Sometimes the endless buzzing and impulsive need to check notifications makes us want to chuck it all and go off-grid for a while. Then we remember that we have a job and, you know, staying in touch with our loved ones and the outside world isn’t such a bad thing overall. That doesn’t mean we have to settle for an overstuffed inbox and camera roll鈥攏ot to mention the accompanying scatterbrained feeling. It’s all about the plan of attack. Observe:

Tame Your Phone

Keep it out of sight. A recent UK study found that simply having your mobile device in your hand or on the table can have 鈥渘egative effects on closeness, connection, and conversation quality.鈥� Whether you鈥檙e out hiking or drinking beers with a friend, keep your device tucked away and silenced.

Play favorites. Unless you adjust your settings, all notifications and vibrations sound and feel the same. But you can change that. First create a VIP list of emergency contacts鈥攖he babysitter, your spouse, your kids. Then, depending on which kind of phone you have, sort out how to allow calls only from your VIP list when you鈥檇 like to be otherwise unreachable. (On an iPhone, for example, turn on the Do Not Disturb function.)

Break the loop. 鈥↖n addition to controlling the pleasure systems of the brain, the neuro-transmitter dopamine also causes what鈥檚 known as seeking behavior. Once you start searching for new information, each tweet, like, message, or notification increases your desire to keep going鈥攃reating what experts have dubbed the dopamine loop. To break this cycle, Larry Rosen, a psychologist and the author of , a book about the hold technology has over us, suggests reconditioning: place your phone on silent and set it face-down for 15 minutes, then give yourself a minute to respond to texts and e-mails. 鈥淚t sends a stimulus to your brain that says, 鈥榊ou鈥檒l get to check me, and you鈥檒l be OK,鈥欌�夆�� Rosen says. 鈥淎fter that one minute, turn the phone off again and repeat.鈥� Installing the app (iOS; $5), which tracks how many times each day you pick up your phone and how many hours you spend on it, also helps. 鈥淢onitoring tends to make people do a better job,鈥� says author Gretchen Rubin, 鈥渆ven apart from any conscious desire.鈥�

Set House Rules

Block the blue. Any kind of light can interfere with your sleep, but the shorter-wavelength bluish tints, like the kind emitted by LED-backlit screens, are especially disruptive鈥攖hey suppress the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep and wake cycles. Try to limit your screen time before bed: one study found that an hour of exposure is OK, but after two the amount of melatonin suppression goes way up. You can also dim the brightness of your device and choose the nighttime setting on your tablet, e-reader, or iBooks app, which displays text in a white-on-black scheme. If you鈥檙e streaming Netflix, position the device as far away from your face as possible. According to the Mayo Clinic, keeping 14 inches between your eyes and a blue-light screen helps mitigate the effects. If you鈥檙e on a laptop rather than a tablet, use an app called , which tints out the blue light with a warmer red color, like a sunset (free).

Keep gadgets out of the bedroom. If there鈥檚 one thing experts agree on, it鈥檚 that all digital devices should be kept outside the bedroom. If you use your phone as an alarm, or like to fall asleep to podcasts, or use an app like (Android and iOS; $1)鈥攚hich analyzes your snooze patterns and wakes you up during your lightest phase鈥攂e sure to turn off all notifications, so the phone doesn鈥檛 light up throughout the night, and set the phone face-down. Your eyelids are slightly transparent, and even when they鈥檙e closed, blue light can penetrate to suppress melatonin and delay transitions in circadian phases.

Be the Boss of Your E-Mail

Day to day. Responding to e-mails as they come in kills your productivity鈥攕ome studies show that it can take more than 20 minutes to mentally recover from just one message. Start treating e-mail more like regular mail, and set small windows of time for receiving and respond-ing throughout the day. To speed up productivity, use the , a Gmail-compatible program that has a three-minute countdown timer for each response (free).

Evenings and weekends. 鈥⊿ome companies now turn off their e-mail servers in the evening or over the weekend. Chances are your employer isn鈥檛 one of them, which is why psychologist recommends switching off your phone鈥檚 e-mail notifications, which remind you of what you鈥檙e ignoring. To benefit your coworkers, he also advises that you don鈥檛 treat your e-mail as a personal reminder system鈥攆iring off messages late at night so you don鈥檛 forget to do it in the morning. Use a service like , which allows you to schedule when your message are sent, so it arrives first thing on Monday morning instead of Sunday afternoon.

