How can I claim this when my metrics are worse? Because the end is in sight, and momentum is on my side. I’m not even prioritizing phone use in my 2025 resolutions. Here’s where I’m at. On October 11th I wrote about fighting addiction to my phone. My daily average screen time was 4 hours and 21 minutes, and I averaged 72 pickups per day.

Based on Apple’s woefully limited dashboards from the past 4 weeks, my numbers actually increased by about 9% since then: 4 hours and 44 minutes of screen time, and 86 pickups per day. But there are some interesting things to note.

First, I got a new phone on October 15th. Setting up a new device likely made some of this wonky. But I also doubled down on my “Phone Rules.”

Live phone-free until 12pm every day, with the following exceptions
I still use my phone as an alarm clock —> I got an alarm clock, so this became irrelevant
I'll use my phone for meditation as part of my morning routine
I can use Duolingo in the morning if I have downtime before work
If I'm exercising, I get to listen to podcasts as my 'reward'
I can listen to music at any time

Way of Life has useful dashboards that can export to Excel

I mostly adhered to this since I got my new phone, as you can see from this screenshot from my Way of Life app. And it reduced mental clutter. I’ve felt much more clarity over the past few months. It’s enabled me to focus on what matters to me. My phone was truly a tool, instead of a magic distraction device.

Getting my phone out of the bedroom was a big one. With a no light alarm clock adorning my bedside table, I was able to institute, and uphold, a phone ban in my bedroom. I also banned my phone from the bathroom, and guess what, I spend less time in there. Limiting the places I used my phone cut down on my usage.

But my usage increased right, so how can I say I cut down? Because Apple will also break down your most used apps in a given period. Google Maps routinely featured in my top three, and that doesn’t count—I’m driving, not using my phone. Spotify was also one of my most used apps, probably because I don’t turn off the screen while listening to music or a podcast. In this sense, that isn’t true ’screen time’ either. So really I only average about 4 hours of screen time per day.

Sometimes it feels like our phones controls us (London, 2023)

I was worried these 4 hours were hijacked by social media, as I get sucked into Instagram’s feed after posting my daily photo. But that app was never in the top 3 of my used apps any week, and my overall time spent on that platform was minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Whew! (Still, to better attack that vulnerability, I’m going to start batching my posts from my computer at a weekly cadence, to completely bypass the Instagram app.)

My real problem, my most used app, was Brave. I’m still surfing. However, I browse the web in my free time, toward the end of the day, when I’m relaxing at home. I’m not distracted by my phone throughout the majority of my day when I’m trying to accomplish things. I feel very much in control of my mobile device. I feel better, I somehow feel cleaner. And that’s really made all the difference.

These computers can be dangerous, they can distract us from what’s really important in life. Bumping into each other while looking down into our hands is not a good look. We can do better. My top advice? Figure out some basic “rules” for using your phone. Limit using it for a small number of activities, like calls, texts, photos, maps and audio. And strive to be more aware about your habits, improving slowly over time. I’m not quite there yet, but I feel I’m on the road to attention recovery. And as the attention obscurity fades, I look around and see a big, beautiful amazing world.