5 Simple Tips to Reduce Screen Time on your Phone and Feel Less Stressed

Every Sunday about 10:00 am, my iPhone likes to ping with a little notification that fills me in on my “screen time” over the past week.

Is it just me, or do you also CRINGE when this notification pops up? To be honest, I’d rather ignore the report because living in ignorance just seems simpler, right? Ignorance is bliss. That is, unless you’re trying to better yourself. Then ignorance is the little red flag showing you where you need work.

And it wasn’t that long ago that I decided I could no longer ignore the reports: Reducing screen time on my phone was an area that needed work.

It wasn’t even so much about the number I saw or the percentage each week on that report. It was more of the realization that I had no boundaries on my screen time. If I was picking up my phone each time there was a lull in the action, what else was I missing out on? What was I cutting myself short on? Was I so busy recording things and taking pictures and scrolling that I was missing out on just BEING with my family?

If you’re feeling the same way, and you’re also feeling like working on reducing your screen time is something small you can tackle right now while our world is in chaos (thanks for that btw, COVID-19), here’s a few helpful tips that can have you cringing less at your Sunday “screen time” report:

1. “time Block” Your Phone Time.

Which sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it? What I mean by this, is to consider picking your phone up only at certain times during the day, not every time it dings with a notification.

The point of this is is two-fold:

1. Less distraction as we practice not reacting to our phones and picking them up every single time we hear the ping. (Because if you’re anything like me, it’ll lead you down a rabbit hole of watching John Krasinki’s “Some Good News” when you were only going to reply to a quick text message.)
2. Eliminating “the scroll” that tends to be our go-to reaction whenever we have a free minute. Whenever the kids are playing quietly, or you’re in the waiting room at the clinic, or the drive-thru line is backed up. (<– No? Just me then? Ok.😉)

So, for me, I’m still working 5 days a week, which helps me to block out phone time. I take a few minutes over lunch, a few minutes at break, etc.

As a special note: I also choose not to check any social media apps until after I’ve completed my morning routine every day. I know, I know. It sounds totally cheesy, but this has helped me to keep from rolling out of bed and immediately scrolling my phone from any over-night notifications. And it’s been LIFE-GIVING, so I highly recommend not letting yourself wake up and immediately check your phone if you can help it!

2. Set an alarm at night to remind you to put your phone down.

Let’s call this one a work in progress, shall we? Some nights I’m better at this than others!

However, I’ve learned that the best way to reduce screen time is to give your phone a quitting time. Setting an alarm is a helpful reminder to put your phone down for the night, so you don’t end up mindlessly scrolling for hours when you should be getting shuteye or doing something else. (Even though folding laundry sounds much less exciting than seeing what my favorite celebs are up to!)

I have an alarm set for 8:15 every weeknight on my phone that literally says, “Phone down.” Most nights I try to stick to this, but like I said, this one is still a work in progress for me.

I also know others who make sure to leave their phone completely out of the bedroom at night when they sleep, which is a good idea to try, too, if you’re looking to reduce screen time before bed.

3. Delete social media apps Off Your Phone one day a week.

I don’t know why, but I used to be deathly afraid of deleting apps off of my phone. For whatever reason, I thought that if you deleted anything, you’d lose all your data and info and it would be a pain to redownload.

WELL, turns out I was wrong about that. It’s actually super easy to redownload your social media apps, which means there’s no excuse when it comes to clicking that little “delete app” button.

So I quit worrying that my password would be forgotten and I started deleting all social media apps from my phone each Sunday. And it’s been the most freeing thing ever!

Yes, I could still go online and check for updates if I really wanted to. But the truth is, once these apps are off my phone, I kind of forget about them. I don’t have any notifications digging or popping up on my phone. The only notifications I get on Sunday’s are personal email (which isn’t much) and text messages. It’s. AMAZING.

Deleting social media apps from my phone every Sunday has been the best decision I’ve ever made to help me reduce screen time. I don’t feel stressed and I don’t feel like I’m tied to my phone. I can take a day and just BE without worrying what everyone else is doing. Plus I come back to it on Monday with a fresh perspective and a renewed spirit.

And speaking of deleting apps…

4. Delete Apps that aren’t Serving You.

Don’t be afraid to clear up any unused or less-than-joyful to you apps. If you have apps just sitting out on your phone, it takes 5 minutes of your time to go out and delete them.

This is especially a good idea if you have an app that you rarely (or never) use, but it’s sending you notifications. DELETE, my friend! The less you have pinging at you, the better you’ll feel! It’s science. (Ok, not really, but I feel like it should be.)

5. Clean House on Social.

Time to practice using that little “Unfollow” button, sis! The less you have to scroll through, the less you’ll have bogging you down when you are using your phone.

I kid you not, it’s such a game changer. And so freeing! I noticed just last week that I had a few people/businesses on Instagram that I’d see a post from every now and then and think, “Who is posting this again? I don’t remember following them.” But somewhere along the line I did, and now it’s bogging down my feed!

I want to make my social media all about joy and make sure it’s serving me. You get to choose what you want your Instagram feed to look like! So don’t feel guilty unfollowing someone or something that isn’t serving you or building you up.

This is my own personal choice, but I want to be sure that when I leave Instagram, I’m feeling inspired and motivated. I want it to be a source of joy and light, not a source of negativity and fake news. (Ha, sorry couldn’t help myself with the “fake news” comment there.)

Wrapping Up.

As a final little note here, consider the fact that reducing screen time isn’t an end-all-be-all thing. There’s no special number to get to or a perfect, straight-A student report each Sunday when you find out how much screen time you had.

Just remember: Progress over perfection. Where can you cut back this next week? Where did you struggle the most? What other things can you try to get yourself where you want to be? The goal is not to never be on your phone. That would be crazy-talk and I would never encourage extremes! The goal is to simply be on our phones less to make sure we’re leaving plenty of space for the good stuff – The stuff that lights up our soul and the stuff we’ll be glad we were present for when we look back on our lives. The stuff that matters.

***OVER TO YOU: Are you feeling stuck in survival mode? Or like you’re simply going through the motions each day? First of all, you’re not alone! And second, I have a few ideas that could help you. Click here and download 5 simple things you can do today to bust through “survival mode!”