How to reduce screen time and work out more

You already know you spend too long on your phone. You have known for a while. Knowing is not the problem. The problem is that the phone is right there, and picking it up costs nothing.

Here are five things that work. They go from easiest to hardest. You do not need all five. Two or three will change your week.

1. Put your phone in another room

This is the cheapest fix and the one people skip.

You cannot scroll a phone that is in the kitchen. Ten steps of distance kills more scrolling than any setting on the phone itself. It works because it costs you something to go get it. Most of the time, you will not bother.

Try it for one hour first. Pick the hour you lose most. For most people that is the hour after dinner.

2. Set a limit in Screen Time

Your iPhone already has this built in. Open Settings, tap Screen Time, then App Limits.

Pick two apps. Not ten. Two.

The catch: a limit is one tap from “Ignore Limit”. It asks you a question and you say no. That works for a week. Then you stop reading the question and tap through it on reflex. If that sounds familiar, keep reading.

3. Delete the app you lose the most time to

Go to Settings, then Screen Time, then See All Activity. Sort by time. The top app is usually not the one you would guess.

Delete it for two weeks. Not forever. Two weeks.

You can reinstall it. Knowing that makes the two weeks easier. And most people find the first three days are the hard part, then it gets quiet.

4. Make the app cost you something

This is what Plump does, and the idea behind it is not ours.

Researchers at CHI 2019 tested what happens when you add a small task before an app opens. One group had to press a button first. Another group had to type 30 digits. The button group used their apps 13.1% less. The typing group used them 47.5% less.

A small cost, paid at the moment you reach for the app, changes what you decide to do.

Plump uses squats as the cost. You pick the apps you lose time to. Plump locks them. When your minutes run out, the lock comes back. To get more, you stand your phone up and do squats. The camera counts them. One squat earns one coin, and one coin buys one minute.

Two things make this different from a Screen Time limit:

The cost is real. You cannot tap past a squat. You have to stand up and do it.

The cost is good for you. Even if you decide you really do want the app, you got some movement out of it. You lose either way, which is the point.

5. Give the time to something you want

Removing a habit leaves a hole. If you do not fill it, the phone comes back.

The researchers who study this call it habit replacement. You pick something small that gives you the same thing the scroll gave you. For most people the scroll was a break, or a way to avoid starting something.

Pick one thing. A walk around the block. Ten squats. A glass of water and two minutes of staring out a window.

The trick is to attach it to the trigger. If you reach for your phone when you sit down on the couch, then the couch is the trigger. Put the new thing right there. Shoes by the door. A note on the table.

What actually works

Most people who cut their screen time do not use willpower. They change what the phone costs them and what the time goes to.

Start with number 1. It takes ten seconds and it is free. If that is not enough, work down the list.

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Plump is an iPhone app. It locks the apps you pick and makes you do squats to open them again. You can get it now on the App Store.