Managing Your Screen Time

By Mary Skobieranda

I have a strong love-hate relationship with my phone. Our phones are somehow incredibly draining and pleasantly addicting all at once. When we have a second of downtime, we look at our phones for notifications or scroll through the same social media sites. I almost feel like I have to constantly clear my notifications to reduce my own stress. In fact, many social media apps are specifically designed in ways that signal your brain to keep checking them consistently. This is a strong impulse to kick. So, it’s important to create healthy boundaries that still allow us to communicate with others but don’t add additional stress to our lives. I’d like to share several manageable, small habits that allow us to detox from screen time and social media in general.

Try to put your phone away in another room, or at least across the room during time you feel that you need to concentrate on work. If you have to study for a test or write a paper, try putting your phone away for an hour or two until you get to a good stopping point. You’ll be surprised at how much your productivity increases when your phone isn’t tempting you from an arm’s length away.

Go through your phone settings and turn off the notifications for apps that you don’t use often or don’t want to be constantly updated by. This is something I always forget to do, and then I end up getting notifications that I instantly delete anyways. Turning notifications off for most apps creates fewer reasons to aimlessly grab your phone.

See if you can get out of bed before you check your phone in the morning. I find myself frequently wasting time in the morning by scrolling through social media feeds that haven’t even changed since I went to bed. Try to make this a habit by exchanging it with another practice like journaling. You could also leave your phone far enough away that you have to get up before you start responding to texts or checking apps. This will make it easier to get out of bed in the morning. It’ll also give you more time in your morning to complete tasks that you might currently feel you don’t have time for! 

Be conscious of times when your phone is distracting you from the moment you’re in or the people you’re with. If you’re at dinner with your family or talking to a friend, try to think twice before you respond to a notification. Remember that being present for your family or friends is more important, and most notifications can wait. This is something we are all guilty of, but with conscious effort we can have more uninterrupted moments in our lives.

Overall, try to reflect on what aspects of your screen time add positively to your life and what aspects simply add extra stress. Making small changes in the way you use your phone might have a big impact on your own happiness and productivity. It’s certainly a challenge, but everyone is capable of creating a healthy distance between themselves and their phone!