Cutting back on screen time can be difficult for multiple reasons. Phone usage is addictive, and when you try to start cutting back, you notice how habitual your use has become, which makes more ingrained changes necessary. Secondly, you have the fact that you might spend a lot of time looking at screens at work, which might ultimately be a much more difficult thing to avoid without changing your job entirely.
Lastly, when you’re unwinding after work, you might resort to games or movies which also use screens, meaning that finding something to do without a screen might begin to seem unrealistic, even when it’s not.
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Mobile
To begin cutting down on the amount of time you spend on your phone, you just need to figure out how to begin. As much of a tall order as it can seem when you spend a lot of time looking at your phone, the first few days are always the hardest part. After you’ve broken that initial habit, it’s actually much easier than you’d expect, as your new habit becomes not looking at your phone. Physical distance can be a simple but effective approach to take here; by not having your phone next to you at all times or putting an elastic band around it to make it more difficult to interact with.
However, it might also be that you restrict your usage by making the time that you spend with it more intentional. If you know that you’re just going to spend a short time replying to messages or playing online bingo, this might help you to set a structure.
Work
Arguably the hardest area to make changes to your screentime without starting a whole new job, this might just be about developing healthier habits. If you work from home and are able to compress your work into a timeframe of your choosing, developing a more proactive work schedule to avoid procrastination might help you to get your work done in a shorter span of time. This means that you’re ultimately looking at screens for less time and getting more of the day to yourself.
Otherwise, you might just look to ensuring that you’re spending enough time looking away from your screen. Alternatively, you might find that looking for a new job after all is worthwhile, and opt for something that gets you outside and in nature.
Home
When your rhythm and routine becomes so consistent, it’s hard to make changes. If you unwind every day by playing games or watching TV with dinner, that can be hard to change. At first, you might feel as though it’s too difficult to find something else to do with this time, but it might be that this perception is changed by just trying different activities. Whether this is about getting involved with drawing and painting, puzzle books, physical board games with a member of your household or something like gardening, you might find that there are a lot of benefits to be had with this variety.