I average 52 minutes of screentime on my iPhone each day. The average American spends 5 hours and 16 minutes on their phone.

Here’s how I do it.

1) I don’t have social media accounts (for most platforms)

It’s popular knowledge that deleting social media apps is a good way to control one’s screen time. This strategy derives from the “control your environment” school of habit-building, which is arguably one of the most powerful tools you have for influencing your own behavior.

I don’t have social media apps on my phone, but not only that, I also simply do not have social media accounts for most popular sites:

  • Twitter/X
  • TikTok
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Snapchat

The last social media app I had on my phone was YouTube. I needed it for a very specific purpose: to listen to a video while falling asleep. I think this is a common progression of using social media frequently! I really, really wanted to get this last time sink off my phone, so I brainstormed different ways to fill this need. I discovered there are many no-ads podcasts designed for sleeping, like “Wikipedia for Sleep” and “Boring Books for Bedtime.” I now use these most nights, and my phone is YouTube-free.

I’ll share some exceptions to this rule (accounts I still have) in point 6.

2) I use notifications very sparingly

Only two apps are allowed to notify me:

  1. Messages
  2. Phone

That’s it!

Last year, I experimented with turning off my email notifications. I realized that 100% of emails I get don’t need to a response right away - start of the day or end of the day is fine. Nothing I am involved in is urgent enough to warrant an instant response.

After this experiment, I turned off notifications for Slack as well, which was the only other app that could notify me at the time.

Life is much more peaceful now, and my work output and availability are the same.

3) I read books (a lot)

Reading books is one of the best replacements for doomscrolling.

  • People have been writing books for centuries. There are so many deeply insightful, haunting, and hilarious books out there.
  • Reading provides healthy rewards that naturally feel good: getting lost in another world, feeling accomplished, learning something new, and building relationships with authors and characters.
  • The in-depth, longer form content builds your attention span. Authors don’t have the same incentives as influencers do to fragment your attention, sell you something, or keep producing low effort content.

Recently, I’ve seen a big uptick in discussion of “dopamine traps”, “dopamine curves”, and the like. Dopamine is certainly having its moment. The literature is interesting, but with respect to reading there’s one main takeaway here:

  • Reading doesn’t spike dopamine in a way that leads to dopamine depletion later, while social media, online games, and notifications do.

Reading protects your brain’s reward-seeking and enjoyment mechanisms, while social media tends to destroy them.

4) I use other devices (for specific tasks)

I have two other devices I use instead of my phone for specific tasks:

  • A Garmin Vivoactive 5 fitness tracker. Obviously I track my heart rate, sleep, steps, and so on with the watch, but one of my favorite features is the vibration alarm. It quietly wakes me up at the same time every day, and I don’t need to reach for my phone.
  • A Boox Palma. The Palma is an eink ereader that runs Android, so you can install many ebook apps on it (Libby, Kindle, etc.). For a while, I wasn’t convinced that an ereader is anywhere near necessary. I still think this is a niche device. But, it makes reading extremely enjoyable for me, one of the tenets of maintaining good habits. The eink screen feels indulgent to read on, and the slow refresh rate calms me. I only use three apps on this device: Libby for library books, NeoReader for PDFs and public domain books, and StoryGraph for tracking my reading.

I no longer need to pick up my phone first thing in the morning. I no longer need my phone with me to track steps. I no longer have my email and Slack apps two taps away when reading.

Whether using an ereader counts as screentime is a topic of some debate in the digital minimalism community. I think it’s much more similar to reading a paper book, both physically and mentally. But, you can have your own definition of screen time! Just be careful not to cut out everything you love. Be critical about what does and doesn’t add to your life, and what is and isn’t harmful to your attention and happiness.

5) I’m not afraid to use my phone (when I need it)

It’s a testament to how powerful phones are that even with zero time sinks, I still use it for nearly an hour each day!

