Reducing Phone Addiction

I regularly crave to get entirely rid of my iPhone and move to one of those e-paper devices / minimalist phones. Why? Lately, I’ve found myself once again facing the unpleasant realization that I'm wasting time that could be spent in a better way.

I already had implemented some steps previously (minimalist theme, monochrome filter), as well as the excellent One Sec app, which delays the opening of any apps you deem to be time wasters. However, I found that I needed to go the extra mile.

These were my areas of focus:

• Break down apps by usage and criticality
• App Assessment and Clean-up
• Review of Time Restrictions & One Sec Setup
• Fine-tuning notifications
• Focus Modes & Screen Time
• Screen Filter
• Screen Setup

Note: this article will not deep-dive into where exactly you need to configure specific options, but instead focuses on the thought process, actions, and outcomes.

Interestingly, the topic was triggered in a few converging ways:

• First, realizing I had spent an entire evening aimlessly looking at my phone—something I hadn’t done in a long time
• Second, my more or less failed experiences with properly setting boundaries with our kids, time limits, etc.
• Third, this thread on BlueSky
• Fourth, The Ugly Cost of Smartphones, a video from The Market Exit which I had flagged for later viewing (I finally watched it today). While it didn’t trigger this effort, it reinforced my idea of writing about my experience, like I've done in the past for other topics such as de-cluttering LinkedIn, getting rid of god-ugly Duolingo, and so on.

Breaking Down Usage, Apps, and Criticality

My intent for using a smartphone is to be able to communicate (messaging, calls), take photos, check the weather, do online banking, and handle work communication (primarily emails), while also being able to listen to music. At the same time, I also wanted to keep my health tracking apps since these contribute to a healthier lifestyle.

I went on to break down my apps / use cases into three categories:

• Critical: Essential for daily use
• Secondary: Needed occasionally, not essential. For example various travel apps, shopping apps, Synology-related apps, chat apps, utilities, etc.
• Distractions: Not needed and time wasters, to be deleted

It is important to highlight that this exercise is aligned with my personal goals for 2025 and beyond, and not just something done in isolation.

App Assessment & Clean-Up

To perform this exercise, I did a review of the key apps I regularly use on my phone, then analyzed section by section (I group my apps in folders). I used ChatGPT to help me with the analysis - although I had most of it already sorted out - and to assist me in ensuring the review and post remediations are as thorough as possible.

It would be tedious to go through the entire list of apps, but I ended up removing most social media apps including chat platforms. Major apps that were removed include BlueSky, Mastodon, Reddit, Slack, Discord, Instagram, and so on.

I also decided to remove anything that is not used regularly, and also to restrict media streaming apps to the bare minimum (primarily Spotify, plus YouTube with time restrictions).

I also had a bunch of iOS versions of various management apps (Wix, Stripe, Figma, etc.) that were almost never used so these also didn't survive the purge.

Time Restrictions & One Sec Setup

I had already set up time restrictions (25 minutes per day) for LinkedIn and YouTube, and kept them as-is in this review.

I also reviewed my One Sec settings to ensure they are still meeting my goals, specifically:

• Offering better "healthy" alternatives when opening a "shielded app", for example doing a physical activity, contacting someone close, reading a book, logging a journal entry, etc.
• Adding manual intention logging before being allowed to open an app (I was previously defaulting to the first choice among multiple pre-defined intention choices)
• Added emotion tracking to log how I feel after using a shielded app for some time
• Social media apps are also blocked for a duration of one hour after waking up

Fine-Tuning notifications

Notifications have been a major annoyance on the iPhone, and one area I overlooked for ages because it's such a thorn on the side to set up, especially when you have many applications.

My approach was to deactivate all notifications except for communication and banking apps, a few critical services, and a couple of IoT apps—primarily the cat feeder and a camera I use to monitor the cats when we're out of town

I acknowledge that it is very hard (at least for me) to make the right choice around the three types of notifications available; another thing that I turned off for most apps were the sounds and badges: good riddance with the annoyances!

