So much of our life happens online–work, play, and everything in between. Managing our real life vs our screen life will forever be a challenge, but it is *super important* to our overall health to disconnect throughout the day. This can be easier said than done–here at Everipe HQ, we’ve found if we aren’t intentional about it, managing our screen time can be quite the challenge. So we decided to put together a round up of our tried-and-true hacks for managing our screen time:
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Kick your phone out of the bedroom. If your phone sleeps in a different room than you, you have two major built-in wins: your screen won’t be the first thing you see when you wake up or the last thing you see before you go to bed. There is also some research that shows keeping phones and other WiFI devices away from our bodies while we sleep could have long term health benefits.
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Get Down with Down Time. Thankfully, most of today’s smartphones make it easy to customize how you want to use your phone and when. One great feature on an iPhone is Down Time, which allows users to put time limits on their phone (for example, from 10:00PM to 7:00AM) while allowing certain contacts to still call or text and certain apps to be accessible. It also allows you to set time limits on specific apps (we’re looking at you, TikTok) during your “Up Time” (that would be the opposite of Down Time, right?) hours.
Here's how to find it: Open your Settings app > Select Screen Time> Select Down Time -
Take things to the next level with Do Not Disturb: Do Not Disturb allows users to control the constant chirps from their phones courtesy of texts, calls, and app notifications. The feature allows you to set custom parameters for your personal time, work time, and sleep time (which all would fall under the general umbrella of Up Time. You follow?)
Here's how to find it: Open your Settings app > Select Focus> Select Do Not Disturb> Toggle ON to apply to everything
To customize: Open your Settings App> Select Focus> Select Personal/Sleep/Work tabs to customize -
Use Airplane Mode to stay mega-focused. This is co-founder Kerry’s go-to. If all this customization seems too much–and still too tempting–with a simple tap of the Airplane icon, users can cut off all connection. In times of mega focus, or places where you really can’t slip up with your phone going off, airplane mode is a sure fire way to keep the phone distraction at bay.
Here's how to find it: Open your Settings App > Find Airplane Mode> Toggle to On OR From your home screen, swipe down from the top of the screen to access your Control Center and tap airplane icon -
Try to keep certain activities phone-free. A few team Everipe suggestions: meal time, TV time, a 20 minute walk outside. Find parts of your day that you can easily make no-phone zones, and watch that screen time plummet.
A few small changes to your phone habits can have big results on your productivity, sleep, and mental health. Have any tips you’d like to add? Head over to our Facebook or IG page and let us know!