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Challenge 5: Fix something that's bothering you about your phone

A small change can mean a peaceful mind.

#LIVE-A-BETTER-LIFE-banner-image-final (1)

IT’S WEEK TWO of our Live A Better Life series, and it’s all about challenging yourself.

On the 10th day of the series, we’re looking at what’s bothering us about our phone, and whether that can lead to unnecessary stress.

This can be something big, or something tiny. But it’s something that’s niggling at you.

  • Is your screen a bit cracked? Does the cover need a bit of love? Are your apps arranged badly? Does your phone need a bit of TLC?

Sometimes, we have small things that bother us that hover in the background, causing us minute but still noticeable stress.

A 2014 study shows that ‘hassles’, or small stresses, can actually affect mortality in men. It found that people with ‘medium hassles’ that increased in late life had a 63% higher mortality risk, while those with consistently high hassles “had independent effects on mortality”.

Should your phone be a hassle? No.

(Here’s a longer read about studies on the affect of stress on our health.)

That’s why we should try and curb the amount of little stresses something like a phone brings to our lives.

So today:

  • If your phone is broken, look up a qualified repair centre and arrange a repair date
  • If you have a tech question about your phone, google the question or ask a tech-minded friend. Or browse our Q-Tip series which has lots of little tech hints and tips.
  • Need a new cover, or one that helps prevent breaks? Go shopping for one or look online. Places like Society6 are great if you want a cover that has a print designed by an independent artist.
  • Want to change something about how your phone is laid out, what apps you prioritise, or set a new home screen? Take the time to do that.
  • Do you need new headphones or a new charger? Shop around.

Here are some examples our writers shared:

I had a spot on my camera lens for months that drove me to distraction. I even left it into a repair place to get it fixed. It eventually went away but it was stressful.
Anytime a permission gets enabled unexpectedly and things don’t work the way they should will have me stressed until I’ve fixed it.
I hate not getting notifications from some apps. You have to change about a hundred settings on my phone to always get them.
I had an old phone that was stressing me out by freaking out and hitting random buttons whenever it was on an Edge connection. I fixed this by… getting a new phone. But seriously that was driving me insane. I forgot that it was actually nice sometimes to use a smartphone.
Memory really stressed me out. Now I have Google photos, so all my photos are automatically saved to it whenever I connect to wifi (so if I lose my phone I still have my pictures). When that filled up I just bought more Google Photos storage, which wasn’t expensive. Cheaper than buying a harddrive. It’s great cos I don’t have to stress all the time about clearing my memory.
The phone I have now is slow to open apps, open the camera, the keyboard freezes frequently etc. It’s an old phone and it used to drive me absolutely mad. I switched back to after dropping my new one in the loo (three weeks after I got it) and I actually find all of that less annoying. I think it’s because I’m generally more zen about my phone anyway, so I put it away from me more frequently at home and the keyboard issue forces me to take breaks from texting and just call people.

Don’t have an issue with your phone? Then happy days. Enjoy the break.

Join us next week when we’ll be looking at the major tech stressors that can bother you, from questions about your bill to how to make sure your phone privacy is secure.

Let us know how the second week of Live A Better Life has been going for you in the comments. 

Live A Better Life: The series so far>

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 6:40 AM

    Why do they have to wait until the busiest weekends to do the work on the train lines? Could they not do that work at night during the week days and have it ready to bring people here and there during bank holidays?

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 7:09 AM

    @David Corrigan: They already do a lot of work at night, but for some work a 6 hour window is just not long enough, I presume. If it takes 2 hours to replace a gearbox you can’t do it in 4 separate bursts of 30 minutes.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 7:36 AM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: But they try and fit all the repairs into a 3 day weekend instead of doing it on a 5 day week. Kinda blows your theory out the window, eh?

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 8:31 AM

    @David Corrigan: No, they frequently work around the clock. A few years ago a small bridge needed replacing near my brother’s house. August bank holiday, they started at about 7.00pm on Friday and worked through, with floodlights, and finished about 4.00pm on the bank holiday Monday. Virtually 60 hours continuous work, in shifts. The bridge soan itself was gone for about 36 hours as the replaced the anchorage and supports. This type if work needs a large and continuous chunk of time, and can’t be done in a standard 9 to 5 day. So a decision us taken to disrupt ‘leisure’ traffic over a bank holiday rather than the working hours of 10s of 1000s of commuters during a working week. Some people may not like that decision, but you can’t please everybody. A shorter time disrupting fewer people.

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    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 9:11 AM

    @David Corrigan: One line closure over the weekend by Iarnrod Eireann on the Belfast line. And one closure by NIR (makes sense to do both works at the same time).
    Being a regular traveller on that line, I can tell you it is a lot busier during the week than it will ever be on any weekend.
    People complain these lines should be electrified and upgraded. But when a push comes to shove they don’t want the inconvenience. I’d say expect a lot more of this over the next couple of years as electrification and infrastructure upgrades are brought in.