On vacation. Corporate practices like Daimler鈥檚 are becoming more prevalent. The German carmaker鈥檚 optional out-of-the-office response informs senders that their message was instantly deleted and that they can contact someone else if needed. Not happening at your employer anytime soon? , professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics and author of Happiness by Design, suggests that you inform colleagues that you won鈥檛 be responding to e-mails before you leave and then create an obstacle for yourself to help resist the urge while you鈥檙e away. 鈥淧rime yourself to log on less by changing your password to something like 鈥榗heckmeless,鈥欌�夆�� he says.

Manage Your Kids’ Technology

Lead by example. A found that parents who used technology heavily had children with the same habits. If your goal is to raise kids who choose hiking and sports over iPad games, social psychologist recommends that you 鈥渃onsider your own behavior and taper accordingly.鈥�

Be realistic. There are many approaches, like setting time limits and using shields that filter content, but if you think you鈥檙e going to keep your child screen-free, you are setting yourself up for misery. 鈥淔or teens, the cell phone and social networking鈥攖hat鈥檚 their world,鈥� says Newman. 鈥淪et realistic parameters that balance screen time with healthy practices.鈥� A good place to start is being plugged in for up to 60 minutes, then taking a ten-to-fifteen-minute break. And pick times, like during meals and while playing sports, that are always device-free.

Take Fewer, Better Photos

Fight the urge. According to two recent studies, constantly shooting photos or videos fundamentally alters the way you process and remember the experience. 鈥淲hat we found was that when people took photos, they were sort of collecting,鈥� says , a psychologist at Connecticut-based Fairfield University who led both studies. 鈥淭hey think, The camera is going to remember, and then don鈥檛 engage as much in what we call elaborative processing鈥攖hinking about the meaning of the event.鈥� The key is moderation. 鈥淚f people were a little more selective, taking a small number of photos and then putting the camera away, they鈥檇 get the best of both worlds,鈥� says Henkel.

Use your GoPro. Most GoPro users think of the device only as an action cam, but the newest versions (the Hero4 Black and Hero4 Silver) take high-quality, ultra-wide-angle still shots that give your photos a cool, slightly fish-eye effect. Rather than shooting tons of POV footage, pull your GoPro out for a quick burst of summit photos鈥攖hen put it away. 鈥淚 put my camera in time-lapse mode to take a photo every 0.5 seconds,鈥� says ski mountaineer and Instagram star Brody Leven, 鈥渁nd I move it around a ton.鈥�

Be quick on the draw. 鈥↘eep your camera tucked away until you reach the summit or your buddy finishes his first 50K鈥攖hen pull it out immediately to capture a genuine reaction. 鈥淒on鈥檛 fiddle with gear and try to re-create five minutes later how stoked you were,鈥� says Leven.

Nail the selfie. Make sure to get the camera as far away from your face as possible鈥攕elfie sticks like the ($50) are great for this. And edit yourself. We鈥檝e seen enough sunsets and wildlife to last a lifetime. Here鈥檚 one rule from photographer Chris Burkard: 鈥淎 selfie is always made better when you are shoulder-to-shoulder with a beautiful woman.鈥�

More happiness strategies, tested by 国产吃瓜黑料 editors:

We Hugged More People
We Took Zumba Classes
We Discovered Microadventures
We Chased After Flow State
We Got Radically Honest on Facebook

The post 5 Steps to Getting a Grip on Your Tech Life appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

I鈥檇 made the turn when a push from behind momentarily sped my bike up, then the front wheel twisted and the bike fell, sending me over the handlebars. It鈥檚 a terrifying feeling, getting thrown from your bike, and there鈥檚 a moment in mid-air when you accept that you鈥檙e going down. I caught myself with my hands, skinning my palms, elbow, and knees, then looked back at the mid-1980s dilapidated station wagon that hit me.

The damage ended up being only a bent wheel, some blood on my business-casual outfit, and a few weeks with a sore wrist. It could鈥檝e been worse. In 2012, the most recent year of the 鈥檚 comprehensive data crunching, 726 bicyclists died in motor vehicle accidents.

Crashes like mine are now avoidable鈥攊f your run into the right car. Big changes are coming to the auto industry: advanced sensor suites capable of detecting cyclists and pedestrians, mass-adoption of bike-avoiding software, and ultimately, the rise of the self-driving car. While the fully robotic car is still a ways off, small advances combined together are poised to reduce car-on-bike fatalities within the next year.

At the moment, Tesla is leading the charge of incremental safety advances. Forget the scary fast 3.2-second zero-to-60 time of the, and look instead at Tesla’s new self-driving system called . It鈥檚 a myriad of sensors and data-gathering processors, including a 360-degree sonic radar to detect blind spots around the car and a special camera system that can read speed limit signs and lane markers.

These systems aren鈥檛 new. What’s new is the systems integration and consumer-ready roll-out. Nod off behind the wheel, and the car takes over, exiting on the right turnoff, stopping at stop signs, and pulling into your driveway.聽

If you’re on the highway, you can flip the turn signal to merge into the right lane. Your Tesla will notice the car in your blind spot, wait for it to pass, and then change lanes. That鈥檚 great for car-on-car safety. It’s even better for cyclists who often get caught between turning and through traffic, with cars madly dashing to change lanes, says Dr. Jeffrey Miller, associate professor of Engineering Practices at USC and IEEE member.

Tesla isn’t alone. Volvo鈥檚 ,聽which is already on the market, incorporates a radar in the radiator grille and a camera set in the rear-view mirror. The radar senses objects ahead and measures the distance between the object and the car, while the camera picks up on the objects鈥� pattern of movement and predicts which way the pedestrian, cyclist, or fellow vehicle might go. The system can recognize a cyclist based on speed and profile. Should the cyclist swerve or brake suddenly, the system recognizes the move and automatically stops the car.

While pedestrian avoidance tech has long been a feature of Volvo’s cars, spotting an obstacle and automatically stopping the car before impact is a skill vehicles are just starting to get really good at. Even if they appear to be incremental, these advances will soon start making a big difference for cyclists, says Dr. Alberto Broggi, professor of computer engineering at the University of Parma in Italy, who worked with VisLabs to engineer a self-driving car鈥檚 successful trip from Parma to Shanghai. 鈥淓veryone will be safer with this kind of automatic detection and avoidance systems.鈥�

The incremental advances are poised to stat saving lives immediately, but Google has announced an even loftier goal: a world without distracted drivers where robotic cars navigate without humans.

The company, which has been , has its modified outfitted with suites of sensors, including some that can recognize a cyclist鈥檚 hand signal for a right or left turn, and steer the vehicle accordingly to avoid a collision. And in May, the company unveiled its prototype without a steering wheel, brake pedal, or accelerator pedal.聽The company will need to sort through regulatory hurdles before mass-adoption can ever take place, but some experts are predicting we’ll see the first full self-driving and cyclist-avoiding cars in 2020.

Granted, even if autonomous cars become the norm, it will take on road biking. Until then, the advent of self-driving vehicles shouldn’t serve as an excuse to stop building bike-specific infrastructure in cities, says聽Mikael Colville-Andersen, CEO of .聽“There are many good reasons that over 150 cities in Europe have implemented broad areas of 20 mph zones for cars鈥攖hey save lives, reduce injury, and make cities feel safer for the inhabitants. If autonomous cars show up, fine. As long as they roll around at a speed that fits the urban theatre.”聽 聽

Yes, all cities should . But in the meantime, cars that move in predictable, coordinated patterns while stopping early enough to avoid collisions will make an immediate impact on individual lives. A distracted driver that might鈥檝e led to a fatality will soon result in鈥攁t worst鈥攕ome abrupt braking and a scare for both parties.

鈥淯ltimately, we should think about the road as a place where accidents will be extremely reduced,鈥� Dr. Broggi says. 鈥淎ccidents between a cyclist and a car will occur only due to strong and unpredictable misbehavior of the cyclist.鈥�

Those of us on two wheels, with human-powered braking and steering, now just need to hold up our end of the bargain. Or at least signal clearly enough for Google’s sensors to pick us up.

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