Sick of wasting 7 hours a day on your smartphone? I have six easy phone detox tips to help you reset and become a more engaged mama starting today! Also, in this post I will share 5 clear signs that you need a screen detox as a mom.
Easy Phone Detox Tips For Beginners
There are a lot of ways to take a break from technology. Your unique circumstances are going to play a part in what type and length of digital detox you do. Since technology is so prevalent in our modern lives and there isn’t a one size fits all formula, here are some simple ideas for different types of people.
- Decide if you legitimately need your phone for work or medical purposes. If not, put it in a drawer for the length of time you desire to detox. If this is your first phone break, try a 1 to 3 day digital detox. Even in that short amount of time, you are likely to experience a sense of relief and freedom from the chains of technology. In my experience, it only takes a day offline, some fresh air, and sunshine to realize that life is so much more enjoyable offline.
- If you do need your phone for work, turn it off after your 8 hour work day. Leave it locked in your car or in a closet during family and rest hours.
- Remove all social media and shopping apps from your phone for one month. Keep track of the hours and money you save during your time offline.
- Go to bed without your phone. Put your phone “to sleep” after dinner at a charging station out of sight. Give yourself screen free evenings to unwind naturally.
- Choose the amount of days or hours you desire to be offline. Write it down. Mark your calendar and commit to unplugging during that span of time. Keep yourself busy with family time, walks in nature, hands-on activities, and fun plans with friends.
- Switch to an old school flip phone without all of the alluring capabilities of today’s most popular smartphones. When your phone doesn’t do much, you are not tempted to spend 7+ hours a day on it shopping, texting, streaming, and mindlessly scrolling. Although you will initially notice many inconveniences when you downgrade your phone, a low-tech life is entirely possible even in our modern world. I have been operating joyfully WITHOUT a smartphone for many years and I am so glad I made that choice for my family and mental health. Trading in my smartphone for a dumbphone years ago has saved me time, money, and a lot of unnecessary stress.
- Let your phone die often and leave it at home when you go places. Don’t allow tech to be a constant source of distraction in your pocket.
How to Do a Screen Detox
(for mamas who want to unplug from the virtual world and plug in to what truly matters)
#1 Use your phone only for the absolute necessities
Stop using your phone for half business, half pleasure. It’s confusing your brain and keeping you on screen time way longer than you intend to be.
Instead of using your phone for pleasurable activities like watching Youtube and scrolling social media, use it only to communicate with humans.
Switch to a paper calendar, an old school alarm clock that plugs into a wall, and a separate GPS.
Use a laptop for sending important emails, ordering products, and checking your child’s school grades.
Create a special ringtone for the handful of people who would contact you in case of an actual emergency or who you might need to communicate with throughout your day.
These would be people like your spouse, your parents, your child’s school, your boss, and any coworkers you collaborate with on a daily basis.
Do a phone detox by leaving all other contacts and phone notifications on silent.
#2 Connect with humans during your phone detox
Most of us go online in excess in order to fill our natural need for connection. We were made to live in community with other humans.
It’s no wonder that social media platforms captivate the attention of millions of people for up to one third of their entire day.
Instead of going online to connect, do a phone detox and make a plan to connect with humans in person.
In our family, we prioritize screen free hospitality over screen time. This means we invite people into our home to fellowship over meals.
It doesn’t look perfect. I am not a gourmet chef or an extraordinary housekeeper.
Sometimes there is a messy or fussy baby when friends walk in the door.
The kitchen is usually filled with dirty pots and pans that I didn’t have a chance to clean as I cooked.
We eat simple food on paper plates.
The point of connecting with friends in real life is not that we would appear flawless, as we are able to online when we only share our highlight reel.
It’s about vulnerability and love.
Start your phone detox off by making plans with people who already inspire you and also with people you want to get to know better.
Sit down with your family and make a list of all the people you’d each like to connect with. Commit to inviting humans over twice a month.
