This new situation is making me addicted to my phone...

[cerealmilk]

How do I break the addiction?! I can’t seem to!

My screen-time-thingy tells me I’m spending five hours a day on it

Please give me tips on how to stop spending so much time on my phone!

You have to just put it down and stick to it.

Don't try and give it up altogether, but give yourself periods of time where you just can't look at it. Keep yourself busy with other things during those times. Will power!

Turn it off. It's no good having it on somewhere.

It is making me go online less. I feel all the better for it. I am not burying my head in the sand but avoiding stats, tabloid and social media, the news is great for my mental health. I check Reuters twitter account in the morning, and then 7ish to check for the latest news in case I need to know something. They are non sensationalist so you just get facts.

Switch off WiFi and mobile data so you have to physically change it back if you want to use it.
Yesterday I left mine upstairs during the bulk of the day and deliberately avoided Facebook and MN and felt a lot better. The constant doom mongering was really bringing me down

5 hours a day isn't very much I consider it quite a good day if I manage less than that before bedtime...

Thanks everyone! Okay I’m going to try and shave an hour off today by doing these tips!

(My screentime before this was about 2 hours a day!)

Mine just gave me an update and said I was 21% down from last week and that was over five hours a day

More interesting than total time is all the other data iPhone give you, such as how many individual switch ons you have done and which site you go to first after switch on. That tells me more about my 'habit' than just total hours on, because lots of individual switch on, check, switch off is more 'compulsive' than reading an article or searching for something specific

I have been trying to leave mine upstairs. I am sat on the sofa right now on my phone though while watching church on YouTube. So not doing well. Its hard to just leave my phone when I have family memebers who are lonely and struggling with isolation.

I’m really proud - took on a lot of your tips and got my screentime down to 2hr17 today! (Am 10 mins of phone time away from going to sleep.) And I feel a lot less anxious and moody than usual because of it.

Though did just watch 1.5 hours of Netflix on the tv but that doesn’t count, right?

Hoping I can do the same tomorrow!

Good job cereal

I should follow my own advice!

I have an app called Stay Focused, which lets you block internet access but still use other apps, etc. You can set limits like an overall limit per day, or five minutes per hour, or just block it for a a number of hours. If you have it in strict mode you can't get round it.