Seven tricks that stopped my scrolling and cut my screen time

A few months ago I noticed my iPhone screen time was about 13 hours a day, with my Mac included. Excluding work, that added up to more than 100 days a year spent looking at screens. I set a goal: get daily phone use down to one hour, and quickly discovered small changes could make a big difference.

The first step was admitting I had a phone addiction and using built‑in tools. I set aggressive App Limits—15 minutes for social apps and Chrome—and kept timers on the apps I open most. To interrupt reflexive use I tried ScreenZen, which inserts a delay of up to 60 seconds or asks you to solve a quick task before an app opens; it creates friction, though I learned tools alone weren’t enough if I really wanted to scroll.

So I removed the worst offenders. I deactivated accounts and deleted Facebook and Messenger, deleted TikTok, and removed the X app while keeping the account accessible only via the browser. That extra step of logging in created the same kind of pause as ScreenZen.

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