What I Learned From Two Weeks of Tracking My Screen Time
On a Saturday earlier this month, I experimented with shelving my mobile phone for the day to see what it felt like.
It felt like:
A long, meandering morning walk with the dog.
Going to a nearby lake with my two kids and holding our breath as we watched nine ducklings trail their mother.
A five-hour restaurant lunch with 30 family members where by dessert my fingers were positively twitching to unzip my purse and dive into my phone.
(😂 I managed to resist ... just barely.)
My screen time for the day was 38 minutes.
The Saturday before it was 3 hours and 17 minutes.
The inspiration for this experiment was Caveday’s Tech Reset, a two-week cohort where we tried out ways to reduce screentime and develop healthier tech habits.
Every day we were challenged to upload our screen time to the group dashboard, which induced just enough cringe to make me more aware of how I’m using my phone and how I could use it differently.
My interest isn’t just personal; it’s professional too.
A key area that I work on with clients is around their energy levels and the daily habits that support their energy.
The reason why I do this – and why I’ve become a nerd about habits and productivity over the last 10 years – is that it’s near impossible to achieve clarity and make progress on our most important goals if we simply don’t have the space and energy for them.
In the last two years particularly, I’ve been exploring how we use our phones and technologies (and using myself as a guinea pig) because increasingly I witness how they are impacting our health, presence, sense of connection and effectiveness in so many areas of our lives.
Through my experimentation, here are a few things that I’m starting to understand about how to change habits around technology:
Start with understanding how technologies are built to keep you hooked.
I’ve been a member of the online focus community Caveday since 2020, and through them I’ve learned some mind-blowing facts about focus and technology.
Here are three facts that really changed how I think about my phone and how I want to interact with it:
1 - The average person picks up their phone 58 times a day.
2 - Research shows that after we are interrupted in a task, it takes us on average 23 minutes to regain our previous focused state.
3 - Apps are designed to be addictive, from the colors (the red signaling app notifications) to the endless scrolling feature on Instagram (which is designed to give the same buzz as a slot machine), to the “helpful” suggestions that ChatGPT makes after answering your initial query.
If your phone has generated addictive, unhealthy habits for you, well, that's what it is designed to do.
This is why creating intentional guardrails for how you interact with your phone and apps is so important.
Next, create awareness around your usage.
Look up your screen time on your phone. What do you think about that number? How do all those hours add up?
What habits with your phone do you know are unhealthy for you?
If you could change one, what would it be? What do you think it would do for you?
Experiment with one change, and notice the impact for you.
All behavior change starts first with the awareness that something needs to change, the decision to try one small modification, and the information that comes from that micro-experiment. What went well? What didn’t? Is there a clear enough benefit to keep going?
Here are some ideas for experiments if you want to explore your relationship with your phone:
Delete a problematic app for a day or more.
Buy an alarm clock and keep the phone out of the bedroom.
Set up an area in your home where your phone stays when you’re not using it (i.e. instead of floating around with you).
Leave your phone at home when you go for walks or exercise outdoors.
Switch your phone screen to grayscale so it's not so enticing.
Put your phone out of sight when you’re working or in a conversation with someone. (Research suggests that the mere presence of a phone reduces our cognitive capacity.)
Designate a meal (or even the kitchen) as “phone free.”
Swap a podcast for silence.
What I got out of my own "Tech Reset" experience
It’s been a little over a week since the Tech Reset ended, and I confess: Two of the habit changes I started working on during the program haven’t entirely stuck.
Goal #1 - Don’t pick up the phone first thing in the morning.
I really wanted to get out of the habit of looking at text messages and emails first thing. I know it scatters my attention and upsets my peace. I'd like to check messages and my calendar after at least having my coffee, and to check email at my desk. I’m still not doing that consistently, but now I know that I definitely want to!
Goal #2 - Reduce overall phone screen time.
While I experienced days with significantly less screen time, day-to-day I’m holding steady with the average I had when I started the program.
However ...My awareness about my phone use has really grown. And as I mentioned before, this is the first step toward behavior change.
Awareness #1 - Am I using the phone to maximize every moment for pleasure or productivity?
For example: I noticed that I often use my phone to find the perfect song for driving from one place to another, and now sometimes I just listen to the radio. I’m noticing how the phone allows us to hyper control our experiences and even bring perfectionism to it … What kind of impact does it have on me to just go with what’s on the radio vs. insisting that this car ride from school to home has to have the perfect soundtrack or squeezes in more audiobook/podcast learning?
Awareness #2 - To change a habit, first you need to notice what emotional needs are driving it in the first place.
I noticed that a lot of my unchecked phone use is driven by emotions like anxiety, discomfort or boredom. I check WhatsApp first thing in the morning to see if my friends or family back in the U.S. wrote to me overnight. Seeking connection, a sense of belonging. I also check WhatsApp in case there’s an “urgent” message from the parent groups for my kids’ classes. A worry of missing something, making a mistake.
Awareness #3 - I’m using my phone for tasks that are better done at other times, other places.
For example, on the weekend, when I’m away from my computer but feel the need to get something done before I forget it, I often get sucked into trying to do a task that is terrible for the phone. Like buying new shoes for my daughter. Endlessly scrolling for a new pair of sneakers that I don’t even end up buying, in the middle of whatever else I was doing (with kids literally jumping to vie for my attention), when really I could have just jotted it down on a to-do list for later.
These small habits: We all have them.
They’re small, but they are important, and they are worth our attention.
One of my favorites quotes, from one of my favorite authors, Annie Dillard, gets at why they are so important:
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.”
Yesterday Pope Leo released his first major teaching document of his papacy, and he chose the topic of AI. I’m planning to read his Encyclical Letter; it will be my first.
I’m glad that he chose to use his position of power on the global stage to discuss the ramifications of AI and how we can choose, from a place of human virtue, rather than vice, which direction we want technology to go.
Even in the seemingly insignificant habits and rhythms of our days, we are making important larger philosophical choices.
We can choose presence over disengagement, connection over isolation, focus over distraction, and good enough over perfection.