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    Mute another one? what's going on is the semi state sec
    Favourite another one? what's going on is the semi state sec
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 9:14 AM

    @David Corrigan: It’s three days where it’s not busy with commuter traffic. Disrupting the majority of people on days off is better than disrupting them and businesses for work commutes I assume is the logic

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    Mute J Ven
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 10:08 AM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: why do all these repairs specifically this weekend? These problems didn’t arise overnight, if they checked as they should, they should have prevented any possible fault before the fault happened, it’s called prevention.
    You don’t wait until an airplane engine fails for you to repair it, it has mandatory service and diagnosis after a certain amount of time. the same goes for rail infrastructure. The fact that they had to repair them after they broke means that they didn’t check and keep track of them before so they can do a planned repair maintenance instead of a reactionary repair. That’s the problem

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 10:13 AM

    @J Ven: The bridge hadn’t broken. It hadn’t fallen. It was checked and deemed to need replacing. The continual repairs over the previous 100+ years were not enough anymore. So…… it was replaced. And it was decided to cause minimum disruption be doing it at a weekend where fewest people use it. (Am I correct in saying that every track is ‘walked’ and checked at least once a week??).

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:20 AM

    @Sean O’Dhubhghaill: how do other countries with 24/7 public transport manage their infrastructure maintenance without huge interruptions? Why is public transport here in Ireland treated as the ugly stepchild and not given adequate priority and funding? It’s beyond a joke that there’s only one North-South line on the east coast of this Ireland. It seems the motto is “Ah sure, it’s grand, who’d need alternatives, they have one railway, they should be happy”

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    Mute Sean O'Dhubhghaill
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:30 AM

    @Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Entire London tube lines are closed periodically. Entire stations closed.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:57 AM

    @David Corrigan: The figures show that the least amount of customers are affected if they use weekends including bank holidays.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:59 AM

    @J Ven: These are upgrades to the lines. As part of Dart + and the new Enterprise services to and from Belfast.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 12:00 PM

    @Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: They do exactly the same as Irish Rail and close likes and stations at weekends particularly bank holiday weekends.

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    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 12:01 PM

    @Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Cities like London have multiple lines going to most areas the way the web of lines are built. So closing one section isn’t as big a deal as here. Iarnrod Eireann and their contractors can only manage what they have. If you need extra lines and major upgrades well then that’s government infrastructure nation development plans, etc. So talk to your local TD. I’m sure he/she will oblige.
    That’s like saying the Road Haulage truck driver people should be building new motorways.

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    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 9:15 AM

    It’s obvious from some of the comments here that project management and logistics are not strong points of some journal readers.

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:21 AM

    @Fr. Fintan Stack: Neither are they strong points amongst the people who manage public transport here in Ireland. Or it wouldn’t be the misery it is

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    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:51 AM

    @Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: hmmm. I’d be interested to hear how you would manage say a piece of work that requires 40 hours work, like replacing track sections or upgrading or replacing singling infrastructure.

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 12:01 PM

    @Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: They are very effective in Irish Rail considering the hoops they have to jump through.

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 6:46 AM

    That would be two easy to do day are brain dead in this country full stop ✋️

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    Mute 6gRrQtLn
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 7:37 AM

    @Alan Moloney: says the man who can’t spell….

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    Mute Tom Newell
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 8:39 AM

    @Alan Moloney: says the lad who cant even spell correctly…..prime example of the brain dead here folks!

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 10:34 AM

    @Tom Newell: your one yourself

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 10:39 AM

    @6gRrQtLn: we are very funny today

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    Mute Eamon
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 10:41 AM

    @Alan Moloney: “You’re” or “you are” not “your”.

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 2:34 PM

    @Tom Newell: your one of them

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    Mute Alan Moloney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 6:12 PM

    @Eamon: what

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 9:41 AM

    Fair enough that works need to be done, but then provide viable alternatives and not a “limited” bus service

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    Mute Gary Kearney
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 12:04 PM

    @Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: A limited bus service in conjunction which the regular bus service.
    having had to do bus transfers before, there are enough buses for all the passengers.
    Sadly the transfers by bus were caused by sad events and had nothing to do with Irish Rail.

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    Mute Phillip Smyth
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 6:53 AM

    Typical and typically.

    9
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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 9:28 AM

    We apologize for the convenience caused, due to technical difficulties…

    God , I remember that deadly statement at least twice a week a decade ago… I bet that did not change.

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    Mute Tim
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:34 AM

    Why are we not allowed comment on the contraversal issues?

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    Mute 087 bed
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:11 AM

    Car share to minimise emissions, at an air display, PC BS. All the Best.

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    Mute Sean Money
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 11:11 AM

    I hope they have a stealth fighter jet

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    Mute Peter Dunwoody
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    Aug 3rd 2024, 3:35 PM

    This seems to happen regularly over bank holiday weekends, nearly yearly, massive overtime for all involved, Do we have an emergency Bus network reserved for these occurrences, or are buses taken from regular routes, depriving, regular bus passenger’s of their services.

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