Most of us have picked up our phone to check one thing and resurfaced an hour later knowing far more about a complete stranger’s kitchen renovation than we ever intended.
Digital habits are remarkably easy to build without noticing.
A quick check becomes something you do whenever you are bored, waiting, eating, watching television, or apparently just when you’re completely incapable of standing in a queue for more than three minutes.
Technology itself is not necessarily the problem. The issue is when using it automatically starts taking time from things you would rather be doing.
If that sounds like you, implement these five changes to help you build healthier digital habits:
- Fix The Habit That Annoys You Most
You probably already know which digital habit you would most like to change.
Start with that one.
Maybe you hate losing half an hour to your phone every morning or constantly checking messages when you are supposed to be concentrating. Choose a specific problem and give yourself a realistic rule around it.
You don’t need to become an entirely different person with your phone; you just need to make one annoying habit slightly less automatic than it was yesterday.
- Make Offline Activities Easy To Reach
If your phone is always within reach and everything else requires effort, your phone will probably win.
Make offline activities just as convenient.
Leave a book beside the couch, keep walking shoes near the door, or have something ready that you enjoy doing with your hands. You are giving yourself another option when boredom arrives.
Scrolling is much less automatic when there is something equally easy, and preferably more enjoyable, sitting right there.
- Stop Taking Your Phone Everywhere
Your phone does not need to accompany you on every tiny journey through the day.
One approach to how to manage screen time is creating screen-free spaces where checking your device is no longer the default.
Leave it behind when you make coffee, eat meals, walk outside, or sit down for a conversation. Those short breaks add up.
They also help break the strange feeling that being separated from your phone for ten minutes requires some sort of explanation.
- Stop Using Two Screens At Once
Watching television while scrolling through your phone means neither activity is getting much of your attention. Try choosing one screen at a time.
If you are watching something, actually watch it. If you want to use your phone, pause what is playing.
It sounds ridiculously basic, but breaking the habit of constantly switching between the screens can make your downtime feel far less like one long stream of competing information.
- Give Your Phone A Bedtime
If your phone is the last thing you look at every night, give it a stopping time.
Pick a reasonable point before bed where you put it down and leave it there. Charge it somewhere you cannot reach without getting up if necessary.
You may still occasionally break the rule. That is fine. The aim is to stop turning “I’ll check one thing before sleeping” into forty minutes of uninterrupted scrolling you never planned to do.
Final Words
Healthier digital habits do not require throwing your phone into the nearest river.
They come from noticing the moments when you are using technology without purposefully choosing to. Change a few of those moments and something interesting happens: you suddenly have more time for the things you kept saying you never had time for.
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Our Editorial Team are writers and experts in their field. Their views and opinions may not always be the views of Wellbeing Magazine. If you are under the direction of medical supervision please speak to your doctor or therapist before following the advice and recommendations in these articles.