My top used apps are:

  • Messages, for texting friends and family
  • Safari, for looking up book prices, celebrity spouses, movie times, and the like
  • Slack, to appear always available at work
  • Claude, to get advice and make plans
  • Strong, to track workouts
  • Garmin Connect, to check my heart rate, sleep, and steps
  • YouTube Music, to jam out while doing chores & driving
  • Gmail, to check work & personal mail

I think cutting back on screen time can go too far. I certainly don’t limit the time I spend on the Strong app when I’m checking reps and rest times. If I need to order a car part on Amazon while out and about, I do so.

I did actually try the dumbphone thing. (My Nokia 110 4G is still in the back of a drawer somewhere.) It’s so damn inconvenient! The whole experiment usually falls apart the second you need two factor authentication, sometimes earlier when you need to navigate to a new place or just use your password manager.

Based on the psychology literature, I’d advise against going “cold turkey” on smartphone use, especially if your screen time is currently high (like, several hours a day). Monitor your usage instead, and cut back in areas that feel doable. If you’ve built up your screen time habit over years, you shouldn’t expect it to vanish overnight.

6) I indulge in doomscrolling occasionally (just not on my phone)

Yes, I do waste time! I mentioned earlier I do have some social accounts. Here’s what I’ve got and why:

  • LinkedIn. I see LinkedIn as a professional necessity. I don’t waste much time on it, and mainly use it to add new connections and reach out to people about job opportunities.
  • Reddit. Aspirationally, I use Reddit for fitness advice (r/xxfitness is one of my favorite communities) and local tips (shoutout to r/vegaslocals). But I admit, I enjoy checking out r/relationshipadvice and other community judgment subreddits. I’ve used it for a long time, and it’s a habit that’s proved resistant to expungement (though not to pruning).
  • YouTube. I enjoy watching Balatro playthroughs, minimalist content, and productivitytube. Like Reddit, YouTube has been with me awhile, and it’s a tough habit to break.

Collectively, I use these sites roughly 1-1.5 hours per day. While it may seem high, this is actually much lower than the average person’s overall social media use (around 2.75 hours/day globally), and much lower than my own personal use 1, 5, or even 10 years ago.

While I do waste time on the internet, it’s important to note that not all doomscrolling is created equal. I contend that doomscrolling on your phone is worse than doomscrolling on your laptop.

Here’s why scrolling on your laptop is marginally healthier:

  • You don’t reach for your laptop first thing when you wake up, and last thing before you go to sleep. Since your laptop isn’t an alarm and it probably doesn’t live on your nightstand, it’s not going to suck you in right before bed or right when you wake up.
  • Your laptop is an objectively worse platform for short form video content like TikTok and Reels. It’s less enjoyable to watch this type of content on a laptop.
  • Your laptop has more available alternatives. If I’m wasting time on Reddit and I notice it, I’ll quit out and open up VS Code instead to work on a side project or write a blog post. Coding isn’t a feasible alternative on a phone.
  • You can close a laptop. It might seem trivial, but the small change of being able to slam the thing shut when you notice you’re wasting time makes something difficult (quitting out) rewarding in a tactile sense.
  • Laptops tend to have fewer notifications. You’re more likely to get interrupted on your phone than on your laptop.

I’m actively working on my Reddit and YouTube usage. Here are my current strategies:

  • Pointing and calling (thanks James Clear!): Saying aloud “I’m browsing Reddit out of habit, not because I really want to.”
  • Removing easy access: Deleting bookmarks to these sites so they’re less visible options.
  • Creating a dedicated space for my personal laptop: Using my laptop only at the dining table, so it’s less comfortable to waste time on it.

I’ve gradually been reducing my screen time for the past several years. I’m at a place now where I feel I can share my progress with actionable tips that you hopefully find helpful. Still, it’s hard! Many aspects of modern life are designed to be addictive, and require active resistance. Start by tracking your usage, identifying easy ways to cut back, and building positive alternative habits. Over time, you’ll see your screen time trend down, down, down, and your attention, brainspace, and productivity go up up up.