Man, phone addictions sure snuck up on us, huh?
I didn’t get my first smart phone until college, and I could never have imagined the nauseating number of hours I’d end up clocking in weekly screen time. And what am I even doing with all that time on my device? Nothing! I’m lazing around with no purpose or watching Instagram reels that aren’t even funny.
So if that sounds like you–and it does, shut up, we don’t lie here–here’s a detailed 2-week digital detox that can help us get a handle on this iPad Kid ass problem.
Your 2-Week Plan To Breaking Your Phone Addiction
Let’s get to it! Our first week is getting a lay of the land, creating goals, and setting ourselves up for success. Week two will give us some more specific healthy digital practices.
Week 1: Awareness and Preparation
First thing’s first, we have to know what we’re working with.
Day 1: Take Inventory
Check up on your screen time from the last couple of weeks. Your phone should give you an average daily use. It’s probably a super embarrassing number, but I’ll close my eyes.
Most phones will break down which apps you use the most often. Learn about your habits and do some reflecting to find out why you’re using those apps. Are you passing the time? Are you bored? Are you looking for a quick dopamine hit? Are you procrastinating something? Does it serve an actual purpose? The more you can determine about the habit, the more we have to work with.
Now you can set specific goals for your detox. Here are some examples:
- delete all social media
- lower screen time by 40%
- no phone after 7pm
- no electronics in the bedroom
- no phone in the bathroom
Write up goals catered to your habits and ideals. It might be helpful to use a notes widget or your phone’s background to hold these goals where you’ll see them every time you open your phone.
Day 2: Declutter
There’s a lot of noise on our devices. Not only notifications and messages, but just so much stuff. Take this day to clear that out, and so doing, clear your head a little bit.
Go through your email inbox and unsubscribe from all that shit you never read.
Unfollow, mute, or block social media accounts that you don’t get benefit from. (Hate follows, people whose content makes you feel bad about yourself, boring posters, etc.)
Delete your unused (and need-to-be-used-less) apps from your devices. Clear your download history. Clear your screenshot folder, unless you’re trying to set a record with that 6-digit collection.
Cleaning out the mess and only leaving what you genuinely want or need will make navigating your phone easier, which can get you in and out quicker, and it will be less overwhelming and distracting.
Day 3: Set Boundaries
Today, set boundaries for yourself and others. This can be informing friends, family, or colleagues that you might be less available than normal, but they can expect you to respond to messages at specific times (whatever those parameters you’ve set are).
You can define specific times for using your devices (e.g., clearing your email inbox at 11am and 4pm, only scrolling social media on public transportation, only using your phone if you’re sitting outside).
It might be helpful to establish tech-free zones, like we’ve already mentioned. Like no phones at the dinner table, or no devices in the bedroom. Sit alone with your thoughts while you poop, it’ll be okay.
Day 4: Create a Tech-Free Morning Routine
We all know blue light disrupts your sleep, but looking at your phone first thing in the morning can be just as damaging.
As part of a lovely morning routine, leave the phone alone! My best mornings are when I don’t check my phone until I’ve been up for about four hours. I do my whole morning routine, chillax, and get started on work before I even bother looking at it. And of course, you don’t have to do four hours. Even 30 minutes of no phone after waking up is beneficial.
Here’s the thing: You’re not missing anything. Absolutely nothing. It’ll all still be there when you pick your phone up later.
Learn to build your ultimate morning routine to improve your whole day.
Day 5: Implement a Digital Curfew
The best sleep I’ve gotten in my life is when I started implementing a digital curfew. I do a step-down curfew: At 8pm, I turn off my “big screens,” meaning TVs and laptops, so I might still listen to a podcast while I do my chores. I wrap up house chores and tasks until 9, when I’ll put my phone away as well (it’s helpful to keep your charger in an office or even across the room from your bed and out of reach).
Then I have my favorite time of the day! Hanging out by myself in my room! I journal, read, draw, do a little yoga, enjoy the silence.
Having steps to wean off of technology for the day helps me sleep better, and it’s easier than doing a hard shut off of everything at once. But for some people, “turn off screens one hour before bedtime” can be just as helpful.
A charging station is a good place to retire your devices for the day. It gives a definitive end to their use, keeps them charged, and you’ll never lose them!
