I, like so many like me, spend so many hours of my day scrolling. I wake up and I scroll. Before going to sleep, I scroll. When eating lunch, when on the commute, even when watching TV. And recently Apple rolled out a tool which I think shocked many of us- the Screen Time feature. It is a new feature on the iphone which monitors and assesses how much screen time you use, what apps you click on most and how many times you pick up your phone in a day.
And wow. I pick up my phone a lot.
I mean for someone who relies on their phone for their job, I was expecting to utilise my phone a lot. But I think what shocked me most was the amount of times I picked up my phone for no real reason.
I am kind of embarrassed to admit that my average screen time was an average of 5 hours…. Woah.
I KNOW that I am different than the average person and if you wracked up an office worker’s computer screen time then it would probably exceed the 5 hour mark. But 5 hours??? On my phone??? Everyday???
Something had to give.
So that’s when I decided that enough was enough and cutting down on screen time was now my top priority.
How did I do it? Well simple I measured how often I picked up my phone for business reasons and how many times it was simply to scroll through the gram, check up on twitter or creep on my old school mates. I was surprised how many times I really did pick it up for stupid reasons and how much time could be benefitted from just putting down the phone.
The first thing I did was to consciously give myself time blocks where I was allowed to access my phone- so while having my lunch, I gave myself 15 minutes to mindlessly scroll and then back to business. I also chose to dedicate my time to other things- such as turning my phone on ‘do not disturb’ from 10 onwards, and that is my reading time. No phones, no screens, just reading.
Although I do still spend more screen time on my phone than the average person, I have managed to cut my screen time down by half.
And what did it teach me?
I guess the main thing it taught me is how easy it is to mindless scroll, mindlessly pick up your phone and mindlessly loose hours of your life.
It’s made me realise how much more productive I can be with my time and what I can achieve if I just set myself tasks/ goals to follow.
Jumper- Asos
Jeans- Asos
Necklace- Topshop
Boots- New Look
I kinda wish this post was more inspirational and that I had a big message to share with you about what cutting down on screen time has taught me- but I don’t really. All I have learnt is that there are so many better ways to spend than mindless scrolling. So put down your phone and do something better with your time.
