How to Cut Down Screen Time (And Actually Enjoy Doing It!)

Chained to your phone? Learn to reduce screen time without quitting completely. This guide offers practical tips to reclaim focus and freedom.

It’s a familiar scene, right? You’re in a coffee shop, an airport lounge, or just walking down the street. You look up from your own phone for a second, only to see a sea of other faces, all illuminated by the same blueish glow. We’re all doing it. We are having way too much screen time!

Tired of Being Glued to Your Screen? A Realistic Guide to Taking Your Time Back

This digital tether extends right into our homes, where evenings easily dissolve into a blur of TV shows, computer work, and endless scrolling. It has been reported that over half of Malaysian teens spend more than four hours a day on screens for non-school activities. And let's be real, that number is probably on the low side.

You’ve heard the warnings. More screen time is linked to more anxiety, fatigue, and terrible sleep. It feels like our attention spans have been put through a paper shredder. But this isn't another article to make you feel guilty.

Instead, I want to talk about how to actually fix it, in a way that doesn’t involve throwing your phone into a river.

The Big “Aha!” Moment: Not All Screen Time Is Junk Food

Here’s the thing: trying to go completely cold turkey on screens in 2025 is not only unrealistic, it’s isolating. Digital tools are part of how we work, connect, and live.

The real breakthrough for me came from an analogy by author Cal Newport, who suggested we should treat our screen time like we treat our food.

Think about it. We need food to live, but we also know there’s a huge difference between a balanced, home-cooked meal and a bag of greasy chips. One nourishes you, the other is empty calories that leave you feeling sluggish.

Our digital consumption is exactly the same. We can break it down into different "nutritional levels":

• Digital Gourmet: High-quality, intentional use. Think reading an e-book, taking an online course, or having a deep video call with a faraway friend. This stuff nourishes your brain.
• A Healthy Digital Meal: Good, but not quite gourmet. This could be watching a feature-length film you’ve been excited about, playing a complex video game that makes you think, or watching long-form educational YouTube videos.
• Digital Junk Food: The empty calories. Mindless scrolling through TikTok or Instagram Reels, watching "fail" compilations, or rage-clicking through political news. It's designed to be addictive and often leaves you feeling drained.

Take a minute and think about your own screen habits. What’s your "gourmet" content? What’s your go-to "junk food"? Just understanding the difference is a massive first step. As a rule of thumb, anything driven by an algorithm and designed for short-form, rapid-fire consumption is probably junk food.

Now, how do you actually eat healthier?

How to Cut Down Screen Time (And Actually Enjoy Doing It!)

Tip #1: Make the Junk Food Harder to Reach

This is probably the most effective thing I’ve ever done to curb my screen time.

It’s just like dieting—the easiest way to avoid eating cookies is to not have cookies in the house. Out of sight, out of mind. So, I started by deleting the most addictive apps from my phone.

It worked… for about two days. Then my monkey brain realized I could just open Chrome and go directly to the Instagram and YouTube websites. I was right back where I started.

So, I tried a more radical solution. I had my wife set a password on my phone’s screen time app, and she didn’t tell me what it was.

Game. Changer.

Now, if I want to mindlessly scroll, I have to go through the social friction of asking her to unlock it for me. That little bit of accountability is incredibly powerful. Over the past year, I've steadily lowered the time limits on my worst app-offenders. You could ask a close friend or a parent to do the same for you.

For my laptop, I use an app called Freedom that lets me block distracting websites. The key is its "Locked Mode"—once a block session starts, you cannot turn it off until the timer runs out. No cheating. These two tricks alone have probably saved me hundreds of hours.

Tip #2: Go Easy on Yourself (and Don’t Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good)

Okay, so you’ve set up some blockers. The first thing you’ll notice is the silence. You suddenly have all this… time. And honestly? It can feel overwhelming at first. The urge to fill that boredom with your phone will be strong.

This is where you need to be kind to yourself. You’re rewiring years of habit. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

The goal isn't to replace phone time with writing a novel or learning to speak Latin (unless you want to!). The goal is to replace bad screen time with better screen time.

Find a couple of easy, low-effort activities to swap in. When you get that itch to scroll, try one of these instead:

• Go for a short walk and listen to a podcast.
• Play a puzzle game on your phone or computer.
• Put on an album you love and just listen to it.

According to my "digital diet," swapping 30 minutes of TikTok for 30 minutes of a great podcast is a huge win!

Another small habit I’ve built over five years is turning my bedroom into a no-phone zone. I’m not perfect, but I succeed about 90% of the time. It has done wonders for my sleep and has made my bedroom feel like a true sanctuary.

Tip #3: Make the Fight Personal

This last tip might sound a little out there, but stick with me. It’s all about changing how you feel when you pick up your phone.

In the show Mr. Robot, the anxious protagonist constantly pictures a shadowy boardroom of executives profiting from his misery. While his version is pretty extreme, we can use a toned-down version of this.

When you find yourself mindlessly opening an app, take a second and picture the massive, faceless corporation on the other side. Imagine them celebrating because their algorithm successfully hijacked your attention for a few more minutes, converting your time and focus into fractions of a cent.

It gives me this slightly icky, rebellious feeling. It makes the fight tangible. Suddenly, I’m not just fighting my own boredom; I’m fighting to keep my time and freedom from being sold to the highest bidder. It’s surprisingly effective at stopping me from picking up my phone "just in case" something new has happened. Spoiler: it rarely has.

Putting You Back in the Driver’s Seat

This isn’t about demonizing technology. Our devices are incredible tools that have improved our lives in countless ways.

This is about agency. It’s about making sure you are the one deciding how you spend your time and attention, not an algorithm designed in a Silicon Valley lab. By being more intentional—choosing digital gourmet over digital junk food and setting up smart boundaries—you can put yourself back in the driver’s seat.

I hope these ideas gave you a spark of inspiration. Now I want to hear from you.

What’s one tip from this list you’re going to try first? Or do you have a secret weapon of your own for fighting screen addiction? Share it in the comments below—I’m always looking for new tools for the fight!