What do you to minimize phone screen time?

Get on the computer! LOLOL!

Seriously, I will read this thread with an open mind... I need ideas too. I spend way too much time on the phone and computer!!

For me it's more the desktop and the iPad, but I still spend too much time on them. I'm making a stronger effort to spend time on my sewing or needlepoint. Going out in the evening when I'm usually online to water plants and deadhead flowers gets me away from the screen as well. If I can shift my focus to something else, then it's easier to forget about the online world.

As for the phone, half the time I don't even know where the thing is.  I've never been one to carry it with me around the house.  

Get an iwatch. Lol! I get all kinds of notifications on it (text, email, IG, etc). I look at the notifications, dismiss them if not important, and I don’t need to look at my phone. Looking at my phone leads me into spending too much time on it because I fall down the rabbit hole.

Use my iPad.

Get a job where you can't bring your phone with you! I can't have mine for 8 hours a day... But that means I am super addicted to it in the evenings catching up. Oh yeah and don't get on TikTok.. that is addicting. I actually finally stopped and only give myself 1/2 hour before bed.

Delete apps. Turn off notifications for apps (Gardenscapes...) I have do-not-disturb hours set on so I don't get texts when I'm getting ready for bed.

I'm thinking of doing a no-phone Sunday and turning it completely off for the day...

I spend half my life not remembering where I put my phone or going to find it.

I'm on my MacBook plenty though.

I’m on my MacBook, then my iPad, then my phone. I need to go back to work. That’s coming quickly. 🤣

I do most of my communication, Facebook, Instagram, peaing, reading the newspaper, etc. all through my phone. I've just been putting my phone in my bedroom after dinner. I allow myself to have it all day long and then I'm like done with electronics and I put it to bed for the night. This is my time to visit with Jeremy and wind down with some crochet or a book or my bass.

These are some good ideas. I tried reading book about putting your phone down more.

How to break up with your phone : the 30-day plan to take back your life
     / by Catherine Price.

I tried downloading an app...stayfree? I have to use my phone FOR work throughout the day and I think I worry I will miss something from my mom...sometimes she gets our house number and my cell number confused...so not sure she would try house phone if she needs us... when my daughter goes to college that is going to get worse, I think I will feel on call 24/7. Ugh.

I like the idea of putting it away, moving away physically. Going in the yard is nice. It's really tricky for me to have the self discipline.

A lot of good ideas here.

Like most others, I really waste too much time on the phone. I get on for a 'legitimate' reason and then realize I've stayed on doing useless stuff. I'd like to do better about that.

I never bring my phone in the house, which definitely means a very low amount of time spent on it.

But I have a landline, which makes that perfectly possible to do, and I realize many people have let go of their landlines since they already have their phones on them 24/7. (Which I guess can make a bit of a vicious circle of sorts if you're in that type of situation and then also decide to try to spend less time on it.)

But, even if you are someone who uses it as your only phone, it can still have a particular place to live in your home, just like a corded phone would have back in the day. Maybe create a special spot for it somewhere, and only use it when you're in that spot? A living room end table or dining room table or some thing?

Maybe make a to-do list, and let the phone be your break after so many things done.

Or, make a list of fun little things you might like to do, and keep that list near the phone, so that you can make the choice to do one of the items off of your list instead? Along that same line, keep fun things near the phone's new spot---if you like to read or do crossword puzzles, for instance, keep a few books and a puzzle book with your phone. Or maybe keep your sunglasses with it as a reminder to go outside for a bit?

Best of luck!!

You know I was reading an article last week, two weeks ago? about giving our minds a rest and I recognized myself.  I meditate on the regular, but it's not a significant section of time and it's usually in the morning when my brain is at its freshest anyway.  My head is already empty in the morning as the day is new.  But when I get to evening, my mind is full, my brain is tired.  And sometimes I get to a point where I'm just too exhausted to even hobby.  So after reading that article, I was like, what did we do in the years without phones?  I sat in a waiting room at the dentist yesterday with others and everybody was on their phones while they were waiting and I just kept thinking it wasn't like this 30 years ago.  We just gave our minds a break.  And that's what the article was talking about.  How we never give our minds a break anymore.  So Jeremy goes to bed at 8 pm and I go to bed at 9 pm.  He's a big TV watcher, but I am not.  At 8pm when he goes to bed, he turns off the TV and I've just been sitting there for almost an hour and do literally nothing.   I might pray.  I might think of something I read.  I might even listen to music.  But I absolutely have not been taking in any new information.  I've been trying that since I read that article.    

me, too- it's rare for me to actually sit with 'silence' around (although actual silence is tough, with three dogs in the house, lol).  I do try to make some of the audio 'ambience' music, though- soothing music with the sounds of nature, like you'd hear in a spa/salon.  And I absolutely do think it's an inherited personality trait for me; I used to read the cereal box or a book when I was eating my breakfast as a kid (my dad would read the paper at the table every evening while we ate dinner; ugh).  As I've gotten older, I think it's not such a great thing, though, to always have to be 'multi-tasking' with my brain-- my dad had anxiety, and I've probably had it for years, too, just never got treated for it before.  I do like doing activities that put my brain into a 'flow / zen' state, like when I garden, or when I'm art-journaling or cross-stitching.  I just don't do them often enough.