Maeve @autumn-opossum - Tumblr Blog

How to actually get off your phone

For people with no "willpower"

Quick context: my phone has been my constant companion since I was 7 years old, and I’ve been trying to change since I was 12 years old. I’m an adult now, so I’ve been dealing with this for a long time.

I haven’t figured out everything, but I have tried many tips and tricks. Here’s my curated list of 10 practical, applicable advice:

Identify your type of internet addiction

Take a good look at what you actually do on your phone. What apps do you use? In what way?

There’s two patterns of internet addiction I’ve noticed: passive content consumption addiction, and active social media addiction.

If you: spend hours on youtube, scrolling tiktoks, tumblr posts, tweets, pinterest pictures… you have passive internet addiction.

If you: post constantly, multiple times a day, check stats, likes, comments, and always chats or texts people… you have active social media addiction.

You might also have a mix of both, but it’s worth seeing how and why you use your phone. What need are you trying to fill? What urge is driving you?

2. Be okay with constantly starting over

We often like to jump from 100% to 0%; from 8 hours of screen time to 1 hour. We impose impossible standard, and then get demotivated when it (unsurprisingly) fails.

Progress isn’t about a binary success/fail, or about the length of your streak of successes. Instead, it’s about trajectory: the direction of your behavior—whether you have more good days than before, better good days, longer, with shorter lapse between.

You will fail, you can’t rewire years of behavioral reinforcement immediately. Be ready to start over, again, and again.

(Have an emergency force reset for lapse, so you immediately get back on track. This could be: giving your phone to someone else, blocking your phone, going outside, writing down what exactly happened, even just getting up and away from it to drink some water. Simply put, take a step back into intentionally.)

Measure your progress not as a streak, but as a direction.

3. Go analog, but mindfully

Think about what phone use you could realistically replace with an analog object. We don’t want just mindless purchases that will just create more clutter and guilt.

For example, a purchase that made a big difference for me: an alarm clock. I don’t have to have my phone in my bedroom anymore. And as a bad example: I bought a dumb phone, and it doesn’t work for me (I mostly use it for music, so I could have just bought an MP3 player).

Other analog examples: kitchen timer, cookbook, journal or notebook, calendar or planner, DVD player.

Give yourself less reasons to reach for your phone.

4. Create an impractical homebase for your phone

Move your charger to a spot far enough from your bed or your couch that you can’t comfortably use your phone there. I personally put it in a drawer next to my TV. And then, before bed or when you’re doing something else, put your phone in its little home.

Increase friction between you and your phone; make your life less easy.

5. Blockers

If you’re used to being on your phone all day and you decide to stop, you’ll have to constantly stop the urge. So, instead of having to make the right decision a thousand times, make it only once by using a blocker.

Specifically, I use one that doesn’t allow me to disable it (or rather, I can if I pay real money) called Digital Detox. Another option would be to use a blocker that requires a password that only another person knows, or generally one that can't easily be bypassed.

You can also use blockers to block specific functions in apps (like youtube shorts or instagram reels). I use Stayfree.

Give yourself less chances to make the wrong choice.

6. Include screen time in your schedule

Automatic, mindless screen time is really the problem here. That’s when it goes from enjoyable to harmful. So, if you’re someone that already likes schedules, I suggest scheduling screentime. BUT, schedule for who you are, not who you wish you were.

Plan for when you know you’ll want your phone (during meals, after work, before bed, etc.) I also recommend shorter periods, more often, not one big session (avoids the urges accumulating into a binge, and also avoids becoming too absorbed to stop).

Make your screen time more intentional.

7. Plan for your no-screen time

What do people even do without internet? If you spend 6-8 hours on it, your impulses are all wired for your phone; you won’t feel tempted by much else. If you stop a habit, you need to replace it.

Plan for what you’ll do during these no-screen time, or plan blocks of time (moving time, art time, chill time) to divide the hours.

And if you find that you have no motivation or concentration for the usual activities and hobbies, prepare smaller task that won’t feel as daunting to start: plan an outfit, clean a corner, drink water, lay down, look outside your window, listen to music, play with your pet, step outside, breathe for a moment, etc.

Rediscover boredom. Give yourself time and grace to relearn yourself and the world.

8. Be less available

Even if the world has normalized it, it’s not healthy to constantly be available. It means that you reach for your phone to check messages, constantly. If no one told you: you’re allowed to not answer a text immediately.

Warn other people, plan for when you’ll check your messages, or plan time when you turn off notification. Your friends, partner, family, coworkers, they'll survive.

Give yourself the peace to not be tied to your phone.

9. Because it’ll feel better

Why do you want to get off your phone? If it’s for someone, or for productivity, it’ll be much harder to get the habit to stick.

Instead, I suggest building a library of moments to remind yourself, intrinsically, why you prefer it. In the moment, be mindful of how it feels to be off your phone.

When you feel demotivated, pull a moment from your library of memories, and remind yourself that it just feels better.

10. Build a system

No trick can change your life. There’s no secret remedy to internet addiction. Instead, you should experiment and get to know what system of tricks work for you. There’s many failure points, so you need to find ways to address each when the time comes.

During the work week, while I’m already following a schedule, I also schedule screentime. On the weekend, I’ll just block it for half the day, but still schedule phoneless activities. If one day I feel like bringing my phone with me to bed, then I make sure to block it so I can’t use it the next morning.

You see my point: no one trick works at all time. You have to create a system that encourages positive change over time.

