People who follow this blog knows that I would like to reduce my screen time and spend time on other things. You can read about this in my post: How I am using less time on my Phone.

Now, whilst what I describe in the blog post just mention, does keep my screen time below 2 hours and often below 1.5 hours it is (to me) still a lot. I would like to average between 45 minutes and 1.5 hours max. The reason for this is, that I find my focus going up the less I use my phone with active screen time. Gaining focus is a goal for me. In particular in terms of being present when I am with other people and when I am doing a task. Be it at work or at home.

But, wait. What do I mean with active screen time. With active screen time I mean actually swiping around my phone and actively engaging with applications.

So how did I reach my new goal? Well, if you do not know iOS has a Focus Modes, some times only called focus. A focus mode allows you to set up what notifications you let through, what apps are available and more. For a long time, since the feature became a thing I have used a modified version of the sleep mode. It silence all notifications, except from my wife and my immediate family, I can only see the phone, messages, clock, health, and a few other apps. Just counted, it is apps in total. My phone goes into this mode about 30 minutes before my planned sleep time, so I do not get tempted to use some of my more time consuming applications.

I have also been a heavy user of the Do Not Disturb, in particular back when I was still in academia. Honestly, I think most students should have their phone in this during mode during the day and during evening study sessions.

However, do to the need for me being a little contactable during the work day, I had a struggle getting a mode that fully worked. So, now I have set up a custom mode (still called work) that I use daily, It is active whilst I am at my work location. I have the same notifications rules as in sleep, only my wife and immediate family. The mode allows me access to the following type of applications:

Select Communication
All music and audio book related
Health releated
Todos
Security and Identification

While I would actually prefer to not have to use my phone for communication at work, I do need access to a few communication applications. Element for matrix communication, as I have some issues with the desktop application that is available on Ubuntu. I mainly use this application to stay in contact with the FOSS community when needed. Then there is signal, where I know if I get a message during the work day there is a pretty good reason for it. Finally Phone and Messages, as this is how I mainly communicate with my family. Also emails are allowed, though I mainly check them from my laptop.

For music apps I allow all. I am pretty heavy user of Apple Music Classical, Apple Music, Apple Books, and Bandcamp. With the three first being my main source of music and audio books. Bandcamp I will explain in another blog post. But I love having access to music whilst I work, as it help me focus. And YouTube just does not cut it during work ours as I fairly quickly get sucked into looking more interesting YouTube videos. Also YouTube has frustrating ads. But wait, why use a phone at all why not just use (for instance) Spotify? Well honestly… I have had such bad experience with Spotify that I do not see myself use it, again, ever. And I actually do not always use my phone because both Apple Music Classical and Apple Music has Web Players now :D

Health Apps! For reasons, I keep a tight look on my rough step count, pulse, and more. All of this I have consolidate into health where I can. And where I cannot I have allowed myself to use these apps.

Things and Apple Reminders are my jam. I use them for different types of todos and they honestly help me stay sane throughout the day. BY THE WAY Cultred Code where is my GTK based Things app for Linux???? I desperately need access to these to ensure I do not forgot stuff throughout the day.

Then there is Security and Identification apps. I have many, to many, two-factor authentication apps and a few password managers, which I do need access to through the day. Also in Denmark we insist on using MitID for accessing banks, governement sites, and more. Therefore, I need access to these from time to time during my work day.

Finally, I still sometimes need to be able to access the internet during meetings where I did not bring a laptop. To access different standard documents and more. Therefore, I have allowed Safari. This, however, annoys me as I sometimes have a hard time not using the app for less relevant things.

Setting up this Focus Mode has let me reduce my screen time even further! I actually cut my screen time by 30 minutes on average. Mainly, because I do not use my phone during micro breaks.

Now, I have now expanded my use of these modes to include one 1 hour before bed. I have almost the same restrictions as my work mode. But, I add a few Apps that I can use like Duolingo, Mendely, and Photos. This has actually added an additional 15-30 minutes reduction in screen. Bringing me solidly within the 45 minutes to 1.5 hours average I was aiming for. I even have a few days of 30 minutes screen time. Mainly taken up by Duolingo, and email and internet browsing where for the later I mainly go to Mastodon.

Findings

I have run with the above setup since January and I have some findings which I would like to present. These I have divide into a few sub categories.

For tasks

This section is not just in regards to work, but also tasks in my leisure time. I find that I do not have the same issues focusing deeply on a task that I have had in the past. It is also easier for me to juggle multiple tasks at the same time. Both are a huge benefit that overall have greatly increased my performance and I, honestly, make less mistakes.

Sleep

Whilst I have never had a problem falling asleep, staying asleep has been a problem. After, the introduction of my evening focus mode, I have found that my sleeping has gotten much less interrupted. And while I do not trust my smart watches sensors that much, it does appear to agree. I feel more rested and have started waking half an hour earlier than my alarm goes off. Though, I already was an early bird, it is nice to see I could get some gains there also.

Over all focus

Over all focus here, expands on the task section above to include things like, writing for this blog, personal coding projects, reading, cooking, and the list goes on. My focus has greatly expanded, during writing, reading, and coding sessions I no longer reach for my phone. I know how 45 minute reading sessions where I do not think about my phone. This has been amazing and I truly feel like I have won back my reading habits! In general, I simply do not grab for my phone so often anymore. Note: I have had a side question with listing to full music albums or self curated playlists which I will also have a blog post about later.

Where the heck is my phone

A thing I found surprising is that I forget my phone. Without wanting to, I go the bathroom with a phone, I go to meetings without my phone, I go out in the garden without my phone. It is quite weird, as this is not a habit I have had before. Whilst, I am writing this, I literally looked at my desk to verify that it was there. Sometimes, I notice that it is far away because my head phones cut out. It is quite annoying sometimes, when the phone is somewhere else and I need it. But hey, then I get some extra steps in.

Why the heck am I just watching YouTube

A thing I find weird, is that I do not enjoy watching YouTube as much as I use to. Some evenings I literally just feel like “Nah I do not want to watch”. Then I go pick up a book, clean, or something else. My wife has actually commented on this.

I will add here that I do often listen to audio books whilst doing stuff. But that is more just to enjoy the time more. Yet, I do want to cut that out too over time. Not saying here that there is anything wrong with audio books.

An extension is also, gaming has sort of lost its appeal. I have to be in a very specific mood to game.

Conclusion

Focus mode helped me a lot. I have shaved between 30 minutes to an hour of my active screen time. My focus has indeed improved and I do not feel like I constantly need to consume content anymore. Furthermore, I do not get gratification from doom scrolling YouTube and Social Networks. My Reddit abuse have been greatly reduced too. I do not even have the app on my phone anymore, only on my tablet.

I highly recommend configuring Focus Modes on your phone. They do exists on Android as well, I just believe they have a different name.