Ask HN: How do you manage screen time? I wonder how you are handling your screen time. If I'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.) |
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.
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...
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.
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 :)