A 28 Day Digital Detox
Scary Screen Time Data 😱
In the past 7 days, I’ve spent nearly 6 hours a day on my phone and more than 35 hours in total.
Conservatively, let’s assume I spend on average 5 hours a day on my phone across the year. That’s 1,825 total hours.
If I were to spend 24 hours a day on my phone it would take me 76 straight days to get through 1,825 hours.
That’s f’ing frightening.
Last week, I picked up my phone 113 times a day on average. On Thursday, I picked it up 181 times. Assuming I was awake for 16 hours, I picked up my phone 11 times an hour. EVERY 5 MINUTES!
That’s quite embarrassing.
Surprisingly (or not), the amount of times I pick up my phone is relative to the number of notifications I get each day.
One might assume that if I turn off my phone notifications, the amount of time I spend on my phone and how many times I pick it up will plummet.
How I spend my time needs to change.
I think you’ll agree, those numbers make for sobering reading.
So for the next 28 days, I’m doing a digital detox.
My Digital Detox Plan
I’m deactivating ALL notifications from every app I have installed on my phone except WhatsApp, Phone, and Ring. When my wife texts or calls me or when someone is at my door I want to know about it. Everything else is a distraction.
I’m deleting all social media apps. Last week, I wasted 16 hours mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, Reddit, and Twitter. If I delete those apps I will cut my screen time by 50%!
I’m not going to use my phone between 8pm and 9am. That’s no more late-night scrolling and no grabbing my phone as soon as I wake up.
I’m going to switch reading on my phone to reading on my Kindle. While it’s still a digital device, it has an e-ink screen so there is no blue light and there are no other apps to distract me.
No phone on Sundays. I’m going to avoid picking up my phone altogether for 1 day a week. Sunday will officially become the day of digital rest.
What I will use my phone for
I’m going to use Spotify for listening to music and podcasts.
You can see from my data I played ‘Games’ for 5 hours last week. That’s just 1 app - Chess. I’m going to cut the amount of hours, but I’ll still play the odd game here or there to keep the brain ticking.
Banking and Travel.
On Sunday 8th October, I’ll send you the results of my digital detox, what I learned, and the effects on my life.
Take a look at your screen time data. Uncomfortable with what you see?
Let me know in the comments your screen data and join me on this detox to take back control of your time.
I really want to try this! But too many people rely on me to completely detach myself from my phone. I’ll delete all the unnecessary stuff though
Man, it's so bad hey. Then when you're deleting and detoxing you physical feel the pull of going to check it. Frightening like you said. I use a dumb phone on the weekends and it helps, a bit. Keep it up mate.