How to use your phone less in 2025

Step 1

Unsubscribe from ads and newsletters you don’t read in your email. Make it a habit to continue unsubscribing when they pop up in your mailbox.

Step 2

Put restrictions on apps that you use too much for your liking. To do this you have to go through your phone settings and look at what apps ypu spend the most time on. There are both blocking apps to download, I personally use ScreenZen for locking myself out of apps, but also pre in-built functions of most smartphones to set a time limit for apps. Be realistic with yourself. You might go to hard on yourself by setting a 5 minute timer for social media straight away, you can always change it later to a shorter and shorter time.

Step 3

Delete apps from your phone that you can just as easily use from a computer or browser. Not seeing the apps can be a good start to use your phone for other purposes. It will mean less distraction from the important things. Write down your thoughts and feelings when you want to compulsevly open an app that is no longer on your phone. Personally I deleted lots of entertainment apps such as Youtube, Reddit, and Netflix. If something actually is really important, you can acess it from the web or computer.

Step 4

Step 4 is to make your homescreen less appealing. To achieve this, I have some ideas:

• Move apps around so muscle memory hinders you from accessing the most time eating apps.
• Delete apps you are not using.
• Change your backgrounds to a more plain and boring look.
• Use widgets to take up space on your screen. Widgets that takes you to apps you want to use more, and important features like the calendar or clock. Make your phone more of a tool used for the every day.
• If you have an iPhone, you can delete apps from the homescreen and still have them in your app library. So that each time you need them, you have to search for them.
• Use the function to make your screen in black and white. It makes your phone much less appealing to look at, and it will certainly make you put your phone down quicker.

Step 5

This week (or during this step) we are focusing on life without our phones. After using your phone less, there is more time for everything else. Focus on your hobbies and interests. When you want to pick up your phone out of boredom, realize it is an urge that you don’t have to act on. If you have fun things to do that don’t involve a smartphone or the internet, chances are – you might reduce your screentime. Find a new hobby, or revive an old one you might have put aside.

Step 6

Do you ever feel the fear of missing out? If you have, here are some advice for dealing with it:

• Tell the people around you that you are using your phone less, there is no need for us to being able to reach 24/7 all year round. People close to you knowing this might be more conciderate before taking a unopened message as something bad.
• If you communicated a lot through social media before, tell people to reach out to you by calling or texting instead. Maybe write in you bio that texting is the easiest way to reach you? Now you don’t have to re-enter social media apps to check for messages and get stuck scrolling instead.
• Ask yourself: Are you really missing out? When was the last time you missed something really important because you didn’t check social media every hour of the day? Once every evening or every few days will be just as effective.
• Realize that even though you might miss out on a trend or two, the time social media and compulsevly using your phone takes from your life is so not worth it.

Step 7

Habits are the focus of trying to quit your phone. Maybe you always pick up your phone when you wake up, so of course it is as easy to do that as brushing your teeth every morning. But even though you might “fail” during these weeks, and some days get stuck doomscrolling – you have to celebrate the small wins. One bad day has not ruined your progress, so keep on applying the steps to your life and have some compassion for yourself.

Try not to obsess over your screentime, screentime is not always mindless. It might be using a calculator for work, facetiming with a loved one, or buying a ticket for the bus.

Step 8

This step is all about notifications. They can really be a tricky one. Sometimes notifications keep us connected with people we don’t live with, and sometimes they ruin our ability to focus in real life. But as previously stated, these steps can be modified to every readers life.

Personally I still have Instagram and E-mail installed on my phone. What works for me might not work for you. I can limit myself to 5-10 minutes a day on those apps, and I don’t check my email multiple times a day. For you, you might have to uninstall it so you can only reach it through your computer. Here are a few suggestions:

• Remove notifications from apps where you don’t need them.
• Keep notifications/sounds on for messages, public transport apps, and of course when the phone rings and the alarm.
• Turn off email notifications to not feel the pressure of the unread mails stacking up. And rather check in once a day when it suits you.
• Remove the red “bubble” notifications on apps. The red colour might stress you and make you feel like checking the app is urgent. In reality, it is not.

Step 9

Challenge yourself to not use your phone when in uncomfortable situations. Dare to not use it to pretent to look busy, and never use it in company with others to avoid an awkward silence. Do not use your phone on your lunch break, and do not use it when someone is talking to you. This might lead you to having less time to use your phone, and at the same time you will become a more pleasant person to be around. Almost all of us has lost a bit of ability to connect to others, but this step requiers accountability.

Step 10

Journal or reflect on why you wanted to use your phone less, and all the relief it has given you. If you are reading this without having completed all steps, or maybe not adapted yet, you can read this for motivation. Actively decreasing your smartphone use can result in:

• The relief of feeling like time is not fleeting
• Not having notifications stressing me to open my apps all of the time
• Having more time for hobbies
• Having more time for chores that I always dreades because I felt like they took “too much time”

The last change to make if you feel like it, would be embracing and admiring what we had before phones. To not pick up your phone when you need a timer, or a calculator etc. can result in you not becoming tempted to check all the apps in your phone or wasting time on not so important things. Using a real alarm clock, a real timer, a real calculator, a real watch, a real paperblock. You see what I mean. This is not for everyone, and some might love using their phone as a tool, but for me it works.

Summary

The 10 steps for using your phone less in 2025 can lead to a more mindful social media consumption and phone usage. What works for me might not work for you. But it is important to note that it is only yourself that can take actions towards ending your addiciton.

I wish you a pleasant journey to getting more time for yourself, the people around you, your hobbies, and life in general. Life is for living!