With your iPhone, you can do almost anything. You can post on social media, stay connected with work, and order food on the go. However, these many features can also make your iPhone addictive.
If you find yourself wasting too much time on your phone but still need it for various reasons, here’s how I changed my iPhone to help beat the addiction.
Remove All Social Media Apps
When it comes to iPhone addiction, social media apps and games tend to be the root cause. The majority of people’s screen time is spent on apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. However, removing these apps entirely might mean missing out on messages from friends or family.
If you have a second device, such as a tablet or iPad, installing these apps on it can help curb social media addiction. Sure, you will still have access to these apps and might doomscroll on occasion. However, when you’re at work, school, or out with friends, you won’t have access to these apps. This can help you stay more present and live in the moment while still knowing that you’re not missing out on social media entirely.
To remove an app, hold down on it until the menu opens, then select Remove App > Delete App.
Aside from removing social media apps, you can also remove all games or other distracting apps, such as news or sports apps. These apps can also take up a lot of screen time and aren’t necessary to have on you at all times.
Install a Minimalist Wallpaper and Launcher
iPhones are full of distractions. Things like widgets, fun wallpapers, and a busy homescreen can make us feel overwhelmed and may even increase our screen time. One way to get around this would be to install a minimalist launcher likeDumb Phone (dp).
Mimicking theLightphone, the Dumb Phone launcher removes apps from your home screen and turns them into text-based links. The simple wallpaper also makes your phone look simple and less appealing. you may set the launcher to have whatever apps you want. That way, if you pick up your phone to use Google Maps or Spotify, you won’t get distracted by other social media apps.
The Dumb Phone launcher is sometimes a bit buggy, but I’ve found the pros outweigh the cons as I can still use everything as intended. As an unintentional benefit, removing all my widgets also increased my battery life.
Install an App Blocker
Apple’s default Screen Time app is great and can be very helpful. However, it lacks many features. For example, it can be easy to bypass, and it tends to be an all-or-nothing app rather than a tool to reduce screentime overall.
This is where additional apps, such asScreenzen, come into play. Screenzen doesn’t block social media apps altogether. Instead, it limits you to a certain number of app unlocks per day. For example, I have my social media apps set to five minutes of use three times a day.
you may bypass Screenzen, but it makes you more hesitant to bypass the lock because it logs the number of days in a row where you successfully didn’t bypass the app or use an app more than intended.
Turn Off All Notifications (Except Calls and Texts)
Before turning notifications off, I didn’t realize just how many notifications I would get a day. I would get social media messages, weather alerts, news stories, game updates, and deals from food ordering apps.
I started realizing just how many of these notifications were useless. Even though the notifications weren’t important, I would pick up my phone anyway and then doomscroll on a social media app like TikTok.
The purpose of turning off notifications is not to miss important updates, but to reduce the number of times your phone vibrates or lights up.If you manage your notifications on your iPhone, you can find which ones are essential and remove all the ones that aren’t.
Turn Off Face ID and Set a Long Password
FaceID makes it easy to log into our phones and start doomscrolling within seconds. However, one way around that for me was turning off Face ID. I also changed my device’s passcode from a four-digit passcode to a longer, but more memorable, numerical password. This has stopped me from picking up my phone to begin with, as I don’t want to enter my long password unless I need to.
For emergencies, remember that Apple has an emergency dialer on the lock screen. So, having a long passcode won’t make you any less safe—it just means that it will take longer to access your device.
To turn off Face ID, head to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and uncheck “Phone Unlock”.
Install a Pomodoro Timer to Stop Using Your iPhone Entirely
If you’re struggling to complete a work project or simply need some time to yourself, consider installing theFlora - Green Focusapp. While it may seem counterintuitive to install more apps on your phone when trying to use it less, this app is a great exception.
The Flora app is designed like a Pomodoro timer. In other words, it essentially locks you out of your phone for a specific amount of time, allowing you to focus on the task at hand. When you start the app, you set a timer duration for the length of time you don’t want to pick up your phone.
Each time you complete a successful period without picking up your phone, you grow a tree in a virtual garden. If you continue to succeed, you may see your garden flourish as it documents your progress.
Put Your iPhone in Greyscale
iPhones are full of bright, catchy colors that can contribute to our addictions by giving us a hit of dopamine whenever we use our devices. Putting my phone in grayscale made it much easier to kick my iPhone addiction. The reason is that my phone just no longer became fun to look at. Instead, it became more of a tool I use to stay connected to friends and family.
This feature works well if you also need to keep social media or other chatting apps for work but don’t want to get addicted to your device. Social media can be a helpful tool, but I will say it is a lot less fun when everything is gray.
To put your iPhone into grayscale, head to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters, then select “Grayscale”.
Beating my iPhone addiction has given me a lot of my life back; it’s made me more connected and aware of my surroundings. The reason is that I still get all of my essential notifications and stay connected with friends—I just cut out all the areas where I was wasting time.
Sometimes, reducing your phone use doesn’t mean going to a flip phone or giving up your phone entirely. The iPhone is a great tool if you customize it correctly. In fact, you can alsocreate shortcuts to prevent doomscrolling.
