Warning: Extremely long post

I meant to post this at the three month mark but I lost track of time (and kept procrastinating on updating the weekly stats for over a month) so this is coming to you about four months since my last update.

It’s going to be a very long post, starting with my weekly phone use statistics and thoughts. If you just want my overall thoughts and next steps, just scroll all the way down to the bottom.

Weekly Stats and Thoughts

Week of X = Week ending on X (i.e. X is the last day of the week)

Week of October 6th

Average screen time – 1h 6 min; Average pickups – 64/day; Average notifications – around 134/day

My average for this week was artificially low because I did a no-phone day, inspired by How to Break Up with Your Phone. It was actually a lot easier than I thought – I use my phone as an alarm and was worried about how I would wake up without it. In the end, I compromised by turning my phone straight after waking up and turning it on only to set an alarm for the next day, putting it away for the night straight after.

A day without my phone was a lot more freeing than expected. I’m normally quite antsy about checking my notifications, but just knowing my phone wasn’t around made me not care. It’s really out of sight, out of mind. I only wish I could put my phone away more.

Week of October 13th

Average screen time – 1h 42 min; Average pickups – 76/day; Average notifications – around 155/day

This week was pretty normal, in my opinion. Phone use was a little higher than my target of 1h 30 min a day but it’s not terrible.

Week of October 20th

Average screen time – 1h 36 min; Average pickups – 76/day; Average notifications – around 116/day

I’m pretty surprised at this week’s stats because I made an Instagram account for this blog/my book and tea stuff public and I could feel myself getting addicted to the app. I got the 10 min alarm for Instagram practically every day.

In the end, I found a compromise – I think up my captions in advance and type them on the Notes app and then copy and paste. As for browsing, I’ve found that the browser version works well for me because then I don’t get tempted into watching all the stories.

Am I offloading my Instagram use from my phone to my computer? Possibly, but it feels different. It’s a lot easier to close a tab on a computer than it is to close an app for me.

Week of October 27th

Average screen time – 1h 28 min; Average pickups – 69/day; Average notifications – around 121/day

Another normal week, although now I’m looking for a day where I can go without my phone. It’s getting a bit harder because now I try to take pictures for Instagram/the blog on the weekends so it feels like I can’t afford to turn my phone off.

I did learn a new tip: someone mentioned turning their phone to airplane mode to avoid distractions and I may try that for days where I need to be contacted during certain times but can probably ignore my phone for the rest of the day.

Week of November 3rd

Average screen time – 1h 25 min; Average pickups – 76/day; Average notifications – around 108/day

Pretty much the same as last week. My heaviest usage was on Saturday, no surprise there.

Week of November 10th

Week of November 3rd

Average screen time – 1h 26 min; Average pickups – 73/day; Average notifications – around 135/day

The average stats don’t differ from the previous two weeks, but there’s a huge change here: I was actually around or below the one hour mark for most days, but my average was skewed up by a lot due to the fact that I used my phone for over 3 hours on Sunday.

I’m pretty happy with how things went this week, one day that was out of the ordinary isn’t something that I worry about.

Week of November 10th

Average screen time – 58 min; Average pickups – 58/day; Average notifications – around 112/day

Huge, huge change this week because I managed to keep my phone away during the weekends. My highest usage day was actually on Saturday, where I used my phone for 1 hour and 19 minutes.

I am really loving the lessened use. It’s very relaxing not to worry about notifications. I do notice that I’m starting to care more about my Instagram stats, which isn’t good. I’m currently using Instagram mainly on desktop but if this keeps up, I’ll have to keep it to 10 minutes/day on my phone only.

Week of November 24th

Average screen time – 1h 17 min; Average pickups – 61/day; Average notifications – around 95/day

Do I know what happened to the previous week’s stats? No idea

Top usage: Saturday (unsurprisingly) with 1 hour and 49 minutes

Week of December 1st

Average screen time – 1h 13 min; Average pickups – 61/day; Average notifications – around 86/day

Had a mini break this weekend and managed to leave my phone in my room during the day! But, I used it quite a bit on the journey to and fro Genting so my average didn’t really change.

Week of December 8th

Average screen time – 58 min; Average pickups – 49/day; Average notifications – around 96/day

Average screen time is definitely related to average pickups, not notifications. If I don’t pick up my phone as much, there’s less temptation to play games and fritter my time away on the phone.

Week of December 15th

Average screen time – 1hr 20 min; Average pickups – 66/day; Average notifications – around 101/day

Pretty significant increase this week but that’s due to 3hr 4min of usage on Saturday (again). For most of the week, I’m actually under an hour, which is a good idea.

Week of December 22nd

Average screen time – 1hr 24 min, no other stats recorded

Week of December 29th

Average screen time – 1hr 20 min; Average pickups – 64/day; Average notifications – around 157/day

Christmas week so obviously phone use was a little higher because I had to send Christmas wishes. No regrets.

Week of January 5th

Average screen time – 1hr 40 min; Average pickups – 68/day; Average notifications – around 138/day

This was a tough week. My yeye died and I was up for three nights during the wake period so I used my phone A LOT. Mostly to play games and I don’t regret a single minute of it.

Week of January 12th

Average screen time – 1hr 26 min; Average pickups – 68/day; Average notifications – around 142/day

Things are getting back to normal here but what I’ve noticed is that if I start using my phone for long periods of time, it takes some time for me to bring my average down. I guess once you’re used to the phone, it takes time to re-break the habit.

Overall Thoughts and Next Steps

I mentioned previously that the one hour mark is a good gauge on whether I use my phone too much and I still agree with that. But now that the three four months are up, I don’t think I’ll continue tracking my phone usage. I may check my screen time now and then, but it’s not going to be a habit. Two major things that I learnt:

1. I can and do enjoy time away from the phone
2. Using the phone is not a bad thing – it’s how I use the phone that counts.

Because when it was a goal, I would very consciously not use my phone in order to keep the screen time down. Which is great if the phone time went elsewhere, but sometimes the phone time becomes computer time, which defeats the purpose. Plus, I’m doing a really great course now that uses instagram so I don’t want to stress myself out about keeping my average to about an hour a day while having to use my phone more.

What I plan to do is to occasionally check my screentime and not worry about it if it’s between 1hr and 1hr 30min. If it’s 3 hours or something excessive, I’ll have to rethink my phone usage plan but other than that, I’m not going to bother.

Also, when I can, I’m going to be taking phone breaks – not using my phone for an entire day. I did that a few times in the past three months and it was fantastic and extremely freeing. I didn’t miss my phone at all and was actually a bit reluctant to turn it on at the end.

What about you? Have you gone on phone fasts before? Did you enjoy it?

Featured Image: Photo from Canva