7 Ways to Reduce Your Screen Time

While many of us know we probably should reduce our screen time, it can be difficult to figure out where to start. Fortunately, there are several things you can do right now that will get you going. 

1. Figure out your goal for reducing your screen time. 

Before you can do something effective to reduce your screen time, it’s important to pinpoint what your goal in doing this is. Some possible goals might be: 

• To be more present with the people around you. 

• To spend more time outside. 

• To be more creative. 

• To take back ownership of your life and your direction. 

There are many others you can probably think of. The important thing is to decide on one (or more) that get you excited. This will help keep you moving in the right direction. The important thing to keep in mind is that your goal should be something bigger than just “reduce time spent on screens.” When you get too focused on screen time as the goal, it makes it tough to stay inspired. It just isn’t big enough or important enough. Make your goal be something you actually want to achieve. 

While choosing a goal for reducing your screen time is certainly a way to start, it also forms the foundation of every other method. 

2. Remove digital clutter from your phone. 

Similar to decluttering your home, decluttering your phone can help you spend less time on the things that don’t matter. Get rid of applications you never use or only rarely use. Clean up your home screen so it only has the essentials—a way to call people, a way to write to people, and a way to take notes and make reminders. 

File all the non-essentials in a folder. This would include any social media or entertainment applications. Get them off your home screen and put them somewhere that you need to consciously access if you’re going to use them. 

3. Turn off notifications. 

You could turn off all notifications altogether, but for most people that’s not workable. It is often important to be able to be reached by the people who matter, which is why I wouldn’t recommend turning off notifications for calls and texts. But other than that, disable notifications from every other application. 

Remember, social media companies earn more money the more time you spend on them. Everything they do they do with the intention of getting you to spend more time on their platform. This is why as a default you get notifications for every “like,” “comment,” “share,” “follow,” etc. The goal of these notifications is to get you interested enough to tap back into the app and spend more of your minutes there. 

Don’t let some company’s algorithm decide when and where you jump back in. If you’re going to use social media, use it consciously. Decide you’re going to spend some time on Instagram, spend the time, and then close the app. 

Disabling notifications allows you to be the one choosing when you’re going to look rather than being constantly nudged and encouraged. 

4. Delete social media apps and profiles that don’t give you value. 

If you use Facebook to keep in touch with distant relatives, I’m not saying you should delete it. It may very well be the thing that keeps your relationships alive and lets you be part of people’s lives who are important to you. That’s okay. But if you really only use TikTok for entertainment and find yourself feeling depressed and anxious after spending time on it, get rid of it. 

If you love sharing your photos and interacting with others who inspire you on Instagram, you can keep it, but if you find yourself just getting riled up every time you log into Facebook, consider deleting the latter. 

If you find you don’t actually get any real value out of social media altogether and have been on the fence about getting rid of it, just do it. There’s no shame in not being “on the ‘gram.” 

5. Remove all streaming apps from your phone. 

Movies are created to be played back on large screens. They’re often incredible works of art that we don’t do justice by mindlessly watching them back-to-back on 6.5-inch devices. If you really want to watch a movie, go ahead, but do it in a way that makes it an experience that’s worth it. 

If you look through your phone’s apps and you see you have Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, Hulu, and more—get rid of them. Pick one book and take that with you everywhere you go. You may find you don’t read it because you’re too busy making conversation with people or getting interested in other things in the environment. That’s kind of the whole point, so don’t worry about it. 

6. Practice leaving your phone behind. 

Start small. If you’re at your desk and need to use the restroom, leave your phone behind. Just practice consciously not taking your phone with you everywhere you go. It can be a little nerve-racking at first. It’s important to remember that people survived just fine without being reachable at all times in all places for many, many years until very recently. 

If this isn’t actually feasible because you are an on-call nurse or your children are at home alone, then an alternative is to keep your phone in your pocket or purse with the ringer on. If someone needs to reach you, they can, but since you have all other notifications turned off (right?), you won’t have anything encouraging you to check it constantly. It can just stay put. 

7. Set limits that are tied to your goal(s). 

Many phones let you set limits on social media/entertainment applications. Set these up so you don’t accidentally spend more time than you intended on any non-essential applications. While setting these up, remember that you’re setting them up not because “Instagram is bad and I need to spend less time on it” but because “I want to spend more time writing my book” or “I’m going to use the time I save to be outside and get inspired by nature” or “My kids are going to appreciate how much more I understand them by being able to be more engaged in their activities.” 

This will make the limits feel less like they’re restricting you and more like what they’re really doing: giving you the freedom to focus on the things that really matter to you.