Wondering how to reduce your screen time?
We get it, another lockdown means endless hours spare in your day. For most of us, we don’t want to jump on the banana bread hype and would rather just enjoy this time to be a bit of a slob. No judgements here.
However, we’re all guilty of it – staring at screens all day. It’s pretty hard not to in a digital world but all that screen time isn’t just bad for your eyes, it’s bad for your mind too. Now, we’re not here to be all preachy about it, don’t worry. But we could all be putting in a bit more effort to get away from the screens as much as possible.
So, here are some of our tips on how to reduce your screen time.
Set app timers on your phone
Whatever your vice is (we’re looking at you, TikTok), it’s important to set yourself some limits. Pretty much all phones will have an option to set screen time allowances. If you go into your settings and search for ‘app timers’, you should get a screen that will enable you to set a limit for each individual app.
This is a great way of creating some boundaries between you and your phone. If you check out your screen time report on your phone, you’ll likely be shocked at how many hours you waste in your day on certain apps. By setting a timer, you will be locked out of that particular app until the next day.
Don’t panic, you can override the timers if you want to, they aren’t set in stone. So, if you’re a classic millennial working in social media marketing, you can adjust the time limits by adding on minutes if you need them.
Stop taking your phone everywhere
In terms of how to reduce your screen time, this one requires a little more commitment.
Are you guilty of taking your phone literally everywhere with you? It’s time to put an end to the physical connection between you and your device.
Maybe you take your phone in the bath with you or keep it next to you while you’re watching a movie. Either way, chances are you are probably always within reaching distance of your phone. That means whenever you get a notification, you hop straight on to check it out. Or sometimes you just unlock the screen to see if you’ve missed anything – we’re conditioned!
Putting your phone in a different room when you’re doing other activities takes away that temptation. If you’re having a bath, take a book instead. If you’re watching a film, put your phone on silent or leave it somewhere else in the house. It’s a habit and it will take a while to get used to it, but you’ll get there eventually.
Disable unimportant notifications
“Someone you know is on Instagram” – Gee, thanks for the update.
We’re all used to getting these pointless notifications that have us reaching for our phone to see what the alert was. Not only are they a waste of time but they are also annoyingly irrelevant.
Jump on to the setting either in the app or on your phone and change the types of notifications you get. You’d be surprised at how many pre-set notifications your apps are set to give you. Strip them down to the bare essentials and put an end to the stupid alerts that are increasing your screen time.
Stop charging your phone in your bedroom
Guys, we are literally joined at the hip with our phones. They may as well be a detachable part of our bodies – which is terrifying!
Most of us will charge our phones next to our beds. That way, we can check them last thing before bed and first thing in the morning. You may be thinking, ‘but, I use my phone as an alarm’. Girl get an alarm clock stop making excuses.
Charge your phone in the kitchen so that when you get up in the morning and make your first cuppa, you can look at your phone then. This way, you’re at least out of bed and not vegetating in the duvet, eyes locked on your screen.
There you have it, a few tips on how to reduce your screen time. Now, more than ever, let’s try to get outdoors and enjoy the simple things in life – without the phones.