Day 6: Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness or meditation practices can help you disconnect from cyber town and bring yourself back to the present. If you’re fully unfamiliar with this concept, here’s the most beginner mindfulness instructional video I could find:
Day 7: Reflect and Adjust
Check-in time! How ya feeling, champ? Let’s do a progress review. How has it been going? Are you hitting your goals? Are those goals bringing you to where you’d like to be? Do we need a strategy adjustment?
If you’ve had a rocky start, don’t let that discourage you! We can still rally!
Week 2: Reducing Screen Time
Now we’ll go over strategies to naturally build your day around less screen time.
Day 8: Replace Digital Activities with Offline Alternatives
When breaking a habit, it is much more effective to replace it rather than restrict it. If you’re trying to eat less junk food, don’t frame it as, “I can’t have chips,” just set a goal of eating a couple extra servings of fruit per day, then you keep yourself full on satiating, high-fiber food, so you naturally eat less junk food without constricting yourself and creating a feeling of lack.
So instead of a goal like “I’ll watch one fewer episode of Bridgerton per day,” your goal would be, “I’ll read for an hour,” or maybe, “I’ll take my dog on a long walk after work”. Then you have less time to watch TV, without creating a sense of deficiency, and your dog is stoked about it.
Here are a few ideas for activities you can try to fit in your downtime to replace screens:
- cooking or baking
- spring cleaning
- helping a neighbor with yard chores
- volunteering at the animal shelter
- gardening
- rearranging your furniture
- joining a recreational sports league or wrangling up some friends for a game of spikeball. #SpikeballSunday
- reading
- drawing
- painting
- writing
- taking a dance class
- joining a club
Anything you find fun and diverting! Just commit to some activity that feels fulfilling for you, give yourself an amount of time to do it per day/week, and you’ll spend that much less time on your device.
Start small with this. I recommend adding one activity at a time, then see how you feel after a few days before adding another, otherwise you might get overwhelmed with the extracurriculars.
Day 9: Get Liberal With DND
Do Not Disturb is your best friend. Outside of responsibilities for other people, you could rock with DND all day every day. That way, the only time you’re drawn to your phone is of your own volition.
And of course, 24/7 DND isn’t possible for many of us with kids, parents, and others who might need you in an emergency. In that case, you might only allow certain numbers through, or use your Do Not Disturb time specifically, like if you’re doing deep work on a particular project.
Day 10: Batch Your Tasks
This step can help if you genuinely have things you’re doing on your phone besides mindlessly scrolling and tapping–try batching tasks. Group your online tasks to do them all at once, preferably at a certain time of day.
Instead of responding to messages as they come in, you can have specific times to sit down and respond to all of them at once. This will make you more efficient and reduce your screen time.
Day 11: Challenge Yourself to be Bored
Being bored is a skill. Boredom births ideas, creativity, and ingenuity. Try letting yourself be bored today, and notice how many thoughts you’re actually having. Filling every moment of the day with noise blocks our brain from communicating with us. You might be surprised about how many new thoughts, ideas, and realizations you have when you allow your mind to wander.
Day 12: Group Activity
Get your friends in on it! You could try planning an in-person meetup for boardgames, painting, sports, or just hanging out and engaging in a no-distractions conversation. If you’re ballsy enough, ask your friends to put their phones up, too. If not, see how your interactions change with just you fully plugged in.
There’s a chain reaction that happens when one person in a group pulls out their phone, and just you breaking that chain on your own is sometimes all you need to stop it.
Day 13: A Third Space
A “third space” refers to a place people spend time that isn’t work or home. This might be a knitting club, rec soccer league, church, co-working space, community center, animal shelter. If you don’t already have a third space, it’s time to find one!
Relying so heavily on technology has weakened our in-person communities. The internet gives us a type of socialization, reducing the urge to actually get outside of our tiny circles to connect with the world. If we remove that socialization, we need to replace it, or we’ll just fall back into old habits. So find a real local community! Outside!
Expect to try a few different options before one sticks. If you keep at it, you will find your people.
Day 14: Reflect and March Forth
How’d it go? You may have knocked this out of the park, reached enlightenment, saved the planet, etc., but maybe it was a total flop. Flopping’s okay, too! Trying is the first step. And you can always give it another go.
Whether you nailed it or flailed it, you can plan to do (or attempt) regular detox periods, and keep practicing the strategies we’ve discussed. You got this!
Disclosure: We may earn a commission from some products purchased through links in our posts. This is at no additional cost to you, and recommendations are based on our honest opinions and experience.
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