8 Ways to Make your Phone Last Longer

Smart phones are quite possibly one of the greatest inventions to be incorporated into everyday life. They provide us with the capabilities to do just about anything in the palm of our hands, which is perfect for those of us who want to be more productive, since we have access to our emails and the internet even when we are away from our computers.

However, some things that seem so great come with strings attached, smartphones included. Yes, the constant access to our apps and the webisphere is extremely useful, but it is also very draining on the phone’s battery.

Without battery power, the increase in productivity potential disappears, making us actually waste more time either trying to charge the battery or getting to a computer or device that isn’t dead. If you want to make your phone last longer and in turn keep productivity high, follow these helpful tips.

1. Turn Down the Brightness

Turning down the brightness level on your phone is one of the easiest ways to conserve battery life. The brighter the light emitted from your phone’s screen, the more battery power it is using. It’s that simple. Simply turning the brightness down to half can extend the life of your battery almost effortlessly.

2. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

When the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth features on your phone are turned on, they are constantly searching for a signal which can drain your battery. Instead, keep them off until you need to use them or are in range of a known network.

3. Stop Push Notifications

You probably have a ton of applications that look for new messages or updates, then alert you of them. Think Facebook, Twitter, even your email. Well, when you allow these apps to push notifications through to you, you are giving them permission to continually search for those updates, eating up your battery.

Just turn off the push notification abilities, and check for them yourself when you want them.

4. Kill Applications

In addition to pushing notifications, some apps constantly are left running in the background, sometimes without you even knowing. To conserve your battery, kill the apps when you are done using them.

5. Get the Latest Apps

Sometimes we fall behind on updating our apps, even though that little red dot creeps up as a reminder. But this could actually be hindering your battery life.

Newer versions of applications are built to not only be better, but to be more efficient too, which uses less power.

6. Get Rid of the Junk

You want to be more productive, don’t you? Get rid of the stuff that is a distraction or that you don’t use. You don’t need things like games or SnapChat on your phone. They just drain your battery and kill your productivity.

7. Stay Out of the Heat

Did you know that you should be keeping your phone at room temperature? Extreme heat can damage batteries, leading to a shorter lifespan. And since you can’t replace the battery on most phones anymore, you need to make sure you are not unknowingly damaging it.

Opt for room temperature or slightly cooler, and never leave your phone in a hot car.

8. Turn it Off

I saved this one for last since it is quite frankly the simplest option. Unfortunately, it is also not ideal since in order to stay productive, you need to be able to receive calls and emails throughout the day.

But, when you know that you don’t need your phone, just turn it off and give the battery a break.

A Little Effort Goes a Long Way

In the case of extending battery life, you can see that a few simple changes can make a difference. This increase in power will give you the potential to be even more productive than you already are, since you will be able to stay connected to useful applications for a longer period of time.

Just make sure you aren’t using that extra battery life for time wasters like games. Use it to your advantage to get more work done or to generate new project ideas, and the result will be much more beneficial.