Adults, their phones and mindfulness

Being the good little yuppie that I am (vomit face) I was listening to marketplace on the way home from work today, and they had an excellent segment on adults and their phones.  I perked up about this segment, not only for the climax of the girl backing up her argument with data (fantastic job!), but because this is a problem which my significant other and I have recently learned how to solve.

I am terrible at using my phone inappropriately, being sucked into it and not paying attention to others.  The solution which we found to work, with no help from google mind you, which is centered around teens and their phones.  Is in fact mindfulness.  I tell my SO what I'm about to do on my phone.  If I need to tell my roommate something, say I realize it is trash day, I verbally say "I am texting Sarah we have to take out the trash".  This way he knows what I'm doing.  What this solution seems to fix is the problem which is pointed out in the segment:

Scott Campbell is a communications professor at the University of Michigan. He studies the way mobile devices affect people. Habit, says Campbell, is not about how much a person uses their cell phone, it’s about intentionality.

“Habit means that you’re not thinking about what you’re doing. That it’s an automatic kind of reaction. I think people use mobile technology in a more reflexive way..."

Since I am being mindful on my phone useage, I don't have the reflex any more to grab it and flick through apps in a practically meaningless manner.  Although, I still find myself doing this when he is not around.  I suppose my next battle is with myself.