This Post Will Save You 12+ Years of Your Life in 8 Minutes10 min read

The average person spends 12 years on their phone. At four hours a day, that’s one full day (24 hours) per week of just of your face glued to some LEDs showing a teenager dance. Imagine what you could accomplish if you suddenly gained 24 hours during your week to do stuff? To read? To exercise? To learn how to code? To make your dreams come true?

I bet if aliens were viewing Earth, they would think these screens are our gods. They are always around us: in our pockets, on our wrists, in our cars, and scattered throughout our houses. Every moment we are worshipping them.

The scary part is that 90% of that time on the phone is wasted. What real benefit are you getting from TikTok, news articles, Facebook, Reddit? Seriously think about it, because that’s about ten years of life, at 24 hours a day, that, from this shiny thing in your pocket dissapear. Ten years go “poof.”

In the past two weeks, I’ve reduced my screen time from about 3 hours and 30 minutes a day (a little below average) to 30 minutes a day, and I’ve never been happier.

If I can keep this up, I’ve found 21 hours every week or six extra years for my life.

With those extra hours, I’ve recorded YouTube videos, learned some PHP programming, and gone on three hikes.

Those are no small potatoes.

I’ve tried multiple things before, and nothing has worked until now. Restricting app time doesn’t work, nor does greyscale, nor does setting screen time limits. What I did does work, finally.

After this article, you will know how to:

• Cut your phone usage by 80%
• Gain up to 30 hours a week
• Gain, on average, five years back of your life
• Make time for your dreams and goals

Let me show you exactly how.

Step 1 – Admit Defeat

The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is to admit that you are powerless over alcohol.

I am powerless over my smartphone, this evil, fantastic, black hole that seems to have everything and anything whenever I want it. I am powerless.

It hurt me, but I recently scrolled through my Screen Time for every week and every day. Here’s one day that amazed me:

• 5 hours on YouTube in one day!
• 2 hours on Instagram
• 1 hour on Twitter
• 2 hours on Slack

That’s 10 hours on my phone!

There needs to be a change.

I spent maybe 10 minutes a day on messages and maybe 5 minutes on the phone—the stuff that I thought was actually worth it.

Step 2: Delete all of it

The biggest problem with using the phone is that it has become a habit. We wake up with it in the morning to check Instagram or the news.

We scroll in the bathroom or during boring times at work or school.

We sit on the couch after work and watch TV while looking at our phones simultaneously.

Every milisecond though the apps are learning. How much time did Zach spend on watching that guy paint a picture? Not very long. How about slapstick comedy, pretty girls, physics demonstrations or productivity advice? A lot! Did he click on that profile? That link? I didn’t know Megan Fox got a new swimsuit… Interesting…

The companies, nearly all public companies, are extremely incentivized to keep you on the platform, so you scroll more, watch more ads, or buy more things. And they, and the machines they build, are really, really good at keeping you on the apps. The longer you are on them, the smarter the apps get and the better they are at keeping you on.

The issue is that we are addicted to it so badly that we try to match the dopamine tick with anything we can get our hands on. I remember deleting TikTok, so I just installed Instagram. Then I deleted Instagram, but then installed Twitter. Then I deleted Twitter but scrolled through Google news stories.

Where does the cycle end?

With you.

Delete it all.

If you are not a social media presence, which probably very few of you are, you don’t need any of it. Trust me. You don’t need to keep up with the news, the trends, or which friend just got married. Sure, keep in touch with the people you care about, but maybe with a phone call or, and don’t call me crazy here, hanging out with them in real life.

Now, for the few who do need it for work, your side gig, or whatever, I have a solution because I am one of those people. We will get into that later.

But, what everyone can do is delete all the bad stuff. You know what it is:

• Delete TikTok on every device.
• Delete Instagram on every device.
• Delete Facebook on every device.
• Delete Twitter on every device.
• Turn off ALL notifications except critical messages, phone calls, or work messages (if you must).

It’s just a bandaid, just a pacifier. Rip them out, and your life will grow in ways you never thought imaginable.

