Do you use your phone? Or does it use you?

Are you using your phone healthily? Or in other words, is your phone eating up your daily time?

Let's see what my daily routine is, a typical routine of a business uni student. 

Wake up, check my email, have breakfast with Youtube, meet deadlines, submit assignments, lunch with Netflix, scroll Tiktok, have afternoon coffee dates with teammates for school projects, have dinner while uploading Instagram stories, reply to Whatsapp and Messenger messages, video call mom and dad, scroll Tiktok again, set alarm and go to bed.

Okie, after a small breach of my typical day, what do you think? 

Oh for me, it would be when pigs fly if my screen time was below 8 hours a day. Except for waking up and sleeping, all of my activities are accompanied by my phone and my laptop. 

Does it sound familiar? 

Ok then take a look back at your daily routine and tell me, how much time in a day is your screen time?

Just a reminder, "Too much screen time not only produces its own negative effects like eye strain and headaches, but it also steals time from more healthful pursuits like forging real-world connections and exercise," said Dr. Marjan Moghaddam from Henry Ford Health.

Then how? Hahaha slowly, I'm not writing this to give you a panic attack or threaten you! I'm here with some helpful tips that you might need to reduce your screen time daily!

How to deduct your screen time from your 24-hour routine? 

Okie, let's consider using a phone and laptop too much as a bad habit that you want to reduce. Why would I say reduce instead of get rid of? As it is impossible to stay away from your phone forever and live a life on a rock! So what we should do is balance our digital and physical time, not eliminate it. 

According to the habit master James Clear, we have a formula for breaking any habit:

1. Make it invisible
2. Make it unattractive
3. Make it difficult
4. Make it unsatisfying

So let's jump to a step-by-step guide right now! No hesitation!

Make it invisible

The first thing to do is to eliminate all the unnecessary options for you to stay longer on your phone. Is there any app that you never use? Or a time-killing game app that ate up your time every day?

These apps don't include those you need for connection, work, or study. For example, it will be impossible for me to delete Whatsapp, as my teammates will go insane if they find nowhere to connect with me for an upcoming deadline.

Make a checklist. Which apps do you never open? Deleting these not only helps you in reducing phone screen time but also cleans your phone storage. Which apps do you use often but don't contribute anything to your healthy work-life balance? Something like Quora, Pinterest, and Tiktok will keep you scrolling every moment even though you have deadlines to do! And these are also the reasons why you procrastinate all the time!

Once you are done with this step, you will wonder what to do with those apps left on your phone. So what we will do now is...

Make it unsatisfying

Now in your phone, those left are necessary for your digital life. But our goal is to balance your digital life and your physical life, so make sure these won't pass the limit.

Now go to settings, go to screen time, and set the limited time for your apps now. Make sure it is possible and practical, or else you will end up using it over time anyway.

Once you are done, every time you hit the limits, your phone will remind you to go back to your physical life. 

It is also convenient for you to set up the downtime for your app to make sure that even though you are reducing screen time, your digital life won't be affected too much, just be healthier.

Make it difficult

It is so easy for you to just tap, tap and scroll. That's why you keep using your phone instead of getting your *ss up and getting things done. So how to make using your phone harder than finishing your deadlines? Hahaha, I have a trick for you!

Log out of accounts! I SAID LOG OUT OF YOUR ACCOUNTS!

Haha, you hit the potluck because this will be the best tip ever for you to reduce your screen time. The additional effort to log in every time you want to use Instagram and Youtube will stop you from opening them for some unnecessary entertainment only. Try it right now and tell me the result after one week, and you will surprise yourself.

Make it unattractive

Have you ever wondered what is Instagram's competitive advantage over other social media apps? It's visual. Instead of posts with captions, your Instagram feed will focus more on photos and videos. Additionally, people feel that it is more attractive when it comes to colorful photos. So your phone is so lovely and appealing with color huh? What to do now? Turn on grayscale mode!

Haha sorry to make your phone so hideous now, I'm such an evil right? But you will thank me later as this tip will keep you away from other unnecessary lives that they are showing off on social media. Less screen time, less peer pressure, and less chance for social media depression at the end of the day! How better could it be?

Now it's time to balance...

If you already read until here, I assume that you followed at least one of my tips. Then what you can do now with the time you have saved from unnecessary screen time?

Replace them with some good habits that you always want to build such as:

• Exercising
• Reading books
• Playing guitar
• Singing

You will find your life much better. Now your phone is colorless, but your life is colorful I promise.

If you want to have a work-life balance or a physical-digital life balance, these above are tips for you. 

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By Linh Tran.