[Knalus]

Originally Posted by marsplasticeraser

This seems kind of trivial to share considering what others are going through. But greatly reducing time on phone has had a big impact for me so sharing in case others can use this.

Background is I felt increasing anxiety in 2025. In reflecting on this in December it really came down to what is going on in the world and how much crap I was consuming on my phone that upset me.

So January 1 I changed my approach to my phone. I turned it into what I want it to be: Email, maps, camera, music, peloton, and a few other 'useful' apps. This meant that I had to get rid of everything else on the phone that wasn't helping me.


This meant I made some changes to my phone usage:
1. Turned off all notifications. Only people in my contacts can phone me. Every other notification is off. This was surprisingly useful for 'deep work' during the day.

2. Removed reddit and other social apps. I was spending up to an hour on reddit daily. I have FB on the phone but signed out as I am decluttering and selling on Marketplace.

3. Changed news consumption. I kept reading a quality global newspaper for ~15 minutes in the morning. Added 5 substack newsletters I find interesting. Keep browsing CP most days.

4. Put in 'off' time on my phone from 8am to 7pm. Nothing works but 'good' apps I need to work. In addition, I put in daily limits on other 'fun' apps. 15 minutes for safari. 15 minutes for YouTube. I'm sure there are a couple others I did this for.

5. I leave my phone in different room most of the day. This is a huge barrier to just checking it.


These changes have been really good for me and I feel much less anxiety. But there are some interesting benefits I didn't expect:

- I have way more time. I'm not feeling as time crunched in general. House is cleaner and we've been doing well at decluttering.

- I'm more focused at work. All the little bings for an email or message were killing me. Now I just work on my list of stuff and really love this.

- I'm reading about 2x as much and in longer chunks of time. Actually, I'm probably reading more 3x or 4x, but I've had some great books I can't put down.

- I am more present for my family. No longer on my phone after dinner. Started a tradition of watching great films with my oldest, and he's loving this.

- I still reach for my phone all the time and open it, only to have nothing to do. It's kind of weird. This is why I make a point to leave it elsewhere as much as possible.


Anyways, it's kind of remarkable how 'bad' my phone was for me. Your mileage may vary.

I completely know what you are talking about - my issue isn't the phone exactly, but I do have real addiction to youtube videos, and news - and this was what was really causing me my issues. Anxiety, panic attacks, sleep issues, paranoia. I've been trying some things to at the very least take the edge off.


The biggest thing that has helped - I took 20 minutes going through my Youtube feed, and there are these three dots next to the titles of each video. You can click on there "Not Interested", or "Don't recommend channel". I went through and every video that showed Trump, why women are trying to screw with you, conspiracy theories, political talking heads, clickbait, ragebait, and denied it all. The next day was like fresh air. So much better. It's been creeping back into the feed - being more intentional is hard - but at least it's somewhat possible. Game changer. I thought I was going to have to cut it cold turkey, but I can still watch car videos, how to woodworking, ect. and not have rage-entertainment or politics interrupt it.


Another thing I've tried is using Ground News, instead of other sources. I was always leery of it, but I'm getting bombarded by news stories chosen by an algorithm, I figured, what the hell, I'll give it a try. It's $3 a month, and so far, it's as advertised. Not as entertaining, but that was part of the problem, whereas having news summarized and just laid out, it's been helpful.