I Cut My Screen Time in Half in Three Weeks

And you can too

I got my first smartphone in high school (does it count as a smartphone if it still had a keyboard?) and my first iPhone senior year of high school, in 2014. I was ten years old when the first iPhone came out. Some of my friends had phones in middle school, but those were mostly Razr flip phones.

Too old to use the word rizz, too young to remember life before cell phones

I was so jealous of my friends with phones, and I constantly begged and begged my parents to get me a phone. On my first phone plan, I was only allowed 1,000 text messages per month, which I often used up before the month ended.

Since I didn’t have an iPhone until senior year of high school, I didn’t get Instagram until I was 17. Snapchat followed in college, then dating apps post-grad, then TikTok in 2020. And, of course, I downloaded plenty more apps that I’d already used on my computer—Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.

Over the years, my screen time increased.

I Needed A Change

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on this Youtube video: How I cut my screen time by 80%. Of course, I clicked it. In the video, Makari Espe and her dad used this Guardian newsletter (from Catherine Price of the How to Feel Alive Substack newsletter) to cut down on their screen time by, yes, 80%. The video resonated with me for many reasons—I know my screen time has negatively impacted my productivity. This is a personal finance newsletter, and yes, time is money, but this is about so much more than that. I don’t feel good after scrolling social media. My eyes hurt after spending 8 hours a day staring at my phone after spending 8 hours on my laptop. I want to live my life, not sit behind a screen.

I sent the video to my sister, and she immediately replied.

We started the challenge on Monday, May 13th, the first day we got the newsletter (it’s sent over three weeks on Mondays). Before I started, I averaged 6-8 hours per day on my phone. Yes, that number makes me sick, too.

Despite that, there were some apps that from day 1, I knew I didn’t want to decrease my time on, because I knew they increased my happiness and I truly saw them as a tool:

• Spotify (I never sit in silence. I am always listening to music or a podcast)

• Camera/Photos (I don’t even own another camera, so getting rid of this one wasn’t an option. Also, I’ve never been the kind of person to be constantly taking pictures, anyway, honestly, I wish I took more pictures to remember)

• Messages (It’s how I stay connected with friends and family. It’s not tracked on screentime, but I also, of course, am keeping Facetime and phone calls)

• Google Maps (I don’t spend a ton of time here since I don’t drive in NYC, but it’s essential when I’m navigating unfamiliar neighborhoods or looking up places to go)

• Wyze (this is the app I use to turn the lights and security camera off and on in my apartment)

• A few other utility apps that I spend less than 3 minutes per day on, like fitness class scheduling apps, banking apps, the weather app, the clock app, and settings

There were a few apps where I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to decrease my time on:

• Chess.com app (it’s a game, but it’s a strategic game that’s supposed to make you smarter, right?)

• Hinge (I’m very single - shouldn’t I be spending more time here? But it’s so frustrating to swipe for hours and have one date each month)

• Google Chrome (sometimes I’m looking up something useful. Sometimes I’m not)

• Substack (I love it here, and genuinely feel happier compared to social media. But, sometimes it still feels like scrolling social media when on Notes)

• LinkedIn (I’m job hunting. Don’t I need to keep this one around? Is just using it on the computer enough? What if I miss a notification?)

• YouTube (I love watching YouTube videos, sometimes even on my phone. But is that a waste of time?)

• Email (I don’t want to miss a notification, but I don’t want to get stressed out by emails and scroll through them)

There were a few apps that I wanted to stop using entirely or almost entirely:

• Instagram (I have an account I use to promote my business, Sidetracks. But I also spent way to long scrolling on reels)

• TikTok (same as Instagram)

• Random apps I would scroll through for no reason (except maybe to numb my brain?), like Streeteasy, ticket apps like TodayTix or Stubhub, or Reddit. I was tired of getting notifications for these types of apps.

• Facebook (I only still have this for one neighborhood club and the Buy Nothing group)

I wanted to make my phone a tool, not a distraction. I wanted my phone to be something that made me happy, not stressed, sad, or anxious. I wanted my phone to be something I purposely reached for, not something I grabbed like an instinct.

Week 1 of the Challenge

So, on Monday, May 13th, I got the first newsletter. I already knew a bit of what I was getting myself into from watching the YouTube video. I knew the first step was taking the hours spent on my phone, multiplying them out, and figuring out how much time I was wasting—and could repurpose.

I was averaging around 7 hours per day on my phone. That’s 49 hours a week, and 2,548 hours a year. 106 days. Almost 30% of the year. And that’s not including time sleeping.

