3 Ways to Reduce Your Screen Time and Stop Doomscrolling

If there was a high possibility of you catching a dangerous disease that could decrease your life span by 20 years, what measures would you take to avoid it?
And what if I told you that you’ve already got this disease and actively participate every single day in keeping it, would you believe me?
The disease I am referring to is screen time, and it’s shaving years off your life, yes, that’s right, years.
I’m not telling you that looking at your phone is literally reducing your life span, but it’s reducing the time you spend in reality, so, is there any real difference?
These are some examples of how many years it’s taking in relation to how many hours you spend on your phone, with the assumption that you live to 85.
If you’re 45 years old and have 3 hours of daily screen time, you’ll spend 5 years of your life looking at your phone.
If you’re 25 years old and have 5 hours of daily screen time, you’ll spend 12.5 years of your life looking at your phone.
If these weren't shocking enough, the average teenager in the USA spends an average of around 8 hours per day looking at screens. I’m too afraid to figure that one out.
I’m sure there’s not much more I could say to convince you why you should put your phone down more than the figures I have shown, so let’s jump straight into how.
These are 3 ways that helped me reduce my screen time by an hour per day and reduced the ‘doom scrolling’ by at least 80%, positively impacting my day-to-day life and potentially saving me 2 and a half years.
Number 1: Limit

The first thing that helped me tremendously was setting limits.
Before setting the limits, I thought the pleasure I got from using the apps and the frustration I would get from not being able to would be more than enough for me to simply undo whatever restrictions I decided to set, I was wrong.
You’d be surprised to learn how much of what we do on our phones is due to ease of use and habit, and not how addictive they are.
Of course, a lot of these apps have an amazing way of keeping you on them, they’re high dopamine activities that keep you scrolling.
But getting there is mostly habitual. So the first step is to notice and break said habits.
The first limit I set was in the settings of the phone itself. I identified the apps I had the biggest problem with and set daily limits as to how long I could spend using them.
This did two things, it made me conscious of the use when engaging with them, and left me with a feeling of disappointment when reaching the limit.
I’m not sure about other phones, but iPhones give you the option to ignore the limit when it is reached, but the feelings that pursued with knowing how long I had used the app for made it extremely easy to click the ‘Ok’ button and get on with my day.
The second step I took to limit my use was downloading a third-party app called Opal, not a sponsor, just an awesome app.
This allowed me to set the times of the day when I wanted to stay away from specific apps and set "Work time", stopping me from using them altogether
I thought this would be even harder than the first restriction. I was wrong again.
The habituation really stood out to me here by the sheer amount of times I’d pick up my phone and go to the apps, only to realise I couldn’t use them and question why I was even trying to in the first place.
I’d quickly put my phone back down and continue doing what I was trying to distract myself from.
If you want to reduce the years spent looking at your phone, set limits.
Number 2: Replace
The second step that didn't necessarily help me reduce my screen time, but helped me improve it, was replacing the scrolling with more productive activities.
As I said, our phones have made it easy to do anything on them, so why not take advantage and let them improve us in some way?
A lot of our screen time comes from waiting around, waiting for our food, waiting for our partner to get ready, sitting on the toilet, etc.

These may not seem like a lot, but they make up the majority of our use.
This could be anything from:
- Learning a language
- Taking a free course
- Reading a book
- Reading a blog
- Using a meditation app
The list could go on and on, the opportunities are endless.
These helped me during the times I was genuinely bored and waiting around and couldn’t use the apps I had restricted. So instead of feeling frustrated from not being able to do anything, I did something else.
I chose to learn a language and now have a 534-day streak on Duolingo.
So, if you want to reduce the negative impacts of scrolling on social media and experience the benefits of improving yourself, start replacing.
Number 3: Remove
If all else fails, remove the option.
Tiktok was causing the biggest problem for me, as I know it does for the majority of people, so I simply removed it.
Again, I was surprised to learn how much I didn't miss it, although other apps mimicked its use, which are the ones I set limits on today, I quickly forgot it existed.

Removing doesn’t only mean removing the apps from your phone, it also means removing your phone altogether.
I’m not saying throw it away and get a flip phone, I’m saying leave the phone out of reach when you're at the highest risk of picking it up.
When I’m at my desk trying to write, my phone is out of reach.
If your use is made up of using it before and after sleep, start charging your phone overnight in another room, and replace the alarm on your phone with an actual alarm clock.
Just identify the times of the day you use it the most, and come up with creative solutions to remove it as an option.
So, if the temptation to use your phone or the apps on your phone is something you struggle with, try removing the temptations altogether.
Putting It All Together
Before I leave you go and regain years of life, there are a couple of things to note.
Do not attempt to go all out straight away, instead, reduce your screen time a step at a time and allow yourself to adjust.
An attempt to do too much too soon could result in overwhelm and end exactly where you started.
Also, I want to note that not all screen time is bad. The problem with our phones is they make it extremely easy to waste time on them and spend hours scrolling through social media.
Keeping in touch with family, work, learning or writing for example isn't exactly wasting your life.
But mindlessly scrolling and watching useless videos is, so identify where you're wasting the most time and aim to reduce or replace it.
So, from here, go limit, replace and remove to save as many years as you possibly can. I wish you the best of luck.