Looking to Limit Your Tech Usage? Try These 5 Strategies

Curbing tech use makes room for what matters. Ulza/Shutterstock

The powerful technological tools we enjoy in modern life sometimes threaten to become our masters. Even with the best intentions, it’s easy to become chained by mindlessly scrolling social media, watching videos, and browsing headlines. Often, our conversations and interactions with others are hampered by the phones in our palms or pockets that constantly tug at our attention, the screen’s blue glow as alluring as a drug.We neglect the person in the room in favor of the ephemeral shadows on the device.

I’ve written before about these reasons to regain mastery over our devices and the growing number of people engaging in “tech resistance.” We desire to join them. We sense that our own tech habits aren’t as healthy as they could be, but we struggle to know where to begin.

Here are a few ideas for simple ways to regain control of your tech, curb bad habits, and live a fuller life.

By setting time limits, we can make time for more fulfilling activities. Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock

1. Set Time Limits

It’s true that we need technology to function in the modern world. But problems arise when we rely too much on it, when it becomes a constant crutch that we turn to for everything. It’s easy for our devices to eat up more time than they should, subtracting from healthier, more fulfilling activities. One approach to the problem is to set time limits for yourself on technology usage. You might inform yourself that you can only use the internet or play games for a set amount of time each day. Use something like Online Stopwatch to track your time. When the alarm goes off, you get off.

But for some of us, that might not be enough. If you question whether you’ll have the willpower to pull the plug when the time’s up, you can use tools that pull the plug for you. There’s a wide array of apps and browser extensions that track, time, and block websites or apps of your choosing, such as StayFocusd or Freedom. Tools like these allow you to block out websites or other digital content during certain timeframes or when a time limit is up.

A writing-themed website and app blocker is Cold Turkey. It offers a free writing program that essentially turns your computer into a typewriter by blocking all applications except a simple word processor. You won’t regain access until you type a certain number of words. I use it to help me stay productive with my daily writing tasks.

2. Establish Off-Limits Rooms

In our household, my wife and I have established certain “non-tech” zones. These are rooms where laptops and phones are forbidden. We chose to make our most comfortable, most used rooms into non-tech zones. There are two reasons for this. First, if our devices are relegated to more uncomfortable locales, we’re less likely to camp out on them. Second, we want to preserve the heart of our home—the living room—for family time, conversation, and reading. We don’t want technology at the center of our lives, literally or figuratively.

3. Get a Minimalist Phone

Technology dominates our lives because it keeps getting more efficient and convenient. Most people today carry the internet in their pocket, an idea unthinkable a generation ago. Computers (and internet access) were once limited to large, clunky desktops. Now, the web has attached itself to sleek, handheld devices that tag along everywhere. Smartphones’ convenience makes them more addictive than any other device. The world—with its perils as well as its opportunities—is literally at our fingertips.

What my wife and I discovered was that because the phone is so portable and accessible, we spent more time using it than was really necessary. Have a question? Pull out the phone. Want to listen to a song? Pull out the phone. Want to browse headlines? Pull out the phone. We did this hundreds of times a day—a bad habit much harder to develop when the only way to use the internet was to sit down at a desktop computer. The more frictionless a process becomes, the more we’ll use it without thinking.

My wife and I choose to share a cell phone, partly to reduce our technology usage.  But even though it’s split between us, we occasionally overuse it. To combat that, we installed an app on our phone called Minimalist Phone. So far the app has delivered on its promises. The app simplifies a smartphone’s home screen so that the icons are less eye-catching and attractive. It also allows users to hide or completely block the apps they don’t want to waste time on, while preserving the ones they need. On our phone, we’ve blocked the web browser and a handful of others but kept the stuff that keeps our logistical apparatus well-oiled, like messages, weather, maps, and camera. I estimate that installing the app has reduced our phone usage by 70 to 80 percent. While the app is free, the reasonable subscription fees have been worth it so far.

Minimalist Phone is an attractive alternative to trading out your smartphone for a “dumb” phone because you can continue to capitalize on apps like maps, messages, or podcasts without the black hole of an internet browser tempting you.

4. Use a Wi-Fi Timer

Rather than limiting specific websites or individual devices, you can limit internet access within your home for all devices. A simple way to do this is to buy an electrical outlet timer for about $10 and plug your Wi-Fi router into it. You can set the timer to shut the outlet off at a given time (9:00 p.m.) and turn it on again at a given time (7:00 a.m.). This will turn off the internet for that window of time. No more late nights with bloodshot eyes fastened on the flickering screen! The friction required to get up, remove the timer, and restart the Wi-Fi is often enough to break the trance and discourage you from spending more time on the internet at night.

5. Discard Devices

If all else fails, consider getting rid of some devices. Most of us don’t strictly need all of our  devices—desktop, laptop, smartphone, and tablet. We could probably get by with just one of these, or maybe none. Depending on your lifestyle and profession, you might be able to fulfill your internet needs with an hour or two at the library each day. That’s not possible for everyone, of course, but even something as simple as trading out your tablet and laptop for a desktop will curtail your device usage for one reason: friction.

A desktop computer is less tempting than the portable tablet on your coffee table, or, worse, a collection of devices scattered throughout the house so that something is always within reach. Similarly, a smartphone can be traded out for a “dumb” phone if you only need to call and text. Making device usage impossible or less convenient may help reestablish healthy tech habits.

These suggestions won’t work for everyone. Each person’s circumstances are different. But I hope that something here will help, allowing you to re-center your life and recover your humanity from the tyranny of the machines. When technology remains a useful tool instead of a distraction, life opens up and becomes much fuller and richer.