6 Ways to Reduce Screen Time
I’ve created a new resource to help you reduce screen time to be more present, productive and connected - without relying on willpower. I share that here, and discuss what led me to it.
Click here to download the free resource: 6 Ways to Reduce Screen Time.
For some time now, I’ve felt like my phone has almost become an extension of myself… it is often wherever I am, and there’s that vague sense of anxiety experienced when we don’t have our phones with us. I’ve even caught myself automatically Googling the answer to something that I could work out myself if I just let my mind sit with it and be creative for a few moments, or blindly following the Google Maps voice instead of taking cues from the streetscape in front of me - what a waste of my own resourcefulness and creativity, not to mention disconnection from the richness of life!
And so I started to question where the balance was for me - I think there’s a sweet spot to be found where a certain amount of device use keeps us informed, connected, and exposed to new ideas and resources, without being distracting, addictive, or intrusive… and I set out to find that balance for myself.
It hadn’t occured to me that in doing so, I was about to realise just how subconsiously I had been using my phone. It far exceeded what I had been aware of, and it was only in putting some actions in place to break the habit loop that I discovered just how much of a habit loop had formed!
A lot of people try to use willpower to cut back their screentime, or to put their phones away. But the problem with that is that willpower doesn’t account for the strength of the patterns that play out subconsciously. The subconscious is thought to drive 95-97% of our behaviour. Bringing awareness to the patterns can be a huge light-bulb moment - it certainly was for me.
One thing I did was take the colour off my phone. Looking at a news feed in black and white can get incredibly boring, and so whenever I automatically picked up my phone to check a notification, and then got pulled into the reflexive scrolling action - I was suprised to see just how quickly I got over it without the brain-stimulating colours. The phone went away a lot more quickly!
The most recent change I made was deleting my social media apps. As you know, I recently quit social media (you can read about that here). I was excited to do so, but what happened in the days and weeks following that has blown me away. I’ve found myself, several times a day, with my phone open in my hand, and my thumb hovering in a rather lost way over the screen - wondering ‘What am I doing?!’ It hit me that the old subconscious pattern of just popping into FB or Insta for a quick check while I had my phone out was still trying to play itself out… but now my thumbs had no app to open and no way to continue the pattern. The habit loop has been interupted! And my eyes have been opened to just how strong the pattern was.
What I’m voicing is nothing new - people have been trying to find balance with devices and screen time for a long time, and possibly this is something that you have been trying to find some balance with as well?
So I’ve put together a new resource to share with you, which has all my tried and tested tips for reducing screen time. You can access it here.
If this resonates with you, I encourage you to pick at least one of these tips to implement and notice what happens over the next few days. I also highly encourage you to do the journalling activity each day, to help reinfornce positive pathways in the brain. Please let me know how you find this - I'd love to hear. And if you find it useful, please feel welcome to share it on.
Download the PDF 6 Ways to Reduce Screen Time.
14 March 2021