You’re probably reading this on your phone right now [aside from the few opting for a desktop version]. Smartphones have replaced most house phones and practically serve as the majority source of information. While screen time is necessary and pretty unavoidable in our modern world, one question remains. How do you limit your time spent on the phone without becoming a digital hermit? Luckily for you, we’re somewhat of a whiz when it comes to this stuff. Thats why we’ve rounded up 10 tips for you to cut your screen time in half, so you can get back to the outside world…our weekend events is a good place to start!
1. Turn on Screen Time on your iPhone (and actually check it)
When Apple launched its iOS 12 operating system, it introduced Screen Time – a function which tracks exactly how much time you spend engaging with your phone. Accessible via ‘Settings’, you have to turn Screen Time on for it to start recording your data. When you do, it’ll record how long you spend each day on your phone, breaking it down into different categories including ‘social networking’, ‘productivity’, ‘entertainment’ and more.
2. Download the Digital Wellbeing app on Android
On Google’s Pixel phones, you can utilize the Digital Wellbeing app in Settings, which is similar in function to Apple’s Screen Time. The dashboard helps users understand how they’re using their phones, with a graphic of how frequently different apps are used, how many times the phone is unlocked, and how many notifications it receives. There’s also an App Timers function, which lets you limit the time spent on them, and a Wind Down feature which puts your device into Do Not Disturb mode and fades the screen to grayscale to help you disconnect at night.
3. Download Flipd
If you can’t be trusted to enforce your own limits on screen time, download an app that’ll do it for you. Flipd lets you lock your phone for a set period of time – with no option to go back once you’ve done the deed – not even if you restart your phone. Bravery required, but you’ll thank yourself for it. (Plus, it’s free if you want to use it at a basic level.)
4. Switch off iPhone’s ‘Raise To Wake’ feature
iPhone owners will be aware that whenever they pick up their phone, the lock screen will appear, displaying any notifications waiting for you. You’ll probably also be aware how distracting this can be; you only picked up your phone to check the time, and now you’re down a Whatsapp hole, replying to the 45 messages your friends (who clearly don’t have jobs to go to) have been busy sending you over the past half hour. But there’s a way to reduce that distraction, and the accumulating screen time that goes with it: switch off the ‘Raise To Wake’ setting that enables your iPhone to turn on every time you pick it up. Here’s how to do it: Settings > Display > Brightness > switch Raise to Wake toggle off.
5. Install Teeny Breaks in your browser
Remember limiting screen time isn’t just cutting down on your smartphone use – it can also be about stepping away from your computer more often. Teeny Breaks is an app built by an ex-Googler, which you install on your computer to remind you to get away from your computer screen, even if only for a short time. The app reminds you to take breaks at work by offering tips backed by research – like ‘take a walk’ or ‘take a musical break’ – about how to distance yourself.
6. Disable autoplay on streaming services
Binging TV shows takes up a lot of our time these days, but there’s a simple way you could reduce your temptation to devour episode after episode each night. Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are automatically set to have autoplay on, meaning when you reach the end of one episode, it’ll give you a short countdown before playing the next one. By disabling this, you’ll have to make the conscious decision to click ‘play’ and watch the next episode, increasing the likelihood you might decide you actually have more productive (non-screen-related things) you could be doing instead.
How to disable autoplay on Netflix:
Sign in and click on ‘Your Account’
In the ‘My Profile’ section, click on ‘Playback settings’
Untick the box that says ‘Play next episode automatically’ in ‘Preferences’
How to disable autoplay on Amazon Prime:
Sign in and go to ‘Settings’
Find ‘Player Preferences’ and look for the ‘Autoplay’ toggle
Switch it to off
7. Set Whatsapp to Vacation Mode
We all know you can mute Whatsapp groups to stop being notified of all the incessant chat going on in your groups, but Whatsapp is reportedly introducing a setting that helps people go one step further when they want to switch off (without actually switching the phone off – we wouldn’t go that far). Currently, it’s still in development, but when Vacation Mode (will they call it Holiday Mode for us in the UK?) launches, it’ll mean you get no notifications about messages even when you open the app – they get immediately archived. Only when you switch Vacation Mode back off will your missed messages come flooding through.
8. Download Freedom
If you’re not quite prepared to go the whole hog of locking your phone entirely, there’s another app that might work better for you. Freedom works across multiple devices (so you can use it on your phone, tablet and computer) to block certain sites or apps for a set amount of time, ensuring you aren’t distracted by them. Freedom’s function to enforce blocks across more than one device means you can’t cheat the system by logging on to TopShop’s website on your phone when you’ve already blocked it on your laptop.
The app’s free trial lasts for 7 blocking sessions (length determined by you), but after that you’ll have to cough up for your self-imposed tech restraining order.
9. Get free counseling for high levels of screen time
After discovering that more than a quarter of people use their phones for four or more hours a day, online local services marketplace Bark.com decided to offer a free counseling session to people on the more… intense end of a smartphone addiction.
iPhone users who spend more than 6 hours a day on their phones – and pick it up 300 or more times a day – can apply to be given a free counseling session by someone in their local area here. If that doesn’t curb your usage, we don’t know what will…
10. Download Siempo
We’re simple creatures, really, and that means part of the reason we get so captured by our phone home screens is because of how ~colorful~ they are. Siempo, an app currently only available on Android phones, changes that.
Siempo transforms your smartphone home screen into a more intentional and less distracting digital experience by literally simplifying it with a black and white display minus all the distracting app icons that represent your apps. As well as that, it enables you to select ‘batch notifications’, so you’ll get them all in one go at specified intervals. It can randomize the location of your distracting apps, making it hard to find and open them, and it also offers the opportunity to include an ‘intention’ – a personalized you’ll see every time you unlock your phone – that would be helpful to read dozens of times each day. Nothing short of genius.
Content Sourced from: Consumer Reports and Cosmopolitan
