I always considered myself a focused person.
I read books. I have goals. I tell people I’m “too busy” to watch Netflix series or go out on weeknights. If you asked me last week how much time I spend on my phone, I would have guessed: “Maybe 90 minutes? Two hours max. Mostly for work and research.”
I believed that. I genuinely believed I was using technology as a tool.
Then, I decided to wake up to reality.
I opened the “Screen Time” settings on my Phone and looked at the average for the last 7 days.
5 hours and 42 minutes. Per day.
I stared at the number. I refreshed the page, hoping it was a glitch. It wasn’t.
The Breakdown of Shame
I wasn’t using that time to read philosophy or manage my stock portfolio. Here is the ugly reality of where that time went:
- Instagram: 2 hours 15 minutes (Reels are a black hole).
- Twitter/X: 1 hour 30 minutes (Doomscrolling news).
- YouTube: 1 hour (Shorts and random video essays).
- WhatsApp: 45 minutes.
I realized I wasn’t “busy.” I was distracted. I was treating my brain like a garbage disposal, feeding it endless, low-quality content every single waking hour.
The Math of Life (The Reality Check)
5 hours and 42 minutes doesn’t sound that bad, right? Everyone does it.
But let’s do the math. This is the part that actually scared me.
- 5.7 hours a day = 39.9 hours a week.
- That is basically a full-time job. I was working a 40-hour workweek for Mark Zuckerberg, for free.
Let’s zoom out to a lifetime. If I keep this pace up for the next 40 years:
5.7 hours x 365 days x 40 years = 83,220 hours.
That is 9.5 YEARS of my remaining life.
Imagine reaching the end of your life and realizing you spent an entire decade staring at a 6-inch piece of glass.
You could have learned three languages. You could have built a million-dollar business. You could have got into the best shape of your life. You could have played with your kids.
Instead, you watched strangers dance on the internet.
The Detox: 3 Steps I Took Immediately
I didn’t throw my phone in the ocean (I need it for work). But I realized I needed friction. The apps were too easy to open.
Here are the three changes I made immediately:
1. The Bedroom Ban This was the hardest one. I bought a cheap $15 analog alarm clock. My phone now charges in the kitchen overnight.
- The Result: No more scrolling for 45 minutes before sleep. No more checking emails the second I open my eyes.
2. Grayscale Mode I turned my screen black and white. (Settings > Accessibility > Display > Color Filters > Grayscale).
- The Result: Instagram looks terrible in black and white. The dopamine hit vanishes. My brain stopped craving the colorful icons.
3. The “One-Second” Pause I deleted the apps that were killing me (Twitter and Instagram) from my home screen. I didn’t delete the accounts, just the apps. If I want to check them, I have to log in via the phone web browser or laptop.
- The Result: That 10-second friction was enough to make me realize, “I don’t actually want to check this; I’m just bored.”
The Withdrawal
I’m not going to lie to you—the first 48 hours were miserable.
I felt “phantom vibrations” in my pocket. I would sit on the couch and instinctively reach for a phone that wasn’t there. I felt anxious, like I was missing out on something important.
But then, something strange happened on Day 3.
I got bored.
For the first time in years, I sat in a chair and just… thought. I looked out the window. And in that boredom, my brain started to wake up. I had an idea for a project. I remembered to call a friend.
I realized that boredom is not the enemy. Boredom is the soil where ideas grow. We have been killing our creativity by drowning it in content.
The Challenge
You think you aren’t addicted. You think you’re in control.
Prove it.
Check your screen time right now. Don’t guess. Look at the number.
If it’s higher than 3 hours, you are losing days of your life to a machine.
Leave a comment below with your daily average. Let’s shame ourselves into changing.
Note: My average is now down to 1 hour 45 minutes. I reclaimed 4 hours of my life every single day. That’s 28 hours a week. What could you do with an extra 28 hours?