How do I manage screen time for myself on mobile?

Taking less time on customising, and keeping the file manager free from uneducating visuals I may urge myself to keep watching, going offline and more, are my first line of defence. But before I explain much, I need to explain the intimacy between myself and the heading above. It is one I came across through Jetpack’s prompts and I had to add “on mobile” to it. I have to admit that I never owned an iPhone and my suggestions are purely based on my experiences with an Android phone.

I avoid changing wallpapers, themes and launchers on my phone. This is the ultimate strategy above all: Welcoming the defaults. Speaking of defaults, I don’t use a default launcher on my Android phone. Once I am done with the initial installation and setting up of my favourite launcher (Go Launcher Z), I am done with this phase. The launcher can sort app icons by “most used” first, and this saves time. You never know, seconds spent on searching for your favourite app may add to your screen time.

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Useful apps that cannot make it to the most used zone (like a voice recorder in a phone of a music composer who might need to capture an idea before it disappears), the home screen shortcuts can accommodate. (I can also use double tap, long press and several gestures to quickly launch my favourite app using the Go launcher). I also benefit from knowing how much time I am spending on a certain app, or which app is the most used.

I do not keep offline or add it to watch later a short video that makes me laugh. Some of our screen time is thanks to the attachment we build to certain media and a specific show season or movie title. After keeping my file managers clean, it is important to keep my router off sometimes. Most ROMs from various Android OEMs of my choice have a feature in the settings to let me deny some apps (including system apps) access to my mobile data or WiFi. For this, I can also use third-party apps like Netguard when the option to restrict data access is not in the OS.

When you have the digital means of communicating and finding new friends to talk to but choose not to use them, I call this digital loneliness. I am less attached to Facebook thanks to a count of friends I keep at 73. Of these only five, including my, girlfriend at the time of writing, and my sister, are people I can chat with via social networks. Previously, I had another account which I ultimately deleted in 2019, only to stage my return in 2021. I also avoid new or emerging Social Networks showing up currently like TikTok. To maintain this loneliness, I take charge and centralise everything; I find friends and friends don’t find you. On Facebook, for example, I have turned off people you may know.

I keep apk files backed up in my file manager. Apps like File Manager+ can let me easily back up my .apk files., uninstall my apps occasionally, and back up my data before doing so. This is what I do to avoid being on WhatsApp on most weekends. (Apple is working on letting you sideload iOS apps on your iPhone in upcoming iOS releases but as for now you can only install apps only through their App Store).

Day mapping

What I call day mapping is a complex means of preventing myself from using my phone on non-productive tasks and apps during the day. I calculate the day ahead and try to figure out the amount of time I will be having at home and out. Details like the length of my lunch, and my refreshing time are part of this, and I call this day mapping. A full article on day mapping is here.

Once the day is mapped, I allocate usage or sort of list the apps that I must use and the type of input and output data I will be dealing with at each of the times. This group of apps are essentials. Apps like SocialX and Rescue Time are a second layer that prevents me from using Social media for prolonged periods so that I stay on the essentials. Each essential is given a maximum allocation of time that I must not exceed. But then there are a few essentials with no time limits on them, such include e-book readers and Word Processors.

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