Some of our family’s favorite things to do are Taco Tuesdays, Make-Your-Own-Sundae Bars, and Family Game Nights.
Grab our free printable Screen Free Hospitality tracker here to get started today.
#3 Set social media boundaries through a phone detox
Delete all social media apps from your phone during the week. Try a month off of social media or set a specific time to sit down and intentionally check in online with friends, such as on Saturdays.
Instead of re-downloading the social media apps to your phone on the weekends, use a laptop instead.
On a laptop, it is more challenging to scroll, click around, get distracted, and lose track of time.
Smartphones were designed to be convenient. They make it really easy for us to waste hours of our life.
You can also set social media boundaries by unfollowing people that you don’t actually know or learn anything valuable from.
Consider permanently deleting any of your own personal social media accounts that you waste excessive time on.
If you do not gain back enough value to justify your loss of time, get rid of that social media platform for good.
Trust me, after a long enough social media separation, you won’t miss it!
My husband and I deleted all of our social media accounts about seven years ago and have never looked back. For all the pseudo connection we lost online, we gained community a hundredfold in real life.
#4 Do an internet detox by blocking temptations
Have your spouse block time-sucking websites such as YouTube and amazon prime from your home’s Wi-Fi router. Ask him not to share the password with you but to unblock the sites on occasion, as needed for specific purposes, such as to order holiday gifts.
This solution has worked really well in our home. I ask my husband to block websites that I am most tempted to waste time on.
I know that I struggle to use self-control to maintain wise boundaries on certain engaging websites. I would rather eliminate the mental battle altogether by having the website completely blocked.
This way of thinking might sound extreme but the truth is, most adults are spending 7.5 hours on screen time for pleasure alone.
Setting screen time limits is not easy when you have allowed your tech time to get out of balance.
Websites were strategically designed to keep us engaged online.
They do a great job of that.
For me as a mom of four, I know that my time is precious. My kid’s lives are passing right before my very eyes.
I want to be a present parent as many minutes of each day that I can.
I also want to be a well-rested person, an engaged wife, a thoughtful daughter and friend, and an energetic part of my local church.
I want to keep a sanitary house, improve the meals I cook, learn new skills, and work on projects, like writing for this blog in my spare time.
If I choose to say yes to the temptation to spend too much time on a screen, I am really saying no to the things that matter most to me.
This perspective has made blocking time-sucking websites from our home a no brainer for me.
#5 Keep tech out of sight and out of mind
During your phone detox, set firm boundaries about when you will unplug. If you are a stay at home mom like me, keep your devices in a junk drawer, closet, or basement until your kid’s nap time or bedtime.
Choose to be a fully present parent during your kid’s waking hours.
Save whatever you need to do on your phone for the times when your kids are resting.
When you go places with your family, leave your phone locked in your car.
When you go to bed with your spouse at night, keep your phone plugged into a charging station in another room.
Do whatever it takes to be a present participant in your own life.
#6 Do the ultimate phone detox by downgrading
Upgrade your personal life by downgrading your smartphone to a “dumbphone.”
This is a phone detox tip that has worked really well for me as a mom of littles.
I know that I need to be intentional in the fight against device distraction in order to be present with my family.
A healthy family isn’t created through passivity. If we have no rules when it comes to our devices, they will rule over us.
7 years ago, I traded my iPhone for a flip phone simply because I found my smartphone to be way too distracting.
I enjoyed that little black flip phone for the longest time, but eventually my husband got me a Lite phone.
A Lite phone is still basically a “dumbphone” but it has slightly more features than a flip phone.
The Lite phone does not have social media, internet access, or a camera. It is a small, simple phone that supports calling and texting. It has an alarm clock and a way to listen to podcasts. I believe that the upgrade on the Lite phone has a GPS navigation option, but I haven’t used that yet.
After having an iPhone, a flip phone, and a Lite phone, I can honestly say that I prefer life without a smartphone. I traded my time on my old iPhone for time with my family.
