Up until a few months ago when the screen time app from Apple was yet to be released I was happily scrolling through my phone without a care in the world and then boom, as soon as I got that iOS update I soon realised how much time I actually spent on my phone and not enjoying what was around me. So enough was enough and somethings needed to change and I thought i’d share some tips with you on how i’ve been making those changes by cutting down on screen time.
Continue reading for some tips on how you too can cut down on screen time…
I feel like I’m at an AA meeting, ‘Hi i’m charlotte and I can spend up to 48 hours on Instagram in one single week’ but seriously I needed to do something about it because it made me feel physically unwell to learn I had given up two whole days within a 7 day period to scroll through Instagram. Imagine all of the things I could’ve done in that time?! Not going to lie I still use my phone quite a lot, but I have found a bit more of a happy balance with it and I know when and when not to use it.
Set Your Down Times
The worst one for me was scrolling through Instagram or social media when i’m at work. In between work saving or have a quick flick whilst having my 11am coffee and snack, so when Apple introduced down time which essentially stops you being able to open specific apps, I found it really helped me to focus and be a lot more productive. Yes you can obviously ignore the downtime for 15 minutes and you can set it to always include certain apps but all in all I do pretty well to stay clear of social media throughout the day at work. For me I set my down time between 9am – 5pm, and I’ll allow myself a quick break around lunch time at 1pm, but other than that I typically stay off it unless you know something comes up and I just have to share a quick snap on my Insta story *eye roll*. If you haven’t explored screen time from Apple, you can read more on it here.
‘Do Not Disturb’ Will Become a Life Saver
For as long as I can remember i’ve had my phone on ‘do not disturb’ mode and fully on silent with no vibrations, why? because it stops me getting distracted from every single notification that comes up on my phone. For me I used to find that every time my phone would light up i’d pick it up straight away and completely lose all focus on the tasks I was in the middle of, and instead it means that I can choose when I want to pick my phone up to see if anyone has messaged me or slid into my DM’s (lol, even though 9 times out of 10 no one has messaged me).
Set Yourself Limits
As I mentioned in the setting down times section, know when you can have a quick scroll through the gram and set limits to that because we all know how much we can get sucked into things and find ourself looking at photos from 2014 of people we don’t even know, or that just me? Like I said I allow myself typically 15 minutes to scroll and then that it, back to what I was doing. Granted on a weekend I do not stick to this as much but if i’m busy I find it really helps me to focus.
Turn off Pointless Notifications
For me I find it so annoying when I get 50+ notifications after uploading an Insta post, or for every retweet/favourite of a scheduled tweet, yes it’s nice to see people interacting with my posts but I can see that for myself when I open the app of which I do regularly enough to see anyway. For me i’ve limited my notifications to the ones I need to know about aka messages, phone calls and DM’s because those are the things that I kind of need to get back to.
Get Out More
Last tip from me because all of the above have been about our phones, and instead of spending time looking at your phone, get out and enjoy more time away from your phone. Yes of course take your phone incase of an emergency but enjoy what you’re doing and the company that you’re in. No one is going to bat an eyelid if you’ve not uploaded your view or brunch to insta stories because no one really gives a sh*t lets be honest.
So those are just a few tips and ways in which i’ve been cutting down on screen time, and although i’m still getting to grips with it, i’ve definitely noticed a difference in my productivity and head space.
How are you cutting down on screen time?
