Everyone I know wishes they spent less time on their phone.

When I tell these same people that I only spend an average of 10 minutes a day on my phone they think I must be living off the grid or something.

But I'm writing to you on a laptop that's connected to the internet, I publish videos on YouTube, and I use my smartphone to text my wife every day.

The real secret to reducing my screen time has been a series of tiny experiments and habits that have proven to be sustainable for me.

Here are five practical tips so you can be on your phone less and enjoy life more.

1) Seek compelling alternatives.

While researching for his book Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport conducted an informal experiment with 1700 of his newsletter readers where they would all go 30 days without any optional digital devices.

The biggest problem the participants faced is not knowing what to do with their free time. Most of them couldn't deal with the existential angst of boredom and quit the challenge.

But all of the participants that succeeded shared a similar strategy–they all found compelling alternatives.

Instead of endlessly scrolling Twitter/X to "stay informed", they read physical newspapers.

Instead of DMing friends all day, they joined classes and clubs to interact with people in person.

Instead of watching movies all night, they read books.

Quitting anything cold turkey is hard. But swapping out a bad habit for more positive one is less painful and extremely effective.

I put this one first because it's by far the most important factor in reducing unwanted screentime.

Wherever possible, find a compelling alternative in the analog world to replace the digital and your screen time will plummet as a result.

2) Landline your smartphone while at home.

Back in the day, phones were attached to a physical cable in the home called a landline, meaning you had to go to the phone rather than bring it with you when you needed it.

A rising trend is to treat your smartphone as if it were an old landline phone by leaving it plugged in to the charger while you're at home, ideally outside of the bedroom.

If you need to use your phone for any reason then you have to physically go to your charging station.

I started landlining my phone a few years ago and it completely eliminated vast swaths of screen time.

No more doomscrolling before bed or binging the news first thing in the morning.

I started popping right out bed in the morning and reading books at night leading to a substantially healthier mental life. This also meant I got distracted less throughout the day and was able to engage with my hobbies more without feeling the constant need to check in.

Try landlining and getting your phone out of the bedroom for an immediate positive impact.

3) Dumb down your smartphone.

It's no accident that smartphones feel so addicting.

Silicon Valley spent the last two decades and trillions of dollars perfecting the art of hacking our limbic systems to stay hooked to our screens.

But you don't need to buy a $500 dumbphone or a funky flip phone to make it less tempting.

You just need to make your smartphone boring.

I went pretty hard on this and deleted every optional app on my phone.

This meant no social media, no news apps, no games, and deleting internet browsers from my home screen.

The only apps left on my phone are the ones that I need (but even that word seems too strong.) Things like my banking apps, my work scheduler, and utility apps like the calculator.

That's it.

I went one step further and turned colors off of my phone so that everything is black and white now.

It's pretty damn boring and exactly the way I want it to be.

Now there's virtually no reason to look at my phone unless it's for texting, making calls, or moving money around.

Instead of watching videos on my phone I now have to use my desktop which is substantially less addicting.

So it's not like you have to give watching content you like on social media completely. Instead, you use a desktop and save yourself the pain of scrolling for too long.

I promise you it's much harder to waste hours on your computer than it is an your phone.

4) Establish Pockets of Resistance.

The reality is as long as there is money to be made hijacking your attention, then tech companies will continue to find ways to exploit vulnerabilities in our psycology to do so.

That's why I believe we must take an active stance of resistance–literally and metaphorically–against their desire to consume every spare moment of our attention.

Establishing a pocket of resistance in your life means choosing to miss out on some of the benefits of a technology in exhange for your autonomy.

Yes, it's more convenient to take notes on my phone using voice-to-chat, but do I really want to add another chain keeping me dependent on the distraction machine?

I'll pass. I'm done falling for it.

Your boundaries will be different from mine, but we all have a line that needs to be defended.

The biggest game-changer for me was to create a literal Pocket of Resistance. I kicked my phone out of my pockets and in its place started carrying a pocket notebook.

When that compulsive itch to reach for my phone kicked in I would find a notebook in my hands filled with ideas instead of distractions.

Swap in a pocket notebook where you normally carry your phone and start bringing a pen with you everywhere.

It's an easy way to start fighting back.

5) Get a paper planner.

If you're read this far then you probably care deeply about using your time wisely instead of passively wasting it away.

Living an more analog life isn't about tech being bad; it's about living a life of intention.

Something that's truly helped me gain autonomy over my time and attention has been developing a planning system that is sutainable and works.

For years I used Google Calendar for my planning needs which was fine except that it forced me to bring my phone with me everywhere.

A few months ago I finally made the switch to a paper planner and I'm never looking back. Making the switch to a paper calendar allowed me to get all of the benefits of planning while getting me away from my phone. My only regret is not switching over sooner.

I was nervous about ditching my digital calendar but it was surpringly easy to make the switch once I learned about the concept of a Master Calendar which I recently made a video about you can watch here: A paper calendar system that actually works.​

Prompt:

What keeps you glued to your phone more than you would like? What's one step you can take to reduce that hook on you?