Step 3: Only Once a Day

Here’s the magical fix: I’ve actually been able to cut my phone usage by 80%. I only use my phone for 15-30 minutes once a day.

Once a day.

I know this sounds crazy, but it works. Let me explain:

1. Pick one time a day, for me, that’s 4-4:15 when you are allowed to go wild with the apps currently on your phone. Scroll, search, reply to messages, go on dating apps, or do anything. But no reinstalling the bad stuff. And no time outside of this. You might fail and redownload occasionally. That’s ok, you, like me, are addicted, you will get better.
2. My phone is 24/7 on Do Not Disturb, with only certain loved ones allowed to break through.
3. I very often go for a walk or a swim without my phone. Everything will be okay, I promise.
4. Leave your phone off your person all day. I put it out of sight, usually in another room, but within hearing distance, so if someone calls me multiple times, I will hear it.
   • Family/Work Caveat: Of course, we have family members, loved ones, and friends that we want to be there for emergencies. I will tell you, there are very very very few true emergencies. I think, for every hour of the day, I’ve had maybe three true emergencies ever in my life. So, at 30 years old, 24 hours a day, that’s 1 hour every 3,650 days with 24 hours in a day, which means for every hour of my day, that is a .001% chance to be called about a true emergency. To put that into perspective, I have a 1% chance of dying in a car crash. Based on those numbers, I am 1,000 times less likely to get an emergency call than I am to die in a car crash. It’s ok to leave your phone away from you. I leave my phone in the car during the gym. I leave my phone at home when I go for walks. I leave my phone in my bedroom for the first 4 hours of the day when I go to work in my office.
5. If #4 is too extreme for you, or you simply cannot do it because of family or work considerations, I completely understand, do this instead: Put your phone away from you, and when your phone dings for various small things, go to it, pick it up, answer or reply to the text message and put it down. Try with everything you can to have dedicated work time where you can be on do not disturb (this is the most significant life-changing thing I’ve ever done; 3-4 hours every morning or evening will change your life). For the other hours of the day put the phone to the side, with the ringer on, when it goes off pick it up, reply to the concern, put it down, and walk back over to what you were doing before. Keep it out of line of sight and especially out of reaching distance.

Step 4: Enjoy your freedom

What will you do with your extra three hours every day? The five years of your life? I can’t answer that for you; it has to be you who figures that out. But I know you’ll do something great.

Some Common Mistakes and Pitfalls (where I F***** up):

• Greyscale, app limits, and different focus modes did not work for me.
• There is no productivity from your phone. Trust me on this. Those learning games like Scrabble or the NYT game, the apps that tell you you are learning from them, it doesn’t work. They #1 don’t actually make you smarter, and #2 cause you to fall back into the bad parts of the phone. You are powerless, remember? Go learn from a book or build something on your computer. Don’t get sucked in. Remember, you are powerless.
• What about listening to music? Or podcasts? Or audiobooks? The only acceptable time for this for me is driving or sitting on the train or the occasional workout. The same rules apply, though. Do not look at your phone other than hitting play. Then, put the phone back in its place. Hit skip or pause from your headphones. However, you will be amazed at the productivity and ideas you start having from a silent drive, shower, walk, or even bathroom time. Honestly.
• Ok, I’m one of those people that needs to use social media for work, what do I do? Do it from your computer and only during set times of the day for specific tasks. I always post on YouTube and Twitter using YouTube Studio and Typefully. Those work times are on my calendar and scheduled far in advance. I’ll reply for comments for set periods of time as well. Don’t get sucked in.
• Why not just get a dumb phone or a flip phone? Don’t kid yourself—the iPhone is amazing. I still use it for recording videos, FaceTiming with family, or guiding myself on hikes. I just didn’t want it to eat 10 years of my life away. It’s better to build that thing, go walking with that person, or be present at the dinner table.

Summary

I hope that was helpful! This is the only thing that has worked for me, the 5 commandments of the iPhone:

1. You are powerless, know it
2. Delete everything
3. Fifteen minutes of mindless time allowed that’s it.
4. The phone has it’s place and never moves
5. If I must go to it, I will reply only to that one notification and then immediately put it back down

Thanks for reading! I hope this helps.