Spending a lot of time staring at your phone or PC's screen does more harm than good. Sometimes, it's becoming an obsession to endlessly stare at your phone for hours even if you don't do anything except doom scrolling.
Your time spent on your phone might have been productive if you just allot it to your hobbies such as painting, playing chess, singing, and more.
If you want to double your productivity this year as your New Year's resolution, here's what you need to do to avoid excessive screen time.
Use Screen Time Apps
Whether you're using an iPhone, an iPad, or a Mac, having a reliable screen time management tool is a must especially if you think that you're addicted to all-day staring at your phone.
Popular Science reports that you can track your time spent on your device by going to the Settings of your phone. From here, click Screen Time and you can now see your actual screen time during your leisure hours.
If you have a laptop or a computer, you can access it on the Apple menu by tapping the System Preferences, then Screen Time.
For Android users, you can use Digital Wellbeing to limit your screen time. If you have kids, you can also activate parental controls. Just like the previous tool, you can track your time spent on your phone through this app.
Enable 'Do Not Disturb' Mode
Some people use the Pomodoro method to increase their productivity at school or work. However, it does not always work well with others.
The most common option that works for some is by turning off the notifications and turning on the "Do Not Disturb" mode. Muting the unnecessary alerts on your device will give you some peace in the meantime.
Turn Your Phone's Display to Grayscale
According to Expressvpn, there's an effective tactic to trick your mind into perceiving your phone's background as unattractive. By transforming its current color to grayscale, your mind will think that it's a bland theme and there's no way to use it anymore.
Of course, that's partly true since you can still use your phone even if you're seeing gray colors. However, this would make it unengaging to scroll over your phone.
Give More Time to Offline Activities
Sometimes, the best thing to avoid long hours of screen time is to pursue offline activities. By dedicating more time to other tasks outside the screen, you can enjoy living to the fullest.
You have many options to choose from including going to gyms, watching television, getting a massage, and more.
Don't Overdo Video Calling
Zoom fatigue has become an issue among remote workers. As companies transition to a work-from-home setup, many online employees think that they could save money from commuting. However, staring at a video for hours could cause so-called "video fatigue."
For this, you can limit your screen time to three video calls per day. Make sure that they won't exceed an hour or two.
