Across more than fifty studies, people who feel their partner is on the phone when they're together report lower relationship satisfaction. The effect isn't huge, but it's consistent, and it's about how it feels to be the one being ignored, more than how much the phone is actually used. In a field experiment with meals, phones on the table made people more distracted and made the meal less enjoyable. Evidence: decent
Face down is still on the table. The person opposite you can see it, and so can the part of you that wants to check it.
Same theme: Day to day
Day to day
Answer the small stuff
When your partner points something out, a bird, a headline, a thing about their day, look up and say something. Three seconds.
no timeEvidence: worth trying
Day to day
Do something new together
Ninety minutes a week, something neither of you has done. A climbing wall, a cooking class, a town you've never been to. Slightly out of your depth is the point.
90 min a weekEvidence: decent
Day to day
Hug for a slow count of twenty
Before a hard day, or a hard conversation, one long hug. Count to twenty in your head. No talking.
1 minEvidence: decent