Losing time to doom scrolling? Use app timers

Do you find yourself losing hours because you just quickly checked that notification and then end up in a spiral of doom scrolling or online shopping? Here's one simple trick to reduce your screen time.

App timers.

On Apple and Android devices, you can set time limits for how long you want to spend on certain apps each day. The apps record how long you've spent on there, they often give you reminders of 10 minutes left, 5 minutes left, 1 minute left and then after you've used all your time, it locks you out.

Having timers for the apps that you just sink time into without even realising, for me it's instagram, snapchat and facebook, you become more mindful of how long you're spending scrolling.

The reminders are really useful because they can be a prompt to break the scroll and save the time for later in the day.

Of course once you're locked out you can go out and change the app timer if you desperately need to do something on the app, but I find it so useful to have those boundaries and a firm point where it kicks me off and I'm done for the day.

Do you use app timers? Do you like them?

Healthy tech habits workshops are the best way to educate your staff, students and parents about the social media ban and helping children to build healthier relationships with their devices. Book in for a presentation for your school, organisation or local government.