How to Spend Less Time on Your Phone
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ Why I think it’s important to monitor screen time
⋒ Questions I ask before getting on my phone
⋒ Phone boundaries I’m implementing in this season
Raise your hand if you are embarrassed by your weekly screen time report every Sunday when it shows up on your phone.
Now that we pretty much all probably have our hands up, let’s talk about it. 😜
Back in August, I noticed that my screen time was creeping up to numbers that I wasn’t cool with.
Am I on my phone a lot for work? Yes, for sure. But when my screen time exceeds 5 hours in a single day, something’s gotta give, you know?
I want to live most of my life with my head up in the world, not with my head down on a screen.
Let me share my vision for this blog post – we’re gonna have 3 parts:
Part 01: Reasons why I think it’s important to monitor screentime
Part 02: Questions I ask before getting on my phone
Part 03: Phone boundaries I’m implementing in this season
Part 01: REASONS WHY I MONITOR MY SCREEN TIME
I’m going to tell you right now – these sound SO obvious. And they kind-of are. But sometimes I think when something becomes our norm (like scrolling on our phones a ton) we tend to forget the detriment it has on our lives because we’re just used to something being unhealthy. Just because we’re used to something being unhealthy doesn’t mean that it’s now healthy. We’ve just lowered our quality of life baseline.
So the reasons why I care about my screen time:
~ I’m more present with my family when I’m not on my phone as much.
~ I’m not as anxious when I’m not on my phone as much.
~ I don’t feel burned out by content creation when I’m not on my phone as much.
~ I’m more productive when I’m not on my phone as much. As in I get things done that I actually want to get done and it doesn’t take me twice as long as it should from being distracted by my phone.
Before you can be disciplined in making changes to your screentime habits, you need to be clear on why it matters to you.
If you try to spend less time on your phone because you feel like you should – that’s not enough.
Y’all know by now that Key 2 to Hustling Sanely is get clear on your vision because vision is what drives you to show up and do things.
Part 02: QUESTIONS I ASK BEFORE GETTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Yes, I really do ask myself questions before I get on social media. I know it sounds like overkill but it’s really helped me to reel back and be a more conscious phone user.
Now I don’t ask myself this before I grab my phone to do something that’s intentional - like take a photo of Everly or Google what time a restaurant opens. I ask myself these questions if I’m about to get on my phone to scroll without purpose.
~ Are you about to scroll because you want to consume content or because you want to escape or avoid something?
~ Do you feel like you’re in a good place mentally to consume mindfully? Would the healthiest version of you be cool scrolling right now?
~ How much time do you want to spend on your phone right now?
Asking these simple questions helps me make the best choice on whether or not to get on my phone.
Part 03: PHONE BOUNDARIES I’M IMPLEMENTING THIS SEASON
Y’all know by now that I love a good habit and routine – mostly because it takes the brain power and guesswork out of things. I can just show up, do what needs to be done, and carry on with my life. I truly feel so supported by having routines because I only have routines that make sense for my season of life, you know? They’re all very intentional – no routines in my life are “just because” or because I feel obligated to do them.
Anyway, when I was doing my monthly prep meeting for September and I was reflecting on August, I realized I needed to brainstorm some phone boundaries stat. So I did and because I know you appreciate concrete examples, I am sharing my exact current phone boundaries with y’all!
Now am I perfect with these? No. Absolutely not. BUT I am consistent most of the time and I notice a big difference in my mental health and in how I show up for my family when I honor these boundaries.
A lot of my boundaries are specific to being present with my family and being intentional about the time I spend on social media. Since a lot of my work is on social media, the lines can get blurred as to when I’m on social media for fun and when I’m on there working. I try to really pay attention to each so I don’t fall back into my workaholic tendencies that lead to burnout.
So that being said, here are my current phone boundaries:
01: Social Media-Free Sundays
I’ve talked about this routine SO much here on the podcast and on Instagram but I’ll keep talking about it because of how transformative it’s been for me. I don’t go on social media on Sundays and it is glorious.
Taking an entire day off of social media every week is like a mental refresh for me. It gives my brain time to unwind and just be…because think about it: social media is consumption…even if it is positive stuff that you’re consuming, I don’t think our brains are wired to be bombarded with info all day every day.
Breaking the social media cycle on Sundays helps prevent me from feeling burned out when it comes to creating content, too…so pro tip there for fellow online business owners.
During the first few weeks of practicing this, it was tough to not open social media apps but now, it’s second nature and something I genuinely look forward to. And taking 24 hours off of social media every week really does add up. It saves me between 12-15 hours a month of phone time when added all up.
That’s 12-15 hours that I’m focused on my family and self-care. Pretty rad when you think about it like that, right?
02: Limited notifications on
I am VERY picky about the notifications that I allow on my phone. The only ones that are turned on right now are:
~ An affirmation app that sends me affirmations throughout the day (these only go to my watch – not even my phone)
~ Phone calls
~ Libby
~ Texts from Adam, my parents, my grandparents, and my bestie
Everything else requires me to manually open an app to see notifications.
Having to manually go in to check things, keeps me from feeling that urge to click anytime a notification pops up. I don’t feel like I am constantly being pulled in 20 different directions by my phone. I am the boss of my phone, not the other way around.
03: Phone hours
I’m off my phone from 9 PM - until after I finish morning journaling, which is usually around 6:30 AM. I usually go to bed at 10 so I like to have that last hour before bed be spent journaling and reading because those things usher me into way better quality sleep than scrolling through Instagram reels does, you know?
And then I won’t get on my phone until I finish my morning journaling. I view my morning journaling as taking a shower for my mindset – it’s my mental health hygiene and it’s important for me to do that before starting my daily scrolling.
And tbh, I usually don’t really get on my phone until after my morning workout class. I’ll get on and post a few IG stories but I don’t spend more than a minute on there at a time until after my workout.
I am a more conscious phone user when I do it from a good mental place.
04: Designated “phone-free” activities
I like having certain activities that are deemed “phone-free” because then I know for sure I’m not spending every pocket of my day staring at a screen.
I personally need set activities in my life to not be on my phone or else I wouldn’t be able to tell you when the last time I wasn’t on my phone was, you know?
Right now, my “phone-free” activities are:
~ Everly’s mealtimes (unless I’m Facetiming my grandparents)
~ Everly’s bath time
~ 30-minute stretch after work when I’m playing with Everly
~ Driving
These change as my season of life changes – because as you know, our schedules and routines are tools, not chains.
05: Weekly screentime audit
Honestly hour – when I would get the screen time report pop up on my watch every Sunday, I’d immediately close it out without looking because I wanted to stay in denial.
Denial keeps us in unhealthy cycles. We have to face things head-on if we want to change them. So now, as a part of my Weekly Prep Meetings, I spend some time looking at my weekly screen time habits. If you have an iPhone, you can do this by opening settings and then going to the “screen time” section.
Actively monitoring my screen time helps hold me accountable because I can actually see when I’m on my phone more than I’d like to be.
Usually, we think we are on our phones much less than we actually are. When you see the cold, hard numbers, it can be jarring, but you can’t really argue with the data, you know what I’m saying?
Alright friends, that is what I’ve got for you today – some tips and hopefully motivation to help you spend less unintentional time on your phone!
If you liked this blog post, do me a favor and share it to your Instagram stories and tag @jessmmassey and @hustlesanely – it helps spread the Hustle Sanely message to new eyes and ears!
Remember that you are the boss of your phone, not the other way around. It’s definitely going to take some discipline to unlearn unhealthy phone habits that have been your norm for so long but you are capable!
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