Strategies to Effectively Reduce Your Screen Time

Strategies to Effectively Reduce Your Screen Time

Prolonged exposure to the light emitted from computer and smartphone screens harms health and productivity. Blue light exposure can result in sleep pattern disruption, macular degeneration, eye strain, and mental health issues. Constant eye strain can lead to meibomian gland dysfunction, which causes you to experience chronic dry eye or meibomian gland dysfunction for which you’ll need MGD treatment. Meanwhile, persistent sleep deprivation can result in increased anxiety and stress levels, as well as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

Now that most people have had to rely on their devices more than ever during the current global situation, these issues will be further exacerbated. From easy tricks like setting your screen to grayscale or setting a screen time limit, here are some useful strategies to effectively reduce your screen time so you can boost your productivity and take care of your health.

Switch your phone to grayscale

App developers rely on visual stimulation and color psychology to get you to keep using their apps. That’s why notification icons are usually red — so they can simulate a feeling of urgency. Switching your phone to grayscale eliminates positive reinforcements and makes your screen less appealing to look at; thus, you’ll be less inclined to keep checking it. Here’s how you can make the switch:

  • For Apple iOS devices

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters. Toggle the Color Filters switch on and select grayscale. You can put the Color Filter setting on your Accessibility Shortcut menu so you can easily toggle the setting off and on at the touch of a button.

  • For Pixel & Android devices

Head to Quick Settings, select Pen on the lower left side of the screen, and drag the Grayscale icon towards the icon panel. That allows you to turn grayscale on and off by simply tapping the icon.

woman holding an ipad

Turn off notifications after work hours

Disable notifications for unnecessary social media or game apps to eliminate distractions. When it comes to more important apps, such as productivity, email, or messaging apps, you can turn off notifications only after work hours or on weekends. Some apps may even give you the option to receive notifications from specific people. You can utilize this feature so that you don’t miss essential ones from key people such as your colleagues, boss, manager, or family members.

Delete social media apps

Unless your job entails using social media, you should remove them from your phone as much as possible. If you have to rely on them for your job, then deleting them on weekends and re-downloading them once the work week starts is just as effective at cutting down your screen time.

Inform your family and friends

Informing your family and friends about your goal to reduce your screen time will help keep you accountable. Since you’ll be spending less time on messaging apps or social media, they’ll be able to understand why you won’t always be replying to their messages, and they can find alternative ways to reach you if need be.

There are plenty of ways to reduce your screen time, but these are among the simplest and easiest ways to do so. Spending less time in front of a screen ensures that you stay healthy, which will also result in a boost in your productivity at work as well.

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