30 Very Short Ideas to Radically Reduce Your Screen Time

Save hours of eye strain, time, and mental energy

The average person’s daily screen time is over 7 hours — but blue-collar workers, retired oldies, and kids have skewed this number to the lower side.

For the typical 9–5er with phone-hooked commutes and Netflix “chill” sessions, the daily number would be over 12 to 14 hours.

This isn’t natural by any stretch of the imagination — evolution didn’t design our eyes to bear the onslaught of harsh electronic pixels for 1/3rd of the day.

As a full-time software developer and part-time writer, my work demands hours of being glued to screens.

But I’ve tightened my screentime down to sub-6.5 hours — on weekends; it’s only 3 to 4 hours.

Not only do my eyes look healthier, but my prescription has reduced to -1.75 Dioptres from -2.5 — and skull-hammering migraines have become a thing of the past.

I want to share 30 ways to chop down your screentime as well:

1. Turn on grey-scale mode on your smartphone — so a bland grey replaces the surreally vivid colors.

2. Resist the habit of pulling out your smartphone for even the shortest of delays.

3. Don’t use your phone for tasks you can perform on your laptop — I’ve stripped shopping, social media, and investing apps from my phone.

4. Turn off all (or at least social media) notifications. The average person checks their phone over 160 times a day. Enough said.

5. Keep your phone on DND and chuck it to the far side of the room while working. Out of sight, out of mind.

6. Install a screentime tracker — 9/10 times we grossly underestimate our screentime. Actually, 10/10 times.

7. Don’t watch when listening suffices — with interviews, podcast videos, and long-form lecture content, lean back into your chair and close your eyes.