9 Things I Stopped Doing on My iPhone

In an effort to reduce my screen time, I’ve stopped using my iPhone for absolutely everything. It’s hard, but making the swap can have meaningful benefits. Here are some things I’ve stopped doing on my iPhone, and why.

9

Reading So Many Ebooks

I love e-books as much as the next person, but there is no better feeling than flipping through the pages of a brand new book (which comes with that amazing “new book smell”). Taking up a reading challenge for a month or year can take many forms, including a combination of e-books and physical books.

If you prefer e-books, of course, your iPhone offers many options, including its native app, Apple Books. While I find Apple Books and third-party apps like Goodreads to be amazing resources for discovering new books and logging my reads, nothing satisfies my reading cravings like a good old physical book (preferably one with a stunning cover).

Shifting to physical books has also solved my problem of reading an e-book on my phone in the dark, which I caught myself doing too often and straining my eyes.

8

Digital Journalling

A recent purchase I made as part of my New Year’s resolution is a five-minute Gratitude Journal. This journal contains questions about gratitude, space for writing down free thoughts, and bucket lists. Since I started logging into my journal regularly, I have been staying away from the Journal app completely.

Don’t get me wrong: Apple’s Journal app is one of the iPhone’s most useful self-care tools. But if you are looking for a specific theme in a journal (such as gratitude), then a physical journal with printed questions can help you better than a blank canvas journal. I also like using my journal as a scrapbook and making it a mini hobby, which I prefer over a digital journal sometimes.

7

Relying Solely on My iPhone to Organize My Schedule

Your iPhone has many native tools that can help you manage your personal and work schedule, such as the Reminders and Calendar apps. As much as I like to use these to keep track of my work and school tasks, I’ve found another effective strategy that gives me a sense of urgency that these apps usually fail to give.

This is to use a “Weekly Planner” board that I write on and hang over my desk. Constantly looking at my tasks helps me hone in on my focus, and also motivates me to work towards short-term goals.

To keep track of long-term projects, I use Numbers or a Google Sheets spreadsheet on my Mac so that I can keep track of the completion status and check off tasks as they are finished.

I knew a digital detox was long overdue when I started spending countless hours scrolling through apps like YouTube and Instagram watching Shorts and Reels of “satisfying” slime and ASMR content (mixed in with other addicting content, of course). A restriction like this meant I needed a substitute, which is why instead of using my iPhone to scratch the itch of watching satisfying videos, I took up some real-life activities.

Taking up activities like diamond painting and brain-simulating games which do not require screen time can not only save you from falling into the doom-scrolling trap; it can also lead to your focus levels improving.

I have also started listening to ASMR sounds instead of watching short videos, through Spotify playlists dedicated to satisfying sounds. If you are trying to concentrate on a task, you can even try to play white noise or other background sounds such as rain or stream through a smart speaker to keep your focus steady.

5

Photo Editing

The App Store offers a wide choice of photo editing apps. Even the native Photos app comes with a lot of tools. But since making the jump from my iPhone to my Mac for photo editing, I have not looked back.

While editing photos for social media, touching up pictures, and adjusting filters are easy to do on the iPhone, advanced photo editing requires precision and concentration, I find apps on my Mac provide better. Having a larger screen gives me a better view of what I’m doing, and there’s no doubt that a trackpad or mouse offers more precise input.

I stick to apps like Lightroom and Photoshop to edit pictures for my personal projects, but you can browse and find apps that suit your needs best through the Mac App Store.

4

Using Meditation Apps

One more task that I have offloaded from my iPhone is meditation. I’ve tried my fair share of third-party meditation apps such as Headspace and Balance, but one issue I face is that once my meditation session is over, I always reach for my phone to check distracting social media apps, which takes away from the purpose of the meditation.

While guided meditation is a good starting point, I have started doing my own, self-paced meditation sessions which do not require phone usage. This includes using a meditation playlist through music streaming apps, and self-guided sessions with low white noise.

3

Creating Spotify Playlists

Using the Spotify iOS app comes with a host of exclusive features and benefits. But one reason I have swapped to the Spotify desktop app when I work, beyond getting distracted by my phone’s notifications, is that creating playlists and organizing your music is easier to do.

Spotify’s desktop app has helped me be more productive at work because creating organized folders and custom-order playlists has helped me compartmentalize my focus music from my normal playlists.

You can always use Spotify Connect to play music from any device connected to the same network.

2

Reading News, Journals, and Magazines

Apart from swapping e-books for physical books, I have also stopped using my phone to read things like news, research journals, and magazines. News apps such as Apple News and online publications can be great resources, but if you are looking to expand your reading habits or work on a project involving research, you might face easy distractions from ads, notifications, or other sources that throw a wrench in your work plans.

A visit to the local library or subscribing to a local newspaper or magazine are some strategies that have helped me pick up physical reading materials, and reduce my reliance on e-newspapers and e-magazines.

1

Playing Games

I’ve tried my fair share of games from my iPhone’s App Store, mostly puzzles and brain teaser-themed. But as part of my efforts to decrease my reliance and screen time on my iPhone and pick up new hobbies, I have started collecting and working on 1000-piece puzzles and block sets. These satisfy my craving to take a crack at a good puzzle while helping me decorate my room with finished pieces that I can frame and add to my collectible shelf.

Games like Scrabble and the Daily Crossword can also come in handy if you are trying to reduce your time spent on online brain teaser games and apps.

There are a lot of things you can stop using your iPhone for, especially if you are looking for a digital detox or to reduce your screen time. But a good place to start is to complement these efforts with effective iPhone tools and apps, and slowly transition away.