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Our generation loves digital media and smartphones. While it can be highly beneficial in some ways, unfortunately it does come with negative associations, known to affect our mind and bodies more than we may know. Taking more time away from our screens can help to reduce stress, improve sleep quality, improve our relationships, free up more time for friends and family, and help with our personal growth.
As we have become very reliant on our phones and social media, sometimes it’s necessary to actively seek ways to reduce our time using them to help with our overall health.
Spend An Hour A Day On A Screen-Free Hobby
The first thing you should do to help you get respite from constant connectivity and to help your mental health is to spend an hour a day on a screen-free hobby. Identify an hour a day you have free consistently and set it aside for a hobby, whether that’s an hour before you start work or after work. Some examples are throwing on your favourite loungewear and spending an hour exercising, meeting a friend for a fun activity, reading, cooking, crafting, journalling, gardening, listening to a podcast, volunteering or going to explore a new place. If you have the time, on weekends or when you’re not working, try to increase this hour to a few.
Not only does this help you reduce your screen time, but you can focus on yourself and things you enjoy. You don’t have to spend money on this (or you of course can if you want to) and can get creative, whether they’re solo activities or you’re planning activities with a partner or family.
Use An App To Limit App Usage
If you struggle to put your phone down once you’ve picked it up to check what you need to, then you can use your phone to help you limit your phone usage. Most phones have a setting where you can set a limit on your phone, either for specific apps (e.g. you spend too much time on Instagram specifically), or for your phone in general, to flag you when you need to switch it off and have used your limit. Whilst you can switch this off if you need to, it’s not 100% effective of course, but it just provides that extra indication and reminder to help you break unhealthy cycles. Give this a try, it might not be fully effective when it’s the only measure you put in place, but when you combine it with other healthy alternatives to using your phone, it should help overall!
Eat Without Your Phone
Something else that can help you break the cycle of constant connectivity with the digital world is to make sure you don’t use your phone when you’re eating. There are studies that suggest when you eat food and scroll at the same time, a double hit of dopamine is released, so you naturally become more inclined to use your phone more and eat more food. This forms an unhealthy habit for both our mind and body, so keeping them separate is important. Meal times are a great opportunity to sit at a table, listen to your favourite album or have a catch up with friends, family or your partner, rather than keeping on scrolling.
(image: Unsplash: Micheile Henderson)
Leave Your Phone Out Of Your Bedroom
Something else that can really help you to reduce your digital use is to leave your phone out of your bedroom. Get yourself an alarm clock, then you have no reason to need your phone in there. Sitting and scrolling on our phones in bed is so tempting and it’s really easy to do, however it often means we go to sleep later than we should or would want to, as well as making it more difficult to actually sleep when you do put your phone down, as the blue light can disrupt your sleeping patterns and leave you awake for longer.
So, keeping your phone out of your room, for at least an hour before bed, helps to break this cycle. Replace your habit of scrolling on your phone with something relaxing that helps you to unwind, like reading a book or magazine for an hour, having a nice bath and doing your skincare, some meditation or just listening to music. You’ll find you sleep much better, helping you to feel energised and refreshed the next day, as well as helping your mental health.
This article was written by writer Daisy Moss.
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this was a great article! Thanks, Daisy! xo
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