If you’re doing the math right now with your average number and also feeling sick, emotional, or appalled, same. I’m typing this out three weeks later, now with my screen time under control, and still feel those feelings.

This one quote from the newsletter really resonated with me:

Imagine how your life might be different if you spent the same amount of time on one of the things you supposedly don’t have time for.

I implemented a few things that first day:

• I set a “speed bump”—I changed my phone background to a free one the Guardian newsletter shared that reminded me how much time I was wasting on my phone.

• I made a list of goals (apps I wanted to reduce time on).

• I enlisted a friend (my sister was already way ahead of me, deleting most of the apps on her phone!).

Day 1: 6 hours 19 minutes. I tried to keep my phone in a separate room. I didn’t open TikTok and spent much less on Instagram, just checking some accounts that I was looking to work with for my business, Sidetracks. I considered logging out of my personal accounts entirely, so I wouldn’t be distracted by those and just use my business accounts.

Day 2: 5 hours 59 minutes. I spent over an hour scrolling notes and reading Substack newsletters today.

Day 3: 7 hours 58 minutes. I went to run club that evening and left my phone at home, since I’d already spent way too much time on it during the day. Is that a safety concern? I figured if I got lost or injured, hopefully someone at run club would help me.

Day 4: 5 hours 53 minutes. I went out with friends, and when I got home, I scrolled Instagram reels while laying in bed. This was the first time I did this since starting the challenge. I didn’t feel great about it.

Day 5: 5 hours 3 minutes. I used the usual suspect apps earlier in the day (Substack, Chess, Hinge, and Messages), but hardly touched my phone in the evening, as I had a fun night out with friends. It’s not hard to stay off my phone when I’m around good company.

Day 6: 2 hours 22 minutes. I went to my sister’s house and spent the day with family. I read my book on the way to the suburbs instead of sitting on my phone. My sister is doing much better with the challenge. She already deleted some apps, and deleted all social media years ago. She turned my phone to grayscale mode for me, which is supposed to reduce the dopamine effect of picking up your phone.

Day 7: 3 hours 58 minutes. This was a Sunday, and usually Sundays are the hardest days for me with screentime (can anyone else relate?). It’s usually a day of relaxation, often recuperating after a hectic week and more hectic weekend. I tried to keep my screen time down by reading my book, spending time on my computer writing, and doing a spin class.

Week 1 Average: 6 hours 8 minutes per day

Yes, the Settings app goes from Sunday-Saturday instead of Monday-Sunday, unlike the weeks in the newsletter, so it makes the averages a little more confusing. I just went with the iPhone Settings averages.

Week 2 of the Challenge

The next step the newsletter recommended was deleting apps. I went through and deleted apps—some that I used, and some that I hardly ever used and didn’t even remember what they did.

I also changed my notifications settings so I only got notifications for apps that I considered “time sensitive”—messages, calls, emails. No more notifications for social media, news, or other apps.

The newsletter also recommended having “phone-free” zones. The one part of the newsletter that I hadn’t followed so far was to use an alarm clock to wake up. Truthfully, I’ve been falling asleep to the blue light of my phone for years, so I knew keeping my phone in a separate room would be the hardest thing to do (my bedroom lamp is literally connected to the phone app)!

Day 8: 4 hours 47 minutes. I was still using the usual suspect apps. I met a friend for dinner, and got to the restaurant a few minutes before her. Usually, I would look down at my phone. Instead, I stood there, staring around the restaurant.

Day 9: 4 hours 20 minutes. I played chess on my phone while eating breakfast and dinner. I knew this would be the hardest habit to break, partly because I feel like chess isn’t that bad (it’s strategy, right?), and partly because I’m so used to doing it. But I think it would make me enjoy my food more to just eat, not stare at a screen.

Day 10: 6 hours 35 minutes. I’m definitely spending less time on phone than before the challenge, and starting to notice it. I still spent a long time on the LinkedIn app this day, and considered deleting it entirely and moving to the computer. I’ve found I scroll on my phone, save some jobs and posts, and then apply to them on my computer. That works okay until I get bogged down by LinkedIn influencer posts on my news feed.

Day 11: 4 hours 23 minutes. I picked up 7 more hours at my side gig at a neighborhood bar, now on Thursday nights. I knew this would help with screen time, since this job is in person and I’m rarely able to check my phone. My most used app this day was Messages, which was huge.

