- Technology has unlocked a huge amount of human potential.
It's broken down old systems,
remove the gatekeepers for entrepreneurs,
and has allowed us to stay connected
with those closest to us.
We no longer have to wait until our tenure reunion
to see how Brian's doing.
I'm coming to bat like Griffin in this prime,
like Amazon prime, it's always on time, unless it's late.
He's not doing good.
But with all the good comes the bad,
we're glued to our devices, addicted to technology,
often spending over four hours every day on our phones.
But instead of simply rejecting technology,
I'm interested in how we can bring it into our lives
without it negatively affecting our wellbeing.
So these are the six effective ways that I've found
to reduce screen time in my own life
that I think might help you.
But first I've gotta keep the lights on.
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I've decided to build a membership community
@patreon.com/mattdavella.
If you sign up today for $12 a month,
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Learn how I make my videos, get tips on productivity,
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All right back to the video.
Okay so these approaches to reducing
the amount of time we spend on our screens
gets a little bit more extreme as we go on.
So let's start nice and simple.
Step number one, track your screen time on your phone
and your computer.
Most phones have the ability
to track the amount of time you spend on your device
directly on the phone.
You can even get them to send you a report every week
with a breakdown of how much time you're spending on it.
An app like Rescue Time
can help you track the amount of time you spend
on your computer.
In the same way that platforms like Mint.com
can help you to see your unhealthy addiction
to in-app purchases on Candy Crush,
Rescue Time can be a powerful way
to see where your time is going.
How much time do you spend on email every day,
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram?
Is this really how you wanna be spending your days?
It's understandable that
you may wanna invest a certain amount of time every day
to use social media.
But oftentimes I find at least for myself
that things can quickly get out of hand.
Even after you've managed to get your screen time down
you might find yourself occasionally slipping back
into old patterns.
Having a way to track where your time is going,
will help you get clear on your priorities
throughout the year.
In the second way, turn off all notifications.
Notifications are dangerous for a number of reasons.
You're constantly getting buzzes or pings on your phone,
which get you to compulsively pick it up
without even thinking.
They're also a shortcut into addictive apps.
You get a notification that one of your close friends
left a comment on your Instagram post.
You open up your phone
planning to simply reply to that one comment
and then get back to work.
And you do that, but you don't stop there.
Before you know it, 45 minutes have passed.
Multiply that throughout your day,
and it's no wonder that we're spending so much time
on our devices.
So I turn off pretty much all push notifications
except for phone calls, text messages, my alarm,
and and my calendar.
And if I'm not expecting a phone call or a text,
I'll turn my phone on silent and flip it upside down
and put it next to me.
So I'm not distracted even by the random text message
that might come through.
Turn your screen to black and white.
Turning your phone screen from color,
to black and white can have a significant impact
on how you use your phone.
Opening up your phone, scanning through your apps,
using Instagram, all have significantly less power over you.
So I don't have an Android device.
So I'll explain how to do this on an iPhone,
but I'm sure that you can figure out a way to do it
on your phone.
Go to accessibility, click display accommodations,
then color filters and click gray scale.
At the bottom of the accessibility screen,
you can create a shortcut
by hitting color filters with a triple click.
You can turn your black and white screen on and off.
So the one problem with actually creating
such a quick shortcut is that
it's very easy to turn it on and off,
and you may just find yourself
turning the black and white off.
Adding a little bit of friction
when you're trying to get rid of a bad habit
is a really powerful way to make sure you don't fall back
into those old patterns.
Delete social media from your phone.
So one of the best ways to increase
the amount of friction it takes
to use these apps on your phone,
is to delete them completely.
So last year I did a 30 day social media detox
and it completely changed the way I look at social media
from a personal perspective, as well as a business owner.
I used to think that I needed social media
to run my business, but when I quit for 30 days,
I saw the largest growth in social media following
that I've ever had.
Completely ironic, completely unexpected,
it might have happened anyway,
but the main thing that I got out of it was that
people are following me
not because I'm active on social media,
but because they like the films that I make.
So if you're an author or a photographer,
you oftentimes don't have to spend three to four hours a day
on social media.
You can spend three to four hours day creating,
and then just 30 minutes, maybe an hour every day posting.
Block distracting websites.
Create a schedule blocking
some of the most distracting websites that you browse
while on your computer.
Whether it's email, social media, Netflix, or the News.
You don't have to be perfect,
but if you restrict this amount of time
during your work hours, you're likely to be more productive,
get more done and spend less hours in front of the screen.
You can use an app like Freedom,
and set the specific times during the day,
with which you don't want these sites to be accessible.
Now last thing you can do is to create some distance.
It's almost taboo in our culture now
to leave home without your phone.
But if you're going to the gym,
or taking a trip to the grocery store,
think about leaving your phone behind.
So my friends, Josh and Ryan from the Minimalist
do this thing called screenless Saturdays.
And they're really extreme about it.
Like legit well we went to a comedy show the other night,
and they had the address,
they knew just about where they were going,
but they would refuse to use GPS.
They wouldn't even let me and Natalie use our GPS
on our phones.
So we had to just circle around the block.
They often get lost on Saturdays,
but I think it's a really fun and creative way
to restrict the amount of time we use on our devices,
even if just for a day every week.
So I believe that technology has helped
to make our lives better,
but of course there are ways in which
it can negatively impact our wellbeing.
By being more mindful about the time we spend
in front of our screens, we can be more productive,
we can reduce stress,
and we can stop feeling like we're always rushing
from one thing to the next.
If you found additional ways to reduce screen time
let me know in the comments below.
Also I just made a video explaining in more detail
the benefits you get by supporting my work on Patreon.
You can watch it at patreon.com/mattdavella.
Thanks for your support. Thanks for watching.
And I'll see you next time.
I'm spitting with the best of them,
spitting in my rhythms like the rest of them.
I've got my words memorized.
So what I'm saying,
isn't off the top of my head, but now it is.