7 Top Ways to Limit Your Screen Time

I used to be addicted to my phone. Overcoming that addiction is not a quick thing. I continue to have to fight it every day. And I have a feeling that if you’re reading this blog post, we’re in this fight to reduce screen time together.

I don’t think I have to explain to you the dangers of screen time, the harms of social media, the impact it has not only on us but on those around us, especially our kids. If you need any convincing of it, just check out The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt or Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

So I’m going to skip the lessons on why you need to reduce screen time and go straight to the how.

Delete the Apps

I’ve talked about this one before when discussing how I overcame my shopping addiction. But seriously, nothing will change until the apps that you spend the most time on are gone.

For me, YouTube was my biggest source of addiction. I LOVED YouTube. I still love YouTube, but now I just have to watch it on my mobile browser instead of the app and let me tell you… it’s not a great experience. And that’s exactly the point. I know now that if I’m willing to put up with the less than stellar experience on the mobile web to take some time to watch a couple of videos, then it’s worth those moments of my time. But I’m no longer just scrolling through mindlessly on my homepage looking for content to consume. I’m very intentional now with the videos I’m searching for and the reasons why and that for me made all the difference.

So take a look at your screen time stats in your phone (if you don’t know how to do this, go into your Settings, scroll down, and tap on Screen Time!). Check out which apps you spend the most time on and challenge yourself, do you want to be there? Is that where you want your time spent? No? Get rid of it. If you’ve really made a mistake, it’s always easy to go back and redownload.

Leave Phone Outside Bedroom

I talked about this one in my “5 Daily Habits for Peace and Calm” post because it’s one of those habits that once I started implementing it, I’ll never go back. It started with knowing that I needed to reduce screen time, especially close to bed. It distracted me even turned face down on the nightstand because while reading, I’d have all these thoughts pop up in my head that I’d want to address right away with a quick check for something on my phone. And that “quick” check that started as just a couple seconds turned into 10 minutes, and then 20, and then 30. By the time I finally pulled myself away from my screen, I was so frustrated and upset at myself that I had a hard time falling asleep.

My phone now charges every night in my kitchen and all that temptation to “quickly” check something has disappeared. I’m able to fully focus on my book or gratitude journal, fall asleep quicker, and wake up feeling refreshed with no desire to immediately unlock the phone.

Turn ON Notifications

This one is going to sound weird, but hear me out. For certain apps, especially those I used to have for work, I found myself consistently checking them upwards of 30 times a day because I never knew if someone was trying to get a hold of me, if a meeting invite may have changed, if a priority popped up that would better help me prepare for the next day, etc. My work was unique in that I really needed to be aware of things even past normal work hours, so this habit was annoying but I didn’t feel like I could just stop completely.

So this was a unique situation where once I turned on notifications for my work email and messages, my screen time and urge to check those apps totally decreased. I knew if someone was trying to get a hold of me or if something had changed, I’d get notified and if I wasn’t getting notified, nothing was there to read.

The point of this advice is to get us to stop picking up and unlocking our phones as much as possible throughout the day. Once you unlock your phone, there’s too much temptation to continue to scroll even after a “quick check” for something. So if there are certain apps you constantly check and unlock your phone to do so, maybe those are good candidates to actually turn ON notifications, as long as it is encouraging good behavior.

But Also Turn Them Off

Now, let’s be real. Most apps do not need notifications turned on and doing so unfortunately does not encourage good behavior. Good behavior here is defined as not picking up, unlocking your phone, and scrolling through it. So while there may be times where turning on notifications is helpful like the scenario above, there will probably be more times where turning them off is the way to go. Most social media (can you think of any exception?) will fall into this bucket of turning off the notifications.

ScreenZen

“Jessie, I hear you on deleting the apps and the notifications and all that, but I have enough self-control to still have them on my phone without using them… so what gives?”

Okay, if I can’t convince you to get rid of the apps entirely yet, then the compromise is ScreenZen. It’s an awesome app that allows you to customize settings for blocking the use of certain apps. Once you download it, you can select which apps you want it to gate behind certain rules you define. So for example, before I got rid of YouTube, I tried ScreenZen for it and it did help (just not entirely). I set up a rule that only allowed me to open the YouTube app 3 times a day for 20 minutes each time. After that, it was totally blocked. This made me more intentional with when I was actually opening the app and how I was consuming content on it during each session.

Now… the problem… you can get around these rules. You can make it very difficult for yourself, true, but you can get around them. For me, there was always something mentally pulling me back to the app if it was on my phone even when it was blocked and only after deleting the app did that urge go away. BUT, ScreenZen might do wonders for you and it’s a fantastic start to becoming more intentional with your apps.

Track Your Mood

I don’t want you coming away from this post thinking all social media or phone apps are bad and we all just need to go back to flip phones. That isn’t the case. There may be very positive benefits of certain apps and socials that we want to keep in our lives, but just with more intentionality.

This is going to be so personal to each person so what I’d urge you to do is become more aware of your mood after visiting certain sites and apps. Do you come away from that content feeling inspired, motivated, wanting to create? Do you come away more knowledgeable about something you’re passionate about? These are all good things. But on the flip side, do you come away from that content wanting to purchase things you don’t need? Do you feel envious, discontent, wanting more, angry, or anxious? This is the content we want to pinpoint and address. Keep the things in your life that bring you joy and cut out the rot.

Find Better Hobbies

Reducing screen time will inevitably come with more time opened up for other things. You may already have certain goals in mind with cutting screen time because of time you’d like to dedicate to other pursuits. But you may also just want to be cutting screen time because you know it’s the best thing to do. Both reasons are perfect. But if it’s the latter, at first, you may not know what to do with this time and fall back into scrolling out of boredom.

So find better hobbies at the start of this journey. I picked up coloring (so relaxing), gardening, blogging, and continue to love reading. You may want to work out, spend more time with your kids, heck you may just even want more time to take care of your neighborhood in Animal Crossing. Whatever it is, as long as it is a hobby that brings you peace, joy, or fulfillment, pursue that and you will find your motivation to cut screen time increased tenfold.

I’d love to know what other habits and tips helped you cut your screen time or what your motivation for cutting screen time is and hopefully some of these tips helped.

Happy simplifying!