Screen Saver

Welcome back to shakeoffstress!! Following our March blog post about how screen time can be contributing to your stress, we decided to give you some tips and tricks to cut down on said screen time. In this post, we'll explore some of the technology that's already built into your phone that has specifically been created for this purpose. Let's get to it!

If you have an Apple device, there are ton of features you can access in your settings concerning screen time. The first one you can find by simply typing "screen time" into the search bar of your settings app. The icon for this feature is a purple square with a white hourglass in the middle. After clicking on this icon, you'll find a report of your daily screen time with additional features listed below.

Checking your screen time regularly can be helpful in reminding you of how much time you've actually spent on your phone. Apple also informs you of what apps you spend most of your time on in this same section of your settings app. If this breakdown isn't immediately visible, you may be able to find it by clicking "See All Activity" underneath your screen time bar graph.

If you want to make this feature easier to access, you can add it to your home screen in widget form. Press and hold your home screen after ensuring that you have the iOS 14 software update downloaded. Hit the plus icon in the top left corner of the screen and search screen time in the search bar. After clicking on the purple icon with the white hourglass, you will have three widget options with increasing amounts of detail. Add your desired widget to your home screen by clicking the blue button that says "Add Widget" at the bottom of the screen.

Apple has a couple additional features that we'd like to highlight before moving on to other devices. In the screen time section of your settings, there are buttons underneath the bar chart for your daily average screen time labeled Downtime, App Limits, Communication Limits, Always Allowed, and Content & Privacy Restrictions. All of these features are completely customizable, and you can always edit your preferences or turn them off if you find they don't work for you. The two features I find most helpful, Downtime and App Limits, are highlighted below.

Enabling Downtime is similar to a complete shutdown of your phone, as you will only be allowed to access apps on your phone that you preselect. You can create a schedule for Downtime, so if you want to try to turn off your phone an hour before bed, it could be scheduled from 10-6.

App Limits is a simplified version of Downtime, where you can choose what apps you

want to set a limit on. For example, I could choose to set an hour limit on Instagram. Once I exceed that limit, the app will say that I have "reached my limit on Instagram," and I can choose to exit the app or ignore the limit. The time limits reset at midnight, so Instagram will appear as normal the next day.

I like this feature because it reminds you that you've been frequently opening a certain app, but it's also easy to override.

The final Apple features that can be helpful for reducing screen time are "Do Not Disturb" and "Bedtime." Do Not Disturb can be easily accessed by searching it in the settings app or selecting the moon icon in the menu that appears when you swipe down on the top right-hand corner of your screen. This feature silences notifications, and is especially helpful when you are trying to focus on an offscreen task.

Bedtime is similar to Do Not Disturb, and can be set up in the Clock app of your phone. If you set up a schedule, you will get a notification an hour before your set bedtime that your phone will be in bedtime mode. All of your notifications will then be silenced until your set wakeup time. This feature is great if you find yourself frequently woken up by buzzing notifications.

Now that we've gone through some of Apple's screen-time features, let's look at other devices. Android has very similar screen-time features to Apple devices, so if you have an Android and think some of these features sound appealing, keep reading to find out how to use them on your device.

First, if you want to check your screen time on an Android device, you have to enable your device to track this statistic in your settings app. Type "Digital wellbeing & parental controls" in the search bar or scroll down until you find this section. On the top right-hand corner, click the three dots and then "Manage your data." Finally, turn on the slider for Daily Device usage.

Android devices also have App Limits, which can be accessed in the same section of the settings app mentioned above. Scroll through the apps listed and click the hourglass symbol on the right for the apps that you wish to set a limit on. You can then choose the time limit on the app. Similar to on Apple devices, the app limits reset at midnight and can be overridden if you choose.

Another familiar feature: Bedtime. You can set up this feature in the "Clock" app according to your sleep schedule. The phone will then be silenced and the screen will be darkened during this scheduled time.

Finally, one cool feature that is exclusive to Android is Focus Time. You can find this in the "Digital wellbeing & parental controls" section of the settings app under "Ways to Disconnect." The apps you have preselected as distracting will be locked until you turn off focus mode or click take a break. During these 30 minute breaks, the apps will be unlocked. They will lock again after the break is over. This feature is very similar to the Pomodoro method of studying.

Here are some links to instructions for accessing screen-time features on additional devices.

Samsung: Instructions Here! Motorola: Instructions Here!

Screen time can be difficult to manage, so we hope these instructions help you to use the features built into your phone to your advantage. We hope this article was informative and gave you some information about how you can use your phone to shake off stress. Thanks for reading :-)

If you have a device that has not been mentioned above and are trying to figure out if you have similar screen time features, leave a comment down below and we'll try to get back to you as soon as possible!

Comments? Questions? Leave them down below!!!