To ask how you stop spending time online?

[Overload101]

I feel like I waste hours of my life needlessly scrolling online when I could be more productive/using my brain more. My main aim with this is that I want to be able to pick up a book and be able to concentrate on it. When I was young and phones weren't as advanced as they are these days, I'd easily put a book away in an evening or two - now if I try I'm almost falling asleep after a page or two! I have the local library app on my phone which is great due to the book selection and it's free but because it's on my phone it's too easy to be distracted by social media and everything else. (Unfortunately, it isn't kindle compatible.)

Has anyone else found a way to stop scrolling their life away? Is it really just a case of willpower? I could try airplane mode but sure that's too easy to turn off!

Log out at the end of your sessions.

Bookmarking

I am planning to try apps that limit your time, a timer when I’m online, and locking my phone away at 8pm.

All other ideas welcome..

Following for tips

If you have an iPhone its really easy to set screen time limits, I get booted out of everything at 10pm and my favourite games have a 30 minute daily cap.
If you go to settings it's the 9th option down.
It's definitely broken my habit of spending all evening on my phone or wasting hours at a time playing games and ignoring DH.

Could you start with the Library's audiobook app (BorrowBox) and have books playing in the background? I'm more likely to concentrate if I do something mundane when I listen like the dishes or a bath or cross stitch. I can't Mumsnet and listen to the audiobook, but it's easier than sitting reading

Good question and I'd like to work on this too.

Screen time limits just don't work. Unless there was a way to be unable to just go in and override them which I'm not sure there is?

I use the forest app. It blocks you from using your phone and makes you feel guilty if you use it by saying your tree will die! I find it useful when I need to block out a chunk of time to focus on something.

Get a basic phone for calls. Leave the smart phone at home and go for a long walk. You'll soon get used to it enough to resist temptation even when your smart phone is near.

Also, turn off all notification on WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. I find it's the constant notification (and gratification) that lures me back in, then before you know it, I'm endlessly scrolling on Instagram!

Set time limits on all your apps. Max 15 minutes a day.

Get someone else to set the override password and I always override mine!

Freedom app!

Turn your phone onto silent and put it in a box in the kitchen after 6pm (for eg if you work) or whatever you decide suits your life.

I could hspppily lose 10+ hours a day on my days and evenings off scrolling or watching Netflix in my iPhone. Or I put it down on silent and talk to my children, cook with them,do jobs around the house, read a book and listen to music. The temptation is to multitask with mobile phone in your hand but really you're not. You're splitting your attention and giving most of it to the phone.

Or you want time not online- turn your devices off/ onto silent and put it down.

It's a decision

It's not a skill or secret.

@Greydogs123

I use the forest app. It blocks you from using your phone and makes you feel guilty if you use it by saying your tree will die! I find it useful when I need to block out a chunk of time to focus on something.

Second this. The Forest app really helps me focus and be more productive. I love it!

With things like reading a book, you have to form the habit of it again. If you just try and then give up, the habit will never come back. You need to stick with it.

If I spend too much time online I feel really unmotivated. It makes me feel bored and then I'm so bored that I don't feel like doing anything else. I have a bit of time online in the morning with a coffee. Then the odd 10 mins in the day, taking a break from work. That's it. I never go online in the evenings. Because I'm not in the habit of doing it.

As Sparticuscaticus said, it's just a decision you need to make and stick with it and it will become the norm.

I’m only partially successful at this but the best tip I heard was - browse your phone as much as you want but you have to be standing up when you do it.

When I do manage to do it I find it works really well. I tend to check what I need to check, maybe read a couple of news stories, and then put my phone down. Standing up and browsing for hours just isn’t enjoyable.

Plus I try and turn my phone off by 9pm or so. Especially in the last few days - reading the news just before bed is never good for mental health, and particularly so now.

Following with interest.

Out of sight, out of mind helps me. I leave my phone on the bedside table when I want to make sure I'm 'present’. When my kids arrive home from nursery, I leave my phone upstairs.

My hardest job is ignoring it when I need it with me, like when they are at nursery!

I set my phone display to grayscale. It looks boring and it's not as addictive. It really makes a big difference to how much time I spend on it. Also get a real book and put your phone down somewhere out if reach when you're reading.

I took baby steps. Firstly I started reading books / stories online. Then from there I changed to reading mode in my iphone. Then from there I picked up a paper book and finished it.

I've noticed I can't even concentrate at work now, if my phone is on my desk I continually reach for it, it's almost involuntary. If I'm trying to do a slightly boring or difficult task I'll just keep checking my phone like a tic. So frustrating and like a pp I'm really bored by it anyway! I think I need to get into the habit of turning it off for hours at a time!

I don't enjoy reading books anymore because of the damn phone!

Can you go to the library and get actual books? Then you can physically put your phone away. I always think that reading an actual book "feels" different as well. Reading an e-book is more an extension of just looking at stuff online.

I found the limit things no use. I just clicked ignore.

I try to leave my phone charging on a different floor of the house in the evening otherwise I'm half watching TV and half scrolling.