>then when I concisely looked at my phone I was thought “well there’s nothing to do here why did I pick it up?”

I think of this as a possibly universal psychological trick that can allow you to slowly adjust your behaviour.

I.e:

- To do less of something, think of how useless the impulse is when it happens. I.e. dull the impulse.

- (To do more of something, be on the lookout for and amplify any impulse that drives towards that behaviour.)

It seems kind of obvious but sometimes we amplify bad behaviour by punishing ourselves and end up amplifying the impulse.