Although my smartphone promised ease and convenience, it actually made my life harder as a mom. It was always dinging and buzzing and notifying me of new reasons to scroll. I no longer feel that temptation with the Lite phone.
Half the time, I don’t even know where my phone is. It isn’t an extra appendage to me the way my iPhone was.
My phone is simply a tool. It serves me well when I need it, but it is something I can easily live without.
I intentionally don’t take it with me when I leave the house to spend time with family or go to church because I don’t want messages to distract me from engaging with humans in person.
5 Signs That Mom Needs a Phone Detox
Most parents are well aware that their kids need boundaries when it comes to screen time. Toddlers throw tantrums after tablet time. Preschoolers whine to play “educational games” on our smartphones.
Big kids beg for “just one more show” after we have already said streaming time is over.
Teens shout and punch walls after an intensive round of violent video games.
Children are very loud about their need for a screen detox. When we allow them to have too much screen time, their dysregulation is obvious.
But what about screen time boundaries for moms?
The effects of screen time on adults should be taken seriously, just like the negative effects of too much screen time for kids.
If you are an overwhelmed mom in the thick of raising lots of little people, chances are you have struggled to balance your own device usage.
I’ve been there too.
I know all too well how motherhood can feel like a pressure cooker when you are in the trenches of parenting young kids.
Diapers, tantrums, training, meals, marriage, laundry, schooling, conflict resolution, character development.
Physical needs, emotional needs, brand new ages and stages.
It’s a lot.
It’s no wonder that most of us modern day moms turn to screens to get a break.
But while that may not be a big deal once in a while, it is definitely a big deal if it becomes our way of life.
When our screen time gets out of balance, our mental health and the health of our family will suffer.
If excessive screen time has been wreaking havoc in your family, this is the perfect time to do a phone detox and screen detox.
Here are five signs that you might be overusing screen time as a mom…
Your Screen Time Report Startles You
Your weekly screen time report on your smartphone says more hours per day than you thought it would. What a handy but scary tool those screen time reports can be! They reveal what is really going on in our habits.
We log online for a couple minutes to check an email, respond to a message, and place a grocery order. Before we know it, an hour has gone by and we don’t know where it went.
If your screen time report startles you at the end of the week, that is a surefire sign that you need a phone detox, Mama.
Your Kids Imitate You on Screens
Your older kids ask for their device constantly. They appear to be addicted to screen time.
Your young kids frequently play pretend that they are on a smartphone.
They stare into pretend devices and make their toys into technology.
You get the feeling that when your kids are pretending to text and scroll on pretend screens, they are imitating you.
If staring into a device is not the habit you want your kids to emulate from you, it’s time to do a screen detox, Mama.
You Feel Unproductive
You felt busy the entire day yet you feel like you didn’t get anything done. Most of your time was spent in a rush. You did a lot of multitasking while using a screen.
Chores felt harder and took longer than they needed too.
There were a lot of things you wanted to get to today that you missed along the way.
Some of this is normal mom stuff. It comes with the territory of meeting real life needs and responding to what the day brings. But screens make parenting and homemaking way harder than it needs to be.
If you see a correlation between your time on screens and your unchecked To-Do list, it is time to decrease your screen time and focus on your mom goals! Try a screen detox.
You Tune Out Your Kids
You are frequently asking your kids to repeat themselves because you were distracted by a screen the first couple of times they said something.
If you are struggling to pay attention when your kids talk to you either because you are on a smartphone or you have a lot of residual brain fog from excessive tech usage, it’s time to set some screen time limits and do a phone detox.
You Feel Disconnected from Your Kids
After your kids are tucked in bed, you feel like it was a waste of a day. You are especially sad because you feel like you didn’t connect meaningfully with your family. You don’t remember looking your little ones in the eye, laughing with them, or sharing a warm smile.
You wonder if your kids will remember you as a frazzled mom with a scowl on your face or as a distracted mom with a phone in her hand.
