Before you know it, several hours have passed while doomscrolling. It’s a story all too familiar to many.
“Our phones are like tractor beams,” says Paul Leonardi, dean and professor of technology management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life. “They are designed to draw us in.”
If you’re looking to reduce screen time at home and adopt healthier digital device habits, Leonardi has some tips to try.
1. Keep your intentions in mind
Leonardi says he has no problem “picking up my phone if I need to.” A bigger problem for many people is that they lose track of time without thinking about it. Leonardi says it helps you “easily set your own intentions” when reaching for your phone.
“Creating that intent is really important to have a stopping point in your interactions with the tool,” Leonardi says. In some cases, you may need to check your email for specific messages. Always keep your why in mind.
“When you finish reading that message, you have a choice point,” Leonardi says. “That’s all I said I was going to do, so should I quit, or should I check out TikTok or browse some playlists on Spotify?
You might want to do a little doomscrolling. “But at least you’re making the choice to do it,” he says.
2. Keep your distance
While this is well-known advice on the subject, you might also consider “creating a little barrier between you and your device,” Leonardi said.
That might mean checking your inbox in the kitchen instead of bringing your laptop into the bedroom where you’ll want to scroll before bed. Or, at dinner, leave your phone in another room instead of on the table where you can easily check it.
“Moving away just a little bit is enough to intentionally say, ‘Can I really go to the kitchen and get my phone?’ That way, you can say ‘no’ instead of reaching for it without thinking,” he says.
3. Start a hobby
Is there another way to spend less time on your phone? Spend your time doing something else, like taking up a hobby or other activity that grabs your attention.
“When people get into that flow state when they’re not using their device, they actually don’t want to use it,” he says.
It doesn’t have to be an offline hobby, Leonardi adds, noting that some hobbies and activities that require digital skills can be just as appealing for reaching a flow state.
“What we really want to do is find an activity that allows us to challenge ourselves and invest in it,” he says. “And we don’t do a lot of things that exhaust us.”
Want to use AI to advance your work? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course, Beyond the Basics: How to Use AI to Supercharge Your Work. Learn advanced AI skills like building custom GPTs and using AI agents to increase your productivity today.