Focus Modes & Screen Time

This is probably the part where I spent the most time, because I had this broadly overlooked, was enabling the modes manually, and didn't get much value out of them. I started with screen time to implement some basic hygiene measures, then moved on to focus modes for fine-grained controls and automation.

Screen Time

First I configured Allowed Apps / Always Enabled (Phone, Messages, FaceTime, Maps) to ensure I am reachable / can navigate fast in case of emergency.

Then, I enabled programmed Downtime - every day from 9:30pm to 7:00am. This will grey out most of the applications - except those configured as "Always Enabled".

Focus Modes

Next come focus modes, where I immediately enabled "Share Settings Across Devices" and Focus Mode Sharing with Apps / Contacts.

Fine-tuning Focus modes is really important, because it will help you get less distracted, and achieve more. Here's how I've set up the various modes:

Work Mode

• People: only notifications from my inner family circle
• Notifications: only from core communication apps, banking, and emails / MS Teams, as well as urgent notifications
• Enabled Intelligent Activation + Scheduling (Weekdays, 9am - 5pm)

Do Not Disturb Mode

• No notifications at all but allow repeated calls (in case my wife needs something urgent, for example)

Time for Self

• People: only notifications from my wife (happy wife, happy life)
• Notifications: no apps, except urgent notifications
• Programmed activation: when Apple Books or Kindle apps are active

Resting Time

• People: only notifications from my inner family circle
• Notifications: no apps, no urgent notifications
• Programmed activation: according to Sleep Time in Apple Health, with 45 minutes for cool down mode (from 8:45pm to 6:30am), with a 9 hour goal for sleep time (a big stretch goal at the moment!)

Screen Filter

I've been a huge user of the screen filter accessibility feature. Although I'm a big fan of the red filter (Color Nuance, set to Red) which is helpful for night use (especially night reading without impacting circadian rhythms), I decided some time ago to fall back to the Monochrome / Greyscale filter. I toggle this filter easily by pressing the power button three times.

Outcome: the device display goes grayscale, and is thus not triggering me from opening an app or reacting to something in particular. At the same time, it is just a filter so you can take photos and they will be captured in colors, obviously.

Screen Setup

In light with what James Clear says about cues and triggers, I did some de-cluttering on my lock screen & home screen, with the intent to only show useful / essential apps on the main screen. I naively think that not seeing "harmful" apps will change my behavior, and will prevent me from opening stuff out of bad habits.

Lock Screen

• black background, only shows weather, battery charge, and Spotify icons

Home Screen

• Basic Apple apps
  • 1st row: Messages, Photos, Weather, Clock
  • 2nd row: Wallet, Calendar, Calc, App Store
  • 3rd row: Maps, FaceTime, Settings, Books
• 4th row: Spotify, main banking app, Public transport app, Parking app
• Shortcuts (widget) to my inner family contact cards
• Launcher: Phone, How We Feel, ChatGPT, Camera

Your mileage may also vary on this, but I use only icons without the app name, as a part of getting a sleek and minimalist interface.

Everything else is tossed in groups on a secondary page, also randomized positioning so it will be cumbersome and annoying for me to waste time trying to reach for apps I didn't really needed.

Closing Thoughts

Retrospectively, it was interesting to first perform this exercise, then watch the video from The Market Exit. The approach I follow is one of self-awareness and self-responsibility, i.e. I need to first be even aware that I have a problem, realize that I eventually want to resolve the problem, then I need to put in the time and effort to address it.

For me, the key point of the video is that perhaps we need to have societal norms about what is acceptable use of a smartphone, whether it is acceptable or frowned upon. I am usually very upset when my kids pull their phones during dinner, or when they are along with friends / cousins and everybody watches their phone. This is thankfully changing, but we adults need to show the example, and there's quite some work to do.

At the same time, my wife is a strong proponent of not using smartphones when we are around with people, as a mark of attention and respect (and I totally concur with her). Forcing oneself to respect those rules is not easy, but perhaps we can make it, even in a sad world where people use the loudspeaker to communicate and consume content in public.

I hope that this setup will not only help me, but that it may also be useful to you!

Follow-Up

I'm adding a link to the video here. It's good content, and this channel has a bunch of goodness.