My Digital Minimalism Journey: Less Scrolling, More Living

2024 is supposed to be my year of self care. Last year, I didn’t really pay much attention to my health and that affected me so much. Even though I didn’t fall sick and had to get admitted, I still felt a slight decline in my health at some point especially when it came to my sight.

For someone with eye problems, I used to spend too much time on my phone. At times I would experience so much pain in my eyes which will lead to headaches. Also, tears would start to fall from my eyes randomly during the day and it would feel like pepper had been poured into my eyes. All these symptoms I was experiencing made me scared for a minute and I vowed to take better care of myself.

So far, I would say I have done so well when I came to my health this year. In one of my posts I spoke about how I make sure to drop my phone once it’s 9:00pm and @smariam asked what I do after. Well, I’m usually up from bed by 4 or 5pm on days I have to go to work. I spend sometime on my laptop preparing for class before I get ready for work.

During my free time at work, I check a few messages on my whatsapp then I move on to hive and discord to do my thing. On days I have more free time, I go hop on Twitter , instagram or TikTok to just see what’s going on. As for phone calls, I barely make them and when I do, they don’t even last for up to 10 minutes at times.

Funny thing is, you’d mostly see me on my phone and my pc when I’m at work. My colleagues at work would sometimes come and peek into my gadgets to see what I’m doing.😂 Then they’re like ah! You’d mostly find me reading on my phone or on hive. On my pc, I always have so many documents to work on so it’s never off. It’s literally on the whole day. Even when I’m at home and I’m too exhausted, I watch some movies to just relax.

When it comes to my screen time, I’d obviously have a lot of screen time due to the amount of reading I do these days. But I don’t really use my phone at night because I’m protecting my eyes. Sometimes, I put my phone away even before 9:00pm which is supposed to be the normal time to drop my phone. It’s very difficult to reach me at night because I’m not with my phone . The only way to reach me is through phone calls which I might not even see.😅

We don’t fully know the importance of our eyes until we start to have problems with them. People can literally be on their phones from morning till dusk which is very unhealthy for them. Even though I use my phone during the day, I always make sure to protect my eyes. Even when I’m out in the sun walking, I make sure to wear my glasses and same applies to when I’m on my phone.

Sometimes I have to go back home to pick my glasses when I forget them on my way to work because a day without my glasses means a day of doom.😂

On my busy days, my screen time is mostly between 5-6 hours and this is mostly on weekdays. On weekends my screen time is mostly less than 3 hours because I’m resting.😅

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Here are few tips to reduce your screen time as a phone addict :

Take breaks from your phone during the day.

Have a number of hours you use your phone during the day.

Set a time to do away with your phone each day.

Protect your eyes by wearing glasses, even if you have eye problems or not.

Leave the phone and sleep.

I hope these few tips would help someone out there.
Protect your eyes by reducing your screen time. Nothing is too difficult, you just need to start.

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all images belong to me

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