Reclaiming summer by putting away my phone

Shibani explores one way to make space for more time and connection this summer – by reducing time spent on her devices.

Do you track your kids’ screen time? Many of us parents monitor our children, but what about ourselves? I know in my home that when I suggest that one of my kids has been on their device for too long, they can often retort, “And what about you?”

After a friendly argument with my kids where I once again had to justify use of my device, they urged me to check my screen time averages – and the results surprised me.

Our devices are the nexus of our modern adults lives, connecting work+social+family+entertainment. And with our culture’s ‘always working’ mentality, it is hard to disconnect from our phones and the worlds they serve up for us. I love being able to connect with my middle school French teacher and family members in India in ways I cannot do without social media. Yet, if we aren’t careful, we can be disconnected from the reality of our behaviors.

At a dinner and on your phone? Driving while semi-scrolling a site? On a walk with your head titled 45 degrees for most of it? Without mindfulness, our devices can steal our time – and lives. Social media alone can steal 2 hours on average from us daily…and even more, if you’re me:

So, as summer kicks off and with new awareness of my habits, I want to step forward into the season with more presence and with time for the people and activities I enjoy. With a schedule already fully packed to the brim, making time for ‘nothing’ will require letting go of ‘something.’ For me, it’s my phone and social media.

5 ways to reduce time spent on your device and social media

• Track your screen time
  • Just as you track your weight or steps, consider adding screen time to the data set you monitor. Tracking your stats creates awareness. Review weekly averages and set goals (e.g., “under 2 hrs/day”)
• Hide social apps
  • Remove easy access to social media apps by hiding them:
    • Touch and hold: the app icon until the quick actions menu appears
    • Tap “Remove from Home Screen” and when you want to access it, enter the name via the search bar
    • Watch how to hide apps here
• Schedule phone-free blocks
  • Try 30-minute or 60-minute windows or designate certain hours as “no phone zones” (e.g. during meals, after 9 p.m.) to build intentional habits and reset your attention span
• Make your phone boring
  • Delete addictive apps or turn on grayscale, which reduce visual triggers that entice you to engage
  • Watch how to turn on grayscale here
• Keep your phone at a distance
  • Keep your phone out of reach when you can
  • Seeing your phone—even just in your peripheral vision—triggers your brain’s dopamine reward system, which says: “Check it, just for a second”
    • Our phones impact our focus and performance: people who had their phones on the desk performed worse on cognitive tasks than those whose phones were in another room
    • Watch Grit-author, Angela Duckworth, talk about this (on TikTok, ironically)

Also important: keep your goals realistic. Like a zero inbox, zero screen time isn’t possible. The goal is to find a comfortable zone and make small, positive changes. Just by hiding my Instagram app, I have made a meaningful dent in my screen time in a week, as you can see here:

For those of us who use social media for our work, it’s complicated. I suggest gaining clarity on personal doom scrolling tendencies and knowing when you’re on apps for work. Scheduling time blocks can help with this.

Whatever approach you use – here’s to a happy and screen-light summer for us all!