Guy who succeeded in cutting his phone usage by 80% shares his tips and powerful insights
He says cutting down has been "hard, but life changing."
These are actually really helpful.
Almost all of us at one point have attempted to reduce our screentime in an effort to thwart its addictive tendencies. Whether that’s incorporating some kind of app usage monitoring, keeping the phone away from arms reach in the morning, using one of those fancy phone locking pouches, etc. But boy, is it hard not to fall right back into the same pattern.
That’s why it always feels appropriate to hear from folks who have somehow managed to not only do the impossible, but stay consistent with it. You never know what tips and tricks you might find to make your own screen reduction dream a reality.
Recently someone shared how they were able to rescue their screen time by a whopping 80%. Here’s how they did it.
On the r/productivity subreddit, user u/jjohn6646 (whom we'll just call "John") shared how previously he would spend 4+ hours on social media (including Reddit) and 2+ hours on messaging and work stuff.
The biggest things that helped him go from going from 6 hours of phone usage a day to only 1 measly hour were as follows:
Creating a 30-day weaning off plan.
John shared that rather than going cold turkey, each week he would cut back by one hour (though he ended up doing more than that).
Incorporating a tangible reminder.
Placing a rubber band over his phone reminded John to ask himself, “Is this the best usage of mental energy right now?” each time he reached for his device.
Having a go-to "redirect."
For John, it was a book. For others it could be a journal, a simple craft, stretching, sprucing up around the house…you get the idea.
Using an app blocker with stricter settings than iOS screen time.
Quite simply because “iOS defaults are too easy to skip.” AppBlock comes highly recommended for its strict mode settings.
On that note, John added that it helped to set up "morning" and "evening" downtime blocks with the app to eliminate any distracting app during crucial parts of the day. He also only allotted a specific amount of opens for each individual distracting app.
Embracing the boredom.
This one is perhaps the most important of all. It can be so difficult to withstand the pressures of needing to fill every second of time. Even when we’re trying to let go of bad habits, there’s the inherent obligation to replace it with a “productive” one. Social media (and almost all technology we use on a daily basis, really) only exacerbates this. But in reality, we are not designed to be productive or stimulated 24/7.
But as John reminds us, “Our minds tend to panic when we don't have ‘something to do,’ but if you can push through the initial panic, there is a real sense of calm on the other side.”
What I learned while reducing phone screen time by 80% — 6 hrs per day to 1hr
byu/jjohn6646 inproductivity
Having successfully met his goal, John also took away some valuable insights sure to give anyone a little inspiration for their own screen reduction endeavors:
- There is more time in the day than you realize
- It's extremely easy to "slip," as I have many times in the past
- Being "productive" doesn't always mean reaching for your phone just for the sake of doing something — sometimes doing nothing can set you up for more long term productivity
- We are meant to be bored sometimes (and being bored can make you enjoy the little things more)
John prompted a number of readers to thank him for his advice and even share their own helpful tidbits as well.
“Once I realized all of these notifications and apps were just fancy fidget spinners, and I was designing my own hamster wheel, my interest in smartphones greatly decreased,” one person wrote.
“Great advice, thanks for sharing! Another tip I find helps is to keep a small notebook to hand. I found myself reaching for my phone all the time to check something or look something up. Write down any questions or things to look up online in the notepad, then spend a short allocated time at some point in the day to look them all up in one hit, rather than constantly reaching for the phone,” added another.
Another gushed, “Wow this is really inspiring and helpful. I went through a phase where I deleted all social media from my phone and my creativity, reading, meditation time skyrocketed. I fell back into the habit after a while and am back to 5-6 hours of screen time a day. I delete Reddit, then redownload it the same day. 😭 But this post just gave me the push I need, broke it down in an easy practical way. Thank you op!”
Sometimes we just need to see that a hard thing can be done in order for us to commit to doing it ourselves. If you're looking to reduce your screen time (which let’s be honest, is all of us) take it from John:
It’s “hard, but life changing.”
A girl is losing herself to her smartphone. via 
A man is losing herself to her smartphone.via 
People are losing themselves to smartphone addiction.via