“Is this really what I want to do with my time?” 🤳➡️🌊

This takes active effort, but most things will since you’re actively breaking a habit… it plays out like this:

When you’re spending time on your phone, train yourself to ask “is this really what I want to do with my time?” Remind yourself, how you spend your time is how you spend your life. If you’re mindlessly scrolling or googling random facts, there’s probably a better alternative. The answer is usually “no, this is not how I want to spend my time or my life” and that should send you immediately to do something else. Literally doesn’t matter what. Just stop looking at your phone. That takes control.

I think it’s easier to have a mental list of how to fill out the sentence: “I want to be a person who _________.” Doesn’t have to be groundbreaking: I want to be a person who goes on walks, sends letters to friends, calls my friends/family, exercises regularly, reads books, makes art, cooks at home. Whatever your list is, those are the things you go do when you put your phone down.

Other ideas that can also help:

• leave your phone out of sight: in a different room, or in a drawer

• keep your phone on black and white mode: makes it waaaay less fun/engaging

• ideally you’re committed enough to delete the apps that eat your time; if not, using the web version usually means the developers can’t get as many bells and whistles in, which makes them less engaging and sometimes buggy (less fun)

• put screen time timers on the apps you spend too much time on to make them more irritating to use

• make calls instead of texting (efficiency)

• turn your phone off (it’s funny that no one ever suggests/does this, but back when we all had landlines everyone was fine not being able to get ahold of anyone at all hours… you’ll be fine) and check it in the evening. This will make you realize you have to actually make plans and stick to them, which is also a more efficient use of energy: you’re not wasting your life rescheduling shit you already spent the time and effort to plan out. Your friends will see you’re reliable, and if they bail that’s on them! You’ll see quickly which friends flake and you’ll spend more time with friends that are equally as reliable as you!