11 easy ways to limit your screen time
My daily routine goes a little something like this: I start the day with a quick browse of BBC News' top stories and a scroll through Instagram. As I get ready, I intermittently pick the phone up again, checking the temperature outside and seeing whether my train's on time (chance would be a fine thing).
On the train on my way to work, I reply to whatever Whatsapp messages I've inevitably ignored and open Instagram up again to see what pressing photo uploads I've missed in the past hour. I get to work, and spend more or less eight hours staring directly at my laptop screen.
On the train home - you guessed it - I'm back on Instagram, mindlessly scrolling and watching the Stories of people I've probably never met in real life. I reach my flat, cook dinner and retreat to the sofa, where I'll spend the next few hours watching Netflix (my current favourite is Call The Midwife - it's doing a stellar job of soothing my January blues) while periodically checking Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, BBC News, and maybe even Facebook if my attention has really wavered. Then I go to bed.
It doesn't take an in-depth analysis to notice a recurring theme here: screens. Phone, laptop, iPad, TV. Any, every. Too many. So how can I - and everyone else whose daily routine looks anything like mine - cut down on the amount of screen time we're exposing ourselves to? Here are some helpful ideas...
Because there's, like, an actual world outside your smartphone.
