Plant Flowers

Some thoughts on screen time.

Thoughts on Screen time

“If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That’s all there is to it.”
― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

The goal of decreasing phone screen time is so that your phone has less gravity in your life. Ironically, a focus on decreasing screen time actually increases how much you’re thinking about it.

While the number of minutes spent looking at the screen may decrease, the amount of attention it gets probably does not. Healthy relationships with our technology cannot stem from a desire to use them less. A beautiful garden is not made by deciding which weeds to pull. One must plant flowers.

The flowers of my life consist of playing music, reading books, riding my bicycle, sitting outside, being with people, teaching, etc. The desire to do these things, however, reside not in the domain of impulse but effort. My first inclination is to refresh the YouTube page to see if there’s a new video to watch or save to my “watch later” playlist and never look at again.

Things that exist in the realm of effort reveal themselves after our movement.

I’m not motivated to read a book until I start the first few pages. Getting my bike tires pumped takes time and umph, but once I get riding, I could cycle all day.

Here’s the key: I don’t want to do the good things until I start doing them. Then I realize how good they are. I think I want to use my phone. Then I realize how good it isn’t.

It’s very difficult to plant flowers if you can’t even get off the couch. Our phones are addicting and soothe us into bad habits. What follows are strategies I’ve used to decrease the pull my phone has over me so that I can, hopefully, get a good garden going.

A quick acknowledgement: I am aware that phones can be great tools. That goodness however, is often smothered by mindlessness, a disposition our phones are really good at fostering within us.

Strategies To Loosen Your Phone's Grip

Use a Custom Launcher/OS

Custom launchers help your phone feel like a tool you’re in control of.

If you have an Android phone, I recommend installing the Before Launcher or Niagara Launcher. (I use the Before Launcher on my Boox Palma. It’s great.)

Apple products don’t play nicely with the ideas of launchers which is a shame. The Smiles Widget app is my workaround.

Remove Apps from Your Home Screen

Out of sight = Out of mind. Mostly. If I see an app that soothes my dopamine needs, I’m more likely to use it. Removing all apps from my home screen means I have to pull down on the screen to type in the name of the app that I need. This encourages greater intention. I’m actively seeking the apps I need rather than being sought by the apps my brain has been conditioned to want.

Don’t Delete Instagram.

I’ve lost count of the times I’ve reinstalled the app. (Maybe it’s one of the most installed apps because it’s also one of the most uninstalled?) I’ve tried deleting it so I can only access it through a browser. This has helped, but I always reach a point where I want to use a feature that isn’t available via browser, so I reinstall the app. Then I get reeled in.

Rather than deleting the app, I’ve installed Opal to retrain my use of Instagram. Opal is a paid app, but I’ve only needed its free features. I’ve made it so I can only use Instagram three times each day, for five minutes each time. There are also sections of the day where I can’t use it at all.

Yes, I could go in and change settings/toggle on a break, but Opal adds just enough friction and waiting time that it makes me realize I don’t actually want to use the app. (Opal does have some heavy duty features, if you go paid, that eliminate every single loophole.)

Using Opal has been a great solution because I feel my inclinations changing. I’m starting to only use Instagram when I have a specific reason to do so.

On the topic of deleting apps, there are some that aren’t worth having on my phone. Video streaming services? Don’t have them. YouTube? Nope. It’s not there. If I need them, I can go to my tv.

I think it’d be nice to go back to the era when the internet was only accessible from one spot in the home.

Turn Off Your Notifications. Almost All Of Them.

I joke with my students (and it’s honestly a pretty dumb joke) that your phone has a “do not disturb” mode which implies that, if you don’t turn that on, you’re always disturbed.

Really though, notifications are stupid. They’re just a means for companies to tug at your shirt and pull you into doing what they want. Turn them off.

What notifications do I allow to show up on my phone? Messages, Reminders, and Email. That’s it. (There was a span where I even turned of message notifications. I kinda liked it.)

The email choice may seem odd, but I’ve had a similar battle with deleting/reinstalling my email app as I did with Instagram. (I know, how lame of me to be impulsively checking my email.)

When the email app was on my phone, I was likely to check it. Then I’d close the app but keep using my phone. Thumbs down.

Keeping the app and turning on notifications for email has made it so I don’t have to unlock my phone to see if I’ve received cool emails.

Give Yourself Space

Don’t take your phone with you everywhere you go.

Put it in a bag, not your pocket.

Put it in an inconvenient-to-access drawer when you get home.

Don’t charge your phone in your bedroom. Don’t use it in your bedroom. In fact, it may even be worth spreading a line of salt by your bedroom door to remind you that evil spirits don’t belong there.

If you’re working on projects in one place, make sure your phone is in another.

Instead of panicking when you realize you don’t know where your phone is, you should rejoice: you are making progress toward liberation.

Mornings Are for Sunrises

With varying levels of consistency I’ve implemented habits to keep me from checking my phone first thing in the morning. For a while, I made it a rule that I needed to get sunlight before screenlight. I’d sit on my porch for a few minutes in the morning after waking up. As I’m writing this, I’m remembering how nice that was. I should probably start that up again…

Plant Flowers

Remember: If you don’t have anything in mind to try or do, then you will push past the healthy friction these strategies create and get sucked back into your phone. All these tips are useless unless you have flowers you’re trying to grow.

During the school year, I don’t have to worry much about my screen time usage because I’m captured by my love for the work of teaching. Moving into summer, my screen time went up until I found some books I wanted to study and some projects I wanted to pursue. My screen time dropped.

Ditch your phone. Read a book.

Grow flowers, don’t just pull weeds.