Smartphones have become a lifeline for most of us. We spend a significant portion of our day with them. Maintaining their performance and security is essential to us, yet we ignore one surprisingly simple habit— powering them down regularly. The National Security Agency recommends powering off your smartphone at least once weekly. Here are 12 benefits of powering off your phone every week.
Maintains Optimal Performance
Using your phone without breaks can slow it down, cause app crashes, and drain your battery. These are usually the result of memory leaks, where apps occupy memory space but fail to release it after use.
Shut down your phone once a week to help prevent these issues. Powering off your device clears temporary memory, resets its systems, and addresses these performance problems. Shutting down your phone gives it a fresh start, like how sleep rejuvenates the human body.
Protects Against Hacking
You may not know it, but your phone is prone to hacking. Advanced hacking techniques like zero-click exploits silently operate in the background when your phone remains powered on.
Powering off your smartphone once a week helps protect against hacking attacks. It’s like closing all your house’s entry points to prevent unauthorized access. This small habit eliminates security vulnerabilities and offers protection for your data.
Deletes Cached Data
Some files, scripts, images, and other multimedia are stored on your phone when you open an app or a website for the first time. This data is used to reduce load time the next time you visit that site or app. This data can accumulate over time and cause issues such as app crashes, freezing, or unexpected glitches.
A complete shutdown of your phone helps reset the system by removing problematic temporary files. This habit can also reduce the strain on your phone’s battery and extend its life.
Prolongs battery life
When you shift from one app to another on your phone, you don’t really shut down the apps. These apps keep running in the background and significantly drain your phone’s battery life by utilizing system resources, processing power, and network connections.
To optimize battery life, you must close unused apps regularly, especially resource-heavy ones like navigation or social media. A weekly shutdown interrupts these background activities, giving your battery a break and improving overall device health.
If the rapid battery drain persists, a phone case with a built-in battery may provide additional power, but maintaining the habit of weekly shutdowns remains crucial for long-term benefits.
Resolves Connectivity Issues
Connectivity issues like a weak mobile data signal or a dropped Wi-Fi connection are common. These happen when your phone’s connection to networks gets stuck in problematic states. The phone may show full signal bars, but the speed remains slow and erratic.
Restarting your phone forces it to reset its connections, allowing it to detect the strongest signals and establish fresh links. This simple weekly habit can fix connection problems and ensure the reliable performance of your phone.
Patches Security Flaws
Mobile phones develop vulnerabilities like outdated software and unpatched security flaws over time. You can resolve these issues by regularly updating the software on your phone. Unfortunately, we sometimes miss these updates. Restarting allows the device to install pending updates and security patches, protecting it from known threats and ensuring it remains secure.
Environmental and Energy Benefits
Turning off your phone every week can help it run more efficiently. This simple act closes background apps, clears temporary files, and refreshes the system, allowing your phone to perform better. All this extends your phone’s lifespan and reduces the need for frequent replacements. It also uses less power, contributing to lower energy consumption.
Don’t leave your phone charging overnight. It repeatedly tops up between 99% and 100% and drains energy. Instead, charge it to 100%, turn it off, and unplug it in the morning for a fresh, ready-to-go device.
Improves Charging Efficiency
Most people keep their smartphones on while they recharge them, which slows down the process. Turning off your phone allows it to recharge faster since it doesn’t maintain any active connections or operations. This method is efficient and could help reduce electricity bills, especially if you frequently charge multiple devices.
Protects Privacy
Our smartphones continually collect and record our location data through GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. While the convenience of location-based services is undeniable, it raises significant concerns regarding personal privacy.
In addition to powering off your phone, the NSA recommends turning off location services when not in use, resetting your advertising ID weekly to limit tracking, and giving apps only the necessary permissions. These steps reduce the amount of your private information collected and shared, enhancing your privacy and security.
Health Benefits For You
Turning off mobile devices for a few hours helps reduce digital eye strain caused by too much screen time, with symptoms like headaches, dry eyes, blurred vision, and neck pain. It encourages your eyes to rest, lowers health risks and reduces stress and blue light exposure for better sleep. Taking breaks from screens is a smart and healthy habit for overall well-being.
Improves Productivity
The constant beeping and buzzing of smartphone alerts and notifications can interrupt workflow and decrease productivity. People tend to check their phones frequently, which further impacts their ability to engage in consistently productive work.
Turning off smartphones helps eliminate constant distractions, creating uninterrupted time for hard work and focused tasks. This improves concentration, critical thinking, and overall productivity.
Shut Down Your Phone Properly
Instead of using sleep mode or a quick restart, turn off your phone completely for a proper shutdown. Press the power button until the shutdown option appears and choose power off. Wait for the screen to go completely black. Leave the phone off for at least a minute to allow all systems to reset. Airplane mode or locking the screen does not provide the same benefits.
