
Ask HN: How do you manage screen time? - bot1
I wonder how you are handling your screen time. If I&#x27;m beeing productive besides work, everything usually revolves about beeing in front of a screen (coding side projects, learning or research about a specific topic online etc.)
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acrooks
Lately, not at all. My iPhone screen time has reached absurd heights.

Prior to social distancing - if your hobbies generally involve computers then
of course this will be difficult, but some strategies of mine...

At work:

\- Instead of taking calls in front of the computer, put on headphones and
"walk and talk" \- for me, a number of my calls are taken while pacing around
a meeting room or my living room these days. Video calls I try to do standing
up and at a distance from the screen; it doesn't feel like "screen time" in
the same way.

\- In a meeting, laptops closed and take notes on a notepad, write on a
whiteboard, etc.

Coding side projects:

\- Not much you can do here, but you can do a lot of the planning and
architecture work on paper or a whiteboard

Learning/research:

\- The environmentally unfriendly method here would be to print
articles/topics and read about these topics on a physical piece of paper

\- Something like a Kindle would be a much better solution to the above - it
tries to mimick the experience of a book and feels less like a screen

\- Or try to find books that discuss these topics. On Amazon or from a friend
or from a library

In general:

\- Most of my hobbies for the longest time were computer-based which led to
long hours behind a computer screen, but I've started to shift my focus to
non-digital hobbies, trying to minimise screen time as much as possible. My
ultimate goal (when this is technically feasible) is to have only an Apple
Watch (with AirPods) that I use day-to-day and a MacBook that I use for work
as little as possible (an iPad would be nice but the outlook to support
software development doesn't look short-term), and hopefully no phone (the
Watch roadmap is slowly inching towards being self-sufficient for calls,
music, notifications, etc.)

\- Woodworking: instead of buying furniture I build it

\- Fitness: great for both your physical and mental health

\- Reading: non-fiction for learning (as discussed above, somewhat replaces
online reading), fiction for entertainment (helps replace watching TV)

I could list a number of other non-screen hobbies but really just find what
works for you. It's likely there's a way you can make that work without a
screen.

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mavsman
Exercise outside, walk the dog, learn the piano, prepare meals. Most of the
day is spent on front of the screen though, even learning the piano from
YouTube so I don't have great answers for you. I don't really enjoy video
calls with friends or family because it just means more screen time.

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Dicey84
There are a few good options for androids.

Outside of all the normal methods, I've found a couple of the live wall papers
via google to be a good in-your-face reminder to put the phone down
(Ironically as I type this on my phone)..

I did have the 'number of unlocks' wallpaper, up until earlier this week where
I changed it to the 'screen stopwatch'

[https://experiments.withgoogle.com/collection/digitalwellbei...](https://experiments.withgoogle.com/collection/digitalwellbeing)

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lugermorph
I use a bunch of Chrome extensions to block out tantalizing content.

I use StyleBot to remove all YouTube recommendations and home page videos. I
use Web Time Tracker to see how much time I spend on each website. I use
BlockSite to block out YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, IG, etc -- I still go to
the websites in Incognito but I am forced to log in every time I want to look
at content.

I also have insanely long passwords which makes it even more of a pain in the
ass to get to the content.

~~~
bot1
I'm using Motion for Google Chrome, you could try that out as well. In my
opinion it's more thought through than blocksite.

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smarri
Removed all non essential apps from my phone helped. Non essential is
subjective of course, but for me meant social media (I now only use 1 platform
but on my laptop), YouTube was a massive time waster for me, Reddit. Another
comment said take calls away from a screen by walking around and using a
headset, that's a good one too.

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core-questions
Wake up, plunk kid in front of screen, plunk self in front of screen, shelter
in place, rinse repeat

~~~
a-saleh
Description of reality :D

I am trying to have a bigger lunch-break for both me and my kid. I.e. "No
screens for at least next hour" and usually she finds something to play with
that is not a screen.

And I bought a Nintendo Labo, so there is a screen-adjacent activity at least
my kid really likes.

"Dad can I play the Goose Game?" ... No, but we build the cardboard house for
the fluffy creature, you could color it in maybe? ... "Ok, give me all of the
stickers, I will make it the best house ever!"

As for myself, I struggle to find stuffwithout screens at home, but
fortunately, we don't have a strict shelter-in-place, and while wearing masks,
you can go to parks and forests, so my bike keeps me company :)