The goal is to reach for intentionality, not necessarily complete abstinence.

~~~

Do you guys have more tips for lowering screentime?

#this is really helpful!

baddbirthday

Fun things to do instead of bending over for advertisers, streaming services, social media, and AI:

• You can pirate literally anything. do it.

• Read books, comic books, manga. I can't tell you how much joy and peace comic books have given me.

• Don't have money? Go to the library. The library also has video and audio media. Go to a bookstore and pick something out and just sit down and read it.

• Invest in physical media instead of digital media. Your dvds and cds can't be taken away with the click of a button. Look through locally owned thrift stores, Facebook marketplace, and yard sales for good deals. Sometimes you'll find free stuff.

• Burn your own playlists on cds. Give these as gifts.

• Create a physical photo album. You can get disposable cameras, polaroids, or just print any photos you want. You can print things from your phone at the library for cheap. You will cherish these forever.

• Try a new hobby until you get bored of it and then try another one. You can try something new every week and never run out of things to do. Try everything. It's a wonderful way to live.

• Go outside, get some birdseed, crumbs, fruit, etc. throw it on the ground and admire the creatures that come eat and benefit from your gift. Nature is beautiful and you are missing out on it. One day you will not be able to do this anymore.

• Read and write fanfiction. Draw fanart. Engage in fan spaces. Yes they are messy and wild and unhinged. They are also passionate and powerful and dedicated. That is what is so beautifully human about them.

• Write something. A journal entry, a poem, a joke, a random sentence, it doesn't matter if it's shit. That's one thing written that didn't come from a bot. You didn't have to take someone's job to do that, you didn't rob someone of their drinking water. You have the power to write at no cost. And its good for you.

• Research if any native plants near you are edible. Go foraging and see if you can make yourself a snack. Be smart and safe about it ofc.

• Go plant a flower or something in your yard or the closest land near you.

• Leave a penny heads up on the sidewalk.

• Splash around in a puddle.

• People watch in a park or public space.

• Bake something you really want to eat.

• Spent some quality time with your pets.

• Dance alone in your room.

• Sing terribly.

• Do something nice for someone for no reason.

• Tell people you love them.

• Cry, laugh, scream, make mistakes.

• Be a human being.

Do not let them try to make you into a machine. You are not a number. You are not a tool. You are a person, you are complicated and beautiful. Please do yourself a great favor and live more. Do not do what all these monstrous corporations want and rely on numbers and fast moving pictures to fulfill your desires. You have the power to fulfill yourself. So go do it.

Please share this with more fun things to do.

elizabethsinclair

phone addiction is absurd bc it’s like ah yes perhaps one more visit to the rectangle of no enrichment or fulfillment will finally enrich and fulfill me

#lol

lirhyapetitpain

as I was working on the update of my website, I thought it would be smart to have the same character with the same outfit drawn in the 3 different artstyle I propose so customers can properly see the difference and it was a nice excuse to pull a MCU Sam in a crop top from different angles

#samuel sterns #mcu #the leader #marvel

lirhyapetitpain

This is 100% what happened

#i don’t know if i ship it but this made me laugh #incredible hulk #mcu #samuel sterns #art

lirhyapetitpain

He's just a little homicidal nerd

#mcu #samuel sterns #the leader #art

lirhyapetitpain

We all knew it was only a matter of time before I started sexualizing MCU Sam but anyway. Couldn't decide which version I like the most so have both, I like the kind of "firecamp" vibe of the first and the sketch one of the second. Also an excuse to show how I headcanon his body but I'll make a proper "map" on his scars later Forgive me for this transgression Tim... (it will happen again tho)

#samuel sterns #art

lirhyapetitpain

This picture of Tim Blake Nelson playing guitar with his Sam makeup on still lives rent free in my head alright but in my defense

#samuel sterns #😳#art

depsidase

derinthescarletpescatarian

My father is a classic layabout lazy bastard. He's the guy that people try to stereotype people on benefits as when they call them "dole bludgers". Sits in a filthy house all day whining that his wife won't clean it up, gets a great idea for a new business every few months and gives up after two weeks when it becomes clear that starting a business is hard, does everything he can to avoid doing a single scrap of work in life, uselessly drags his feet when the government forces him to actually do some.

Or at least, he was, until about three years ago, when he was sent off to do mandatory Work for the Dole at a volunteer organisation. He'd done a lot of Work for the Dole in the past, of course, and like most people who are forced to do a shitty job under the threat of starvation, was neither enthusiastic nor particularly useful. But in this particular place, he was given a job that he could do better than anyone else (he was one of 2 men working with a legion of elderly women, and the only person able to easily haul around the heavy goods that the organisation works with). He quickly found himself with a job he could understand, he could see the clear utility in, and that his coworkers greatly valued him for. He started arriving on time every day, putting in the effort, getting shit done. He started caring about the results. And when his Work for the Dole time was up, he kept volunteering.

He's one of two people paid to work in that warehouse now (the other person being the manager), and he's a lynchpin of activity there, their sole regular and reliable source of physical labour. When he takes holidays, they have to plan around it, because his consistent hard work has become such a critical asset to their work. And he's not taking nearly as many holidays as he should -- he works extra unpaid hours, lifts loads that are somewhat heavier than he should be lifting, shoulders the work of others when they need breaks, and we all have to urge him to take more days off for his health since he's not a young man any more. For my entire life this man has been a pile of old mud in the shape of a human, and the instant he found a job that fulfils his needs, he won't fucking stop. He's gonna die in that warehouse and die happy.

brightlotusmoon

turquoisemagpie

A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

(I think we need something summery and positive. I’d highly recommend Becky Chamber’s Monk & Robot series of books; a solarpunk dream with a healthy mix of philosophical journeys.)

#a psalm for the wild built #monk and robot #art #solarpunk