This Screen-Free Week, we asked the staff team to share their best ideas for reducing screen time. We know there are lots of pitfalls associated with spending too much time looking at screens: increases in stress and anxiety; negative impacts on physical health; and impacts on sleep, but it’s often easier said than done to truly step away from our devices. Technology is a wonderful tool for good and enhances our lives in lots of ways, but it’s smart to have a balance and time away from screens too.
We’re up for a challenge, and we thought you might be too. We’ve collated our ideas into a day blissfully free of the addictive infinity pools screens provide (a term coined in Make Time, one of the staff team’s favourite books: infinity pools refer to seemingly endless sources or information and entertainment, like smartphones and computers).
Rise and shine!
Time to wake up: bonus points if you have an alarm that isn’t on your phone. The best way to wake up is with the sunlight, although we appreciate this isn’t always the most realistic method!
It’s time to set your intentions for the day. First up, think realistically about when your screen-free time will have to come to an end. If you can get through an entire day, that’s brilliant – but you might not fancy going off-grid for that long. You might like to set yourself a couple of time slots to check urgent-only messages or check in with friends and family, or let them know that you won’t be contactable until your screen ban is over. Bristol Hub Manager Sorcha often uses this tactic to create mini screen-free blocks in her day:
“Since I’m looking at a computer all day for work, once I log off I set a rule for myself about when I can use a screen again. Whether it’s half an hour or the whole evening, having a target to aim for helps me stay on track and separate my life from screens!”
Once you’ve set your goal, make it easy to stick to. Log out of your most-used apps, or uninstall them entirely. The harder it is to access the sites you’d usually scroll, the less the temptation should be to revisit them during the day. It’s all about putting up barriers to engineer a moment of asking ‘do I really need to check this right now?’.
If you can get up without the aid of a screen, why not do the previous steps the night before to hit the screen-free ground running?
Get out of the house
Network Director Sophie pointed out how much we rely on screens, phones in particular, to decide what we’re doing while we’re out and about:
“It’s fun to challenge yourself to what a trip out looks like without one. When I think of little trips I regularly make out of the house, not having a phone to hand brings up some questions – how will I decide which cafe to go to? What will I do whilst I’m waiting for my food?”
You could always spend some time before you go out researching these things so that you don’t have to rely on your phone once you’re out. However, we’d really recommend embracing the spontaneity it can generate: why not ask a neighbour where their favourite local cafe is, or take the plunge and try somewhere you’ve never been before? It can be entertaining to people-watch while you wait on your order but you could also opt for a takeaway and spend time outdoors soaking in a nearby green space with no distractions. Or, if you’re a reader, books are often the perfect screenless option!
Take some time to relax
Think about your downtime: how much of it relies on a screen? We all love a bit of TV, or scrolling through social media, but it’s very easy for it to become the standard when it comes to switching off. Do you have a way to play, or listen to, music without a screen? Any friends or family who would be up for playing a board game? Or perhaps a task you can really focus into: reading a book; trying out a cookbook recipe; exercising or practising some other form of self-care? We recommend setting aside a nice chunk of time, ideally over an hour, to dedicate to doing something engaging that doesn’t rely on a single screen – it can be hard to avoid the distraction of endless notifications if one is present, so take this time for yourself and wind down for the evening.
Wrapping up the day
Whether you’re planning to commit to a whole day, or even a couple of hours, well done! We’d love to hear how you felt. If you want to take some smaller steps to reduce your screen time, why not:
- Switch your devices (especially your phone) completely off when you’re not using them – this will give you another barrier to looking at all of your apps!
- Follow Sorcha’s advice and have at least 30 minutes of screen-free time between work and the rest of your day. If you don’t drive to work, what else could you do on your commute to entertain yourself? If you work from home, is there something else you could add into your morning routine to replace any existing screen time?
- If you aren’t ready to uninstall apps, set up a time limit. You can do this in your settings, and your phone will automatically lock the app once you’ve used up your allotted time.
- When spending time with friends and family, why not share the challenge and see if you can all keep your phones away while you hang out?
- Screens provide us with lots of wonderful ways to keep in touch with people we care about, but organising a phone call, and not looking at your screen while you have it, can be a more meaningful way to connect than messaging apps. Why not go for a walk while you chat, or put your phone on speaker and have some physical space from the screen?
- If you want to continue the challenge, you can have a go at completing the official Screen-Free Week bingo. See how quickly you’re able to tick them all off!
Now, close this tab, turn your screen off and let us know how you get on!