You struggled to listen to them throughout your day and you long to spend undistracted quality time with them tomorrow.
Moms are often way too hard on themselves. I bet you are doing a better job than you think you are. But if you are noticing a pattern of high tech usage in your life coupled with a sinking feeling of disconnection from the people you love most, it is time to reduce your screen time and be present with your family.
Take heart and do not be discouraged. You are reading this post because you care enough to pursue change. You can reconnect with your kids and make lasting change in your screen time habits. Start with a screen detox.
Why Do a Screen Detox?
If you are an overwhelmed mom who is struggling to balance all the things, I completely understand. As a mom of four who spends all of my waking hours with my little people, I know the screen time battle that you are facing for both yourself and your kids.
Know that you are not alone in your struggle to put technology in its proper place.
A phone detox, a screen detox, and an internet detox might be just the thing you need if you are noticing too much screen time symptoms in yourself or in your family as a whole.
Smartphones have become like extra appendages on most people’s bodies.
They do so much for us that we rarely do anything without them.
These little devices serve as our alarm clock, calendar, weather report, GPS, mobile banking, email access, television, and way to communicate with loved ones.
Our kids have their own tech that travels with them wherever they go as well. They watch TV in the car, play tablet games at lunch, and do schoolwork on their laptop.
Personal tech has become such a normal part of our world that many of us forget to question whether our screen time has gotten out of balance.
As tech makes things easier than ever in terms of digital convenience, our lives actually feel like they are getting harder.
There is a very real temptation for us modern day moms to get into the daily habit of turning on the electronic babysitter for our children and vegging out on devices of our own just to get a break.
But whether we want to admit it or not, we all know there is a high price to pay for excessive screen time.
My husband and I learned that for ourselves early on in our parenting. Seven years ago, we made some drastic choices to cut back on personal screen time and screen time for our kids in order to salvage relationship and build the life we truly wanted.
My hope is that this post will serve as the cold splash for the mom who longs to disconnect from the virtual world and plug into what truly matters.
You can do it! A phone detox, a screen detox, and a low-tech lifestyle are all entirely possible in this modern world.
It is so easy to spend way more time than we intend to on devices. Did you know that the average adult is spending upwards of 7 hours per day on screens? And that’s not for work or school. That’s for pleasure!
Screens were strategically designed to lure us into the virtual world and keep us distracted from reality. It’s no surprise that most of us are wasting precious hours of our lives on these flashy little handheld computers.
Smartphones ding, buzz, and light up like little slot machines in a casino. If someone we knew spent 7 hours gambling in front of a slot machine, we might turn our nose up at them and judge them for throwing away their time and money yet excessive screen time for adults has become socially acceptable.
In the grand scheme of things, how different are we than the adult at the slot machine when we seek a temporary high or mood lift from our devices?
We consider it normal to mindlessly scroll, seek cheap dopamine hits on social media, and play addicting phone games for up to one third of our day.
Once our minds get sucked in by shows, social media, or the internet, our bodies become stagnant. We may be physically moving around and “multitasking” with a screen in hand, but we all know that not very much is actually getting done when tech has our attention.
Too Much Screen Time Symptoms
If you have been starring at a screen for more than the recommended limit for your age group and you are experiencing any of the following too much screen time symptoms, you would benefit from a phone detox and a screen detox…
- Brain fog
- Irritability
- Headache
- Vision issues
- Abnormal anxiety
- Low quality sleep
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Obesity
Too much screen time can affect more than our mental and physical health. It also affects our relationships. The effects of screen time on adults reach far and wide.
When we spend time too much time on screens, we become less and less engaged with the people who mean the most to us. We become so engrossed in the digital world that we wind up disconnected from the people who live under our very same roof.
It’s not too late to do a phone detox, set screen time limits, and rebuild relationship with your people.
Leave a comment below and let me know why you want to try a phone detox!
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