12.5 Years Gone to Scrolling?

How to break your phone addiction

Every time you pick up your phone unconsciously, you are giving away your time and freedom.

You are literally throwing your most precious time here on earth in the garbage.

When you get a notification from Instagram about a post you don’t even want to see, and you start watching it and scrolling, you are literally making Instagram money.

When you respond to a message you don’t even want to reply to, you are training yourself to react impulsively to notifications.

You are teaching your dopamine system and yourself that you are doing well and deserve that feeling by watching those videos, reading those texts, and checking those notifications you actually don’t want to see.

For years, I had this phone behavior myself. I was watching every video on YouTube and Instagram, even though it wasn’t helping me. You get that happy feeling...

But deep down, I was miserable.

Then I saw an advertisement that showed me how much time I was wasting living like this. I was on my phone for 7 hours a day. Let’s say 2 of those hours were constructive and necessary. That means the other 5 hours were destructive.

I’m 23 years old right now. If I keep using my phone for 5 unnecessary hours a day, I would be spending:
365 × 5 = 1,825 hours a year
1,825 × 60 = 109,500 hours until I’m 83 (if I reach that age)
109,500 ÷ 365 ÷ 24 = 12.5 years

Twelve and a half years of my life, gone.

So I started looking for solutions to use my phone less. Here are some tips. They’re optional. Some will work for you, others won’t. Feel free to experiment.

• Turn off notifications from your apps. Every time you get a message, you get distracted and feel the need to reply right away. If something is really important, people will call you. (You can choose fixed times to check your phone.)

• Turn on black and white mode. The colors on your phone are very addictive. You’ll notice the difference once you switch to grayscale.

• Delete apps that drain your attention and make you feel worse. If you're only watching destructive content on Instagram or TikTok, consider deleting those apps.

• Don’t touch your phone during the first hour of the day. You know the saying: "Win the morning, win the day." This is a powerful way to avoid ruining your dopamine system for the rest of the day.

• Keep your phone in a different room while studying. We’ve talked about the flow state before. It can take up to 15 minutes to refocus after checking your phone.

If you can save even just two hours a day this year, that would already be a win. That time could be spent on something meaningful.

Try things out and see what works for you.

Put in the comments below what you are going to try or what already works for you.