This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Toronto MU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

There’s a very specific pang that pierces your gut when you check the time and realize that you’ve been scrolling for way longer than you had anticipated.

It’s similar to the immense guilt that washes over you as you finally check your screen time and acknowledge the sheer amount of hours that you’ve lost to your social media feed. Personally, that feeling encapsulates my 2025 in a nutshell!

For a lot of us, being on our phones isn’t even always something we consciously decide on anymore. It’s simply what we do when we’re bored, stressed, tired, procrastinating, or trying to fill the quiet in our day-to-day lives.

Not to mention, having grown up with technology always present, it can feel totally normal to be online constantly and justify it—even when it’s impacting our focus, sleep, productivity, and mood.

On the other hand, going cold turkey from screens never seems to fully work.

You need to either log back online to message your project group for school or create a new graphic for work, and, without noticing, you fall back into your regularly scheduled doomscrolling.

Needless to say, if your screen time has been feeling a little too absurd lately, you’re not alone.

It also doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go entirely off the grid and delete every app on your home screen just to redownload them a week later. Sometimes, it’s the smaller, beginner habits that ultimately make the biggest difference.

Here are a few simple ways that I’m planning to use my phone less this year, without making it feel unrealistic:

Screens Away at Night

Late-night and morning scrolling is one of those habits that seems harmless in the moment, until you realize that it’s messing with your sleep and drastically eating into your morning.

One of the easiest fixes is also the simplest: physically placing your phone out of arm’s reach at night.

Charging your phone across the room, whether it’s setting it on your dresser or leaving it at your desk, forces you to make the conscious decision of grabbing it. When you give yourself an extra step to getting your phone, you’re way less likely to reach for it out of habit, especially in your half-awake state, where scrolling feels like the easiest thing to do.

And if you’re like me and set your morning alarm on your phone, it (unfortunately) forces you to get up for your 8 a.m. lecture without hitting snooze 20 times.

Turning Off (Most) Notifications

Notifications can act as tiny traps. They interrupt you and pull you back into apps, demanding your undivided attention.

Turning off notifications altogether can feel unrealistic, but even just turning off a few through the Do Not Disturb function, while allowing specific notifications from your close friends (or your mom) to go through, can make your phone feel way less demanding.

It’s a small change that may even feel unnoticeable, but it stops your phone from buzzing every few minutes and limits the urge to constantly check your device.

Picking up a New Hobby

One of the biggest allurements of your phone is that it fills time instantly. It takes zero effort, it’s always available, and it offers your brain stimulation.

I’ve found that a great way to minimize phone-use isn’t just to “use your phone less”, but to find something else to reach for instead.

Picking up a new hobby doesn’t have to mean becoming a master knitter or reading five books a week. The key is choosing something that feels realistic to your life.

It could be going on short walks, doing a puzzle, trying a craft, or just scribbling in a notebook. Personally, I’ve been into audiobooks lately, and they’ve oddly made me more productive, because I’m constantly trying to find little tasks to do while I listen. All you need is one low-pressure activity that can pull you out of that autopilot scroll.

Then, when you start associating free time with something other than social media, reducing screen time stops feeling like a detox and more like a slight shift to your lifestyle.

Setting a Timer to Do Something Else First

While we may want to do something other than look at a phone, the act of actually starting can be the most daunting. Sometimes, the feeling can be similar to procrastinating an assignment or a simple task, like making your bed, that feels bigger than it actually is.

One easy trick is to set a timer for 10-20 minutes and do literally anything else first. This can be as simple as taking up a new hobby or as little as tidying your room.

Most of the time, once you start that other thing, you can get into a flow, and the urge to check your phone rolls off your back.

“Why am I Scrolling?”

Something that’s surprisingly effective is simply pausing and asking yourself what you’re trying to get out of scrolling in that moment.

Because going on your phone isn’t always about being particularly interested in what you’re consuming, it can sometimes be about chasing a feeling, or you’re bored and want a distraction.

Other times, you’re anxious, or you’re tired and want to shut your brain off. But the more you notice the pattern, the easier it becomes to swap your screen time for something that fills that same need.

At the end of the day, quitting doomscrolling isn’t necessarily about deleting everything off your phone, going offline, and never touching your phone again. It is more about noticing when social media stops being fun, and slowly taking back your attention.

The goal isn’t always perfection, but it’s to have more intention.

The Doomscroll Detox: Realistic Ways to Limit Screen Time

We wanna slide into your DMs