Need to find a weekday recipe, track your workout, store some tunes, or get help with meditation? There’s an app for that. Some of them are even helpful. Calendars, work flow, travel, all those help keep track of things we don’t have time to log or track. But, really, an app for meditation? Sure! Where do I start?

I have devoted 10 minutes of my morning to mindfulness for years and recently found myself slacking off the sit time. A friend recommended an app to track my minutes spent practicing. Cool! Yes! I’ll hold myself accountable, have a record of my goals and accomplishments, humble brags on Facebook. Sweet! All the things to stoke my sense of doing something. Dutifully I put it on my phone and took it into my meditation space and sat down and started to check all the features. What voice do I want to walk me thru this? How long do I want to sit? What topic do I want covered? You see where this is going, right? Ten minutes later I am still sitting on my cushion staring at a screen in a space I never allowed my phone to enter. It was an epiphany for me. Could it be that the reason my practice time was slipping away from me was that I was spending more time on my phone using my apps and less time breathing and being with the people I love doing the things that feed my soul? Nah. Couldn’t be. I am an aware, focussed human with a busy life and great things happening. No way would I let a device usurp my space to empty my mind and allow myself to reset by doing nothing. Cause look, the app says I did something! Umm. Yeah.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not a luddite with a penchant bashing tech. Apps are helpful and can make your life easier but before you slap another one on your device check yourself with the following questions:

How does this app make my life simpler? If you are going to spend time setting it up and interacting with it rather than people and yourself it better help with untangling your existence.

Does this app contribute to my happiness? If you find yourself smiling and enjoying using it then keep on keepin’ on friend, but if your are deflated and rubbing your eyes after 20 minutes then maybe it’s time to uninstall.

Did FOMO make me install this? If you are using it because someone else told you how cool it is or you had a twinge of “I’ll be missing out if I don’t” then that’s a ponder point worth making you reconsider it’s worth.

Do I really need another reason to look at my device? That’s the biggie, right? Look at people and engage with them instead. Make space for yourself and what feeds your soul instead of another app on your phone. I’m guessin’ you’ll be glad you did.