Day 12: 4 hours 47 minutes. I spent the day at a beach with a friend. I didn’t look at my phone there because I couldn’t—the sun was too bright. I did use my phone to get to and from the beach—the NYC ferry app for the way there and Apple Pay for the subway back.

Day 13: 1 hour 6 minutes. My lowest screen time yet. I traveled to Boston, reading my book and chatting with family on the way. I spent the whole day with family and hardly looked at my phone. I also slept in a separate room than my phone!

Day 14: 1 hour 36 minutes. I was still on the family trip, so besides checking my phone and scrolling through Substack a bit in the morning, I hardly used it.

Week 2 Average: 4 hours 16 minutes

Week 3 of the Challenge

This week, the newsletter recommended taking phone breaks, which I love. I’ve already started doing this, even if it’s just 30 minutes or an hour at a time. I’ll sit at my desk, queue up a great album on Spotify, and then throw my phone across the room onto my bed, usually startling my cat (I swear it’s only 7 feet away, I’m in a tiny NYC apartment). I can’t instinctively grab my phone if it’s outside arm’s reach.

The newsletter this week also set a goal of being mindful, which I’ve already been trying to work on (not using my phone while eating, for example).

Day 15: 4 hours 40 minutes. My sister downloaded the Chess app so we could play each other. So, I guess I’m not deleting this one yet? I also spent some time on Instagram. I realized that I don’t want to miss a tagged post from any affiliates to my small business. I haven’t reached out to any new influencers in the past couple weeks since I’ve spent so much less time on social media (if you love party games and want to promote Sidetracks on your platform, please reach out to maria@playsidetracks.com so I can stay off social media for good). I went to bed and opened TikTok and immediately closed it. It isn’t exciting to me at all anymore.

Day 16: 4 hours 8 minutes. I spent some time on Hinge, and actually set up a date for later in the week. I also spent some time refreshing my Substack dashboard on Google Chrome, an anxious habit I’d like to quit. I considered deleting Google Chrome, but I use it as a utility for a few things, like checking the bus status before waiting at the bus stop (or when I’m at the 68th St subway stop to see how fast I should run for the bus when I get off at 77th).

Day 17: 3 hours 43 minutes. I hung out with a friend from high school and she mentioned a couple things she’d seen on Instagram that I’d missed. Honestly, it was more fun to hear these updates from her than scroll through them.

Day 18: 2 hours 13 minutes. Once again, Messages was my most used app, which felt great. I tried my best to be more mindful and stayed off the Chess app!

Day 19: 3 hours 35 minutes. One of my top apps was Safari, from looking at the menu while at a location restaurant. Those restaurant QR code menus—another reason I use my phone.

Day 20: 3 hours 5 minutes. I had a really fun day and spent very little time on my phone, most of which was spent texting friends. It was a very NYC day—I started the day at a spin class, then met a friend in Central Park, then met up with a few other friends in a different park before heading to that Hinge date, which I left after two drinks and headed back uptown to my friends’ pregame before heading out back downtown to Acme and then a bar in Williamsburg. If you’re tired from reading that sentence, me too.

Day 21: 6 hours 50 minutes. I had the laziest day, recovering from the crazy night out. I didn’t feel good about my screen time today, but honestly, it feels good to have my screen time on a terrible day be what my old average used to be. I spent a lot of time this day scrolling Substack, playing chess, and scrolling LinkedIn.

Week 3 Average: 3 hours 17 minutes.

Reflecting 

I still have work to do. I’d like to move my social media to my iPad so I can use the accounts for my business in designated time blocks, rather than avoiding them completely or getting sucked in when using my phone. I want to spend more time away from my phone—always keeping it in a different room when I’m sleeping or working. I’m still debating if I should delete apps like Chess and Substack and just use those on my laptop.

But, I feel so much better than Thursday, May 9th, when I sent my sister those text messages. Not only did I cut my screen time in half, but I feel so much more intentional when I open my phone. I’m less distracted by random notifications. I don’t open social media to scroll. My phone feels like a tool, not a time suck. 

Odds & Ends

Subscribe to Makari’s Youtube channel here (not sponsored, I just love her content).

Subscribe to the Guardian newsletter here (also not sponsored, just an incredible tool if you want to try this out yourself)!

Submit a question to my financial advice column here (I’m not a financial advisor, this is fun advice like how to split the bill on a group trip)!

Check out my party card game company, Sidetracks.

Thanks for reading! I post weekly about personal finance and lifestyle in NYC. I also post a monthly reset on the 1st of each month sharing everything I spent money on the previous month and goals for the next month.

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