EMILY FENG, HOST:
Are you seeking freedom from smartphone tyranny? You know, you don't work for your phone. Your phone is supposed to work for you. NPR's Life Kit's Marielle Segarra has tips to help you get to a better place with your screen time.
MARIELLE SEGARRA, BYLINE: All right, we're about to get into our feelings. The first step in cutting back on screen time is to tune into how scrolling makes you feel. When you find yourself reaching for your phone or thinking, I should check Instagram for the hundredth time today, notice how you feel and how your body feels, too.
SAMMY NICKALLS: For example, I noticed that whenever I was feeling bad about myself in some way, I would log on Twitter.
SEGARRA: Sammy Nickalls is the author of "Log Off: Self-Help For The Extremely Online" (ph).
NICKALLS: Ask yourself, how do I feel right now? And what can I do? And most times it's not scroll. Most times, it's like, take a nap, or talk to a friend, or do something that makes you happy.
SEGARRA: Another thing you can do when you get the urge to scroll is resist. I know it feels like you have to pick up that phone, but you actually don't. Clinical psychologist Diana Hill is the co-author of a book called "I Know I Should Exercise, But...: 44 Reasons We Don't Move And How To Get Over Them." And she says there's this term in addiction research called urge surfing.
DIANA HILL: What we know about urges is that they're a lot like waves. They rise up, they get bigger and bigger and bigger, and they come back down again.
SEGARRA: The goal with urge surfing is to learn to get on board, stand up and ride that thing out. Another tip is to increase friction. Make it harder to use your phone. Jose Briones is the author of "Low Tech Life: A Guide To Mindful Digital Minimalism." He says set up screen time limits and then make them hard to override.
JOSE BRIONES: If you want to go into your iPhone and you want to use the app, and you set up a screen time limit - maybe it's 10 minutes, maybe it's 15 - and you went to it, right now you probably can beat that with two taps. You say, yes, I want more time. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure.
SEGARRA: Instead, give the password to a trusted friend, and then you'll have to ask them for it if you want to get on Pinterest when you're really supposed to be getting that housework done. You can also use a physical device that you need to tap to unblock your apps.
BRIONES: The more friction you introduce into your life, the harder you're making it to use all of these services and devices, your brain is going to say, it's not worth it.
SEGARRA: Our last takeaway - don't keep your smartphone, tablet or computer in your bedroom overnight. Jean Twenge is a psychologist and author of "10 Rules For Raising Kids In A High-Tech World."
JEAN TWENGE: That's for people of all ages. A ton of research shows that people do not sleep as well or as long if those devices are in their bedrooms overnight. So even if it's off, the technology is just too tempting.
SEGARRA: She says this means no scrolling before bed and no scrolling when you wake up in the morning and also no scrolling if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night. Get an old-school alarm clock, and if you want your phone nearby for emergencies, leave it across the room, out of reach. By the way, Sammy Nickalls made this change, and she says it makes bedtime feel luxurious.
NICKALLS: Have you ever been to a hotel, like, that's kind of nice, and you get into the sheets, and it just feels so nice to kind of, like, have this time to yourself and just feel very calm? And it's, like, a very specific, in my mind, hotel feeling. And that's what I felt when I put my phone outside of my room and just, like, kind of let myself, like, relax and, like, maybe take a bath or, like, read for a while, and just away from any screens. It's like I got that presence of mind back.
SEGARRA: And she really is sleeping better. For NPR News, I'm Marielle Segarra.
FENG: For more tips from Life Kit, go to npr.org/lifekit.
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