This report is the second piece to the last weeks article and 2025 EA survey ‘Are you in control of your phone’. To read the article go here
While EAs manage work boundaries well, most acknowledge their phones interfere with personal life.
Most respondents (80%) use their phone as a morning alarm, meaning it’s the last thing they see at night and first thing each morning. Only 20% ban phones during family meals – and just 4% turn their phones off when they get home.
Two-thirds (67%) simultaneously watch TV and scroll on their phones. Nearly a quarter (23%) said they and their partner often find themselves on the sofa, scrolling rather than talking to each other. Not one household bans mobiles during weekday evenings.
The control question
When asked about their relationship with their phone, only 28% of respondents claim to be fully in control. The rest acknowledge it takes up too much of their time.
More than three in ten use their phone to avoid social interaction and spend too much time on it. Two respondents described their mobile as “all consuming” and said they find it difficult to concentrate on one subject for too long.
While no one reported relationship breakups due to phone overuse, over a third concede it sometimes gets in the way of their relationships. And perhaps most concerning, 40% said their mobile phone use has reduced their ability to concentrate.
Managing your phone time
Over a third of respondents (35.7%) don’t have a strategy for managing their mobile phone time. For those who do, approaches vary from setting specific times to check messages, using app timers or designating phone-free zones at home.
“We’ve become sophisticated managers of mobile phones for work, but the same can’t be said for our personal lives.”
The message for employers is clear – providing work phones to employees and keeping personal use separate could benefit team wellbeing, improve retention rates and boost day-to-day productivity. For EAs, the findings suggest we’ve mastered professional phone management but struggle with personal boundaries. We’re experts at protecting our executives’ time and attention, yet less skilled at protecting our own.
What this means for you
Your phone is essential to your role but the survey reveals an uncomfortable truth – we’ve accepted significant changes to our personal lives without much resistance. The collective response seems to be a sheepish acknowledgment that yes, perhaps our phones control us more than we control them.
The good news? You’re managing work boundaries well. The challenge? Applying those same skills to your personal life. If you can create boundaries for your executive, you can create them for yourself.
