Welcome to the second half of my week-long challenge: not using my phone for more than one hour per day- as monitored by the Screen Time app on my iPhone. To start at the beginning, read here.
Day 5
I went to work today at a new school. Well, not totally new, but I’ve only been there once. So, I had to use my phone’s GPS to avoid getting helplessly lost. Luckily, every time the screen turned off, it stopped counting as “screen time”. Maybe that’s cheating, maybe it’s not- but I’ll take it.
I noticed today I don’t even think about my phone much anymore. I used to be completely attached to it- carrying it around in my pocket, hand, or bra (yes, I’m that girl) at all times for fear of missing something. Now, I leave it in the other room, in my locker at the gym, in my purse on the floor at the office. Wherever.
Oh, and that saying that’s been going around social media- “Stop texting first and see how many dead plants you’ve been watering…” -is totally true. Just saying.
Total screen time today- 33 minutes
Day 6
Nothing too out of the ordinary happened today. I texted my son and friend for a little bit this morning which only equaled 3 minutes in total. That was the most time I spent on any one app today. Everything else was 1 minute or less. *After I finished writing for today, I went on Digit for 6 minutes to check out my savings. Love that app!*
A part of me likes not being on my phone, but the other part of me misses connecting with my friends and family. Because, like it or not, we are now a society that uses social media to socialize and interact with each other. I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with it as long as you don’t disconnect from the people sitting in the same room with you. That’s my biggest phone pet peeve and I’m definitely guilty as well.
Total screen time today (including Digit 😊)- 48 minutes
Day 7
Today I was crazy busy at work and barely touched my phone for eight hours. When I checked my usage at 6 o’clock I was only at 20-something minutes.
I was fully content for it to stay that way until my 9-year-old daughter and I were sitting in the car and she started asking questions like, “What’s a period?” So, I used my phone to pull up illustrations to aid me in my explanation of a menstrual cycle.
Total screen time today- 38 minutes
Summary
As I close out this week, I think about what changes have taken place for me. I think the most noticeable change is my mind feels calm. I used to constantly wonder about how many likes or comments my blog posts have gotten or missing out on some one’s big announcement on Instagram.
After about day two, I no longer really cared about what I was missing out on. I just wanted to be present in the moment and not worry about what everyone else was doing. It kind of brought me back to my teenage days when we had to find out things through word-of-mouth and not on social media.
I really, really enjoyed this challenge and though I find it a little too restricting for everyday life, I plan to limit my phone usage going forward. My total phone usage for the whole week was five hours and 10 minutes. That is less time in a whole week than I used to spend in one day. That blows my mind!
Have you ever purposely limited your phone usage? Tell me about it in the comments. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
Apostolic Momma 