Ever see movies with a scene where the main character is hiding from the bad guys and couldn’t call the police because of a dead phone battery? The dead phone battery cliché translates so well in real life. Imagine running late for a meeting and find out you have less than 3% charge—do you dash out the door and risk it? Or do you spare five precious minutes to charge your phone?

Some people may think that five minutes isn’t enough to make a difference, but the opposite is true. We’ll explain why and walk you through this electric circuit crash course.

Mind the Watts

Wattage is how much energy the device uses to do its work. The watts on your phone charger indicates how much power it uses to recharge your battery. To illustrate, say that your phone came with a 10W charger but your phone can take up a maximum of 22W. If you want to charge your battery at a faster rate, you can use a charger with a higher wattage. Just don’t go over 22W.

A charger with a higher wattage allows more electrical current to flow through at a more forceful rate. The same goes for charging your phone from a wall socket versus USB charging from a laptop. If you need to fill up your battery right away, choose to charge with wall socket instead.
So when you are out and shopping for phone accessories, you might want to check your charger and phone specifications to maximize your purchase. However, if your phone can only take 10W and your charger is already working at 10W, there is not much you can do but tweak some of your phone’s settings.

Wired Over Wireless Charging
When given the choice, always choose wired charging over wireless because it can deliver electrons at a more forceful voltage. Wireless charging can be convenient if you are not in a hurry or if your phone is just on standby.

Check on your charging cable every now and then for any breaks or deterioration. If you are in the market for a new one, buy a better quality cable. Avoid suspiciously cheap cables as these usually let less current flow through. Ask for a 24-gauge phone charger cable instead.

Switch to Airplane Mode

If turning your device off is out of the question, why not switch it to airplane mode? When you switch to Airplane mode, it turns off your Bluetooth, wi-fi connectivity, network signal, GPS and location, NFC, and mobile data. All these things use up power. If you are waiting for important calls or emails, you can just turn some off the connectivity features you don’t need off instead.

Tweak Your Settings
Does your device have a charging mode or a low battery usage mode? Switch to those modes when low on battery and while charging. It will dim your display, disable your wallpaper, and other features that wouldn’t really affect usage.