• 16 Dec, 2025 *

So, you’ve finally hit that wall: that feeling of complete burnout, dissatisfaction, or even disgust at the very concept of your phone. Perhaps you’ve spent another two hours scrolling mindlessly without realizing it, or your screen time gave you a sucker punch of reality.

Whatever your realization moment may be, that specific scenario is a bigger turning point than most people realize. Often, we become so accustomed to using our phones whenever we want, especially if you’re a content creator on typical social media platforms.

The thought of leaving social media might even excite you. You can say goodbye to the painful pangs of FOMO, the random AI slop invading your feed, or the posts about the seemingly perfect and rich lives of influencers who don’t know you exist. You might even want to stop using your phone completely.

However, we have to face the facts: unless you can actually afford or have the opportunity to live off the grid and still have a social life or income, completely living life without any type of phone is near impossible. While dumbphones are on the rise and many are worth a try, you may not be able to afford getting a separate dumbphone.

After all, it’s not the type of phone that dictates the level of the addiction, but the person itself.

So, you can’t ditch your phone for practical reasons, whether it’s for sticking with banking apps, needing important communication apps like WhatsApp, or just needing GPS to get around.

Is it possible, then, to slowly get rid of a social media or phone addiction when you can’t ditch your phone?

The interesting thing about digital minimalism is that it does not immediately equate to completely disregarding smartphones and either switching to a full dumbphone or ditching all phones entirely. As the "minimalism" part indicates, "less is more."

Essentially, you can practice digital