truth About Multi-Tasking
10. Chapter 6: Your Phone is Changing Your Brain
11. Chapter 7: Your Phone is Killing Your Attention-Span
12. Chapter 8: Your Phone Messes With Your Memory
13. Chapter 9: Stress, Sleep and Satisfaction
14. Chapter 10: How to Take Back Your Life
15. Part 2: The Break Up
16. Week 1: Technology Triage
- Day 1: Ch. 16/10:29
- Day 2: Ch. 16/11:34
- Day 3: Ch. 16/13:58
- Day 4: Ch. 16/19:11
- Day 5: Ch. 16/25:00
- Day 6: Ch. 16/33:54
- Day 7: Ch. 16/36:04
17. Week 2: Changing Your Habits
- Day 8: Ch. 17/03:34
- Day 9: Ch. 17/09:49
- Day 10: Ch. 17/20:46
- Day 11: Ch. 17/24:26
- Day 12: Ch. 17/27:48
- Day 13: Ch. 17/30:22
- Day 14: Ch. 17/33:25
18. Week 3: Reclaiming Your Brain
- Day 15: Ch. 18/01:16
- Day 16: Ch. 18/03:00
- Day 17: Ch. 18/06:00
- Day 18: Ch. 18/10:00
- Day 19: Ch. 18/15:12
- Day 20-21: Ch. 18/19:20
19. Week 4: And Beyond
- Day 22: Ch. 19/00:56
- Day 23: Ch. 19/04:35
- Day 24: Ch. 19/07:00
- Day 25: Ch. 19/09:02
- Day 26: Ch. 19/14:05
- Day 27: Ch. 19/16:27
- Day 28: Ch. 19/21:05
- Day 29: Ch. 19/30:23
- Day 30: Ch. 19/31:54
20. Epilogue
21. Recommended Resources
22. Thank You

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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Good narration awful material

Material of the book sounds like it was meant for a truck stop gift shop. Author didn’t spare a single feel good mantras - mindfulness, hold hands at dinner table, deep breathing to help yourself in the process of breaking up with your phone. After every few lines there is a quote by a random person with one syllable name about how life changing the advice was. At one point author suggests take a picture of your friend if they use their phone in front of you and text it back to them saying - “I miss you”. Shaming your friends to pay attention to you won’t help with that either. Wonder if she took a deep breath before taking the picture and… why did the author have her phone during the conversation without as she suggests in the book asking for permission from her friend like a drill sergeant.

It’s one of the worst books written on this topic. Controlling someone else’s behavior is not your business. If you like this topic, go read books by Cal Newport

Should had broken up with the book in 3 minutes of starting it.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
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    5 out of 5 stars

Healthy Eye-opening Phone Tips

I never realized how dangerously addicting my own phone use was becoming until I listened to the audible version of How To Break Up With Your Phone. I plan to purchase a hard copy of this book so that I can share with my family some of the valuable healthy phone use practices.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

if you're ready, leap with this

Not completely breaking up with but now I have a much healthier relationship with my technology & have recommended this especially to my parent friends!

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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Overall good advice

this is a very straightforward Layman's guide to beating an addiction I highly recommend it.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Very useful book

Great ideas, but breaks down as days, wish if it was divided to sections, that can easily navigate

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fantastic book!

This book has been very insightful and has confirmed many thoughts I've had about social media and other cell phone uses and it's impact on society.

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