Can't pull yourself away from your smartphone? Then apply this tip - though it will cost you a small fee. Jeff VanNielands offers up a simple suggestion: password protect your apps so they are less enticing to use. Which means, every time you want to open up an app, you'll be forced to key in a password. But make sure you give it a really long one.
Having to put in a long password definitely breaks me out of the mindless pull-out-my-phone-for-30-seconds habit I've been in. I actually think that simply seeing the password prompt reminds me "oh yeah, I'm trying to break this habit" and is enough to get me to put my phone away. Then when I make a conscious decision to use an app, I have no problems putting in that long password. Some apps I haven't even used since I implemented this, and others (like the aforementioned Instagram) I've only been checking maybe once or twice a day.
Addiction cured then? So how do we get around doing it? You can do this in both iOS and Android:

iOS: You'll need to jailbreak your phone first. Download this app:  LockDown Pro. It's $2.99, but incredibly easy to use: You can set a custom password and lock all your apps or press and hold an icon on the home screen until it starts to move and lock one of the apps one by one.

Android: Check out Smart AppLock. By default, it locks your apps with a pattern, but you can change this to a password in the settings. Grab the $1.99 pro version to get rid of the ads.

There are other apps out there that do the same thing, and if you've come across something that works just as well for you, do share it with us!

Here's to curing that smartphone addiction of yours!

[Jeff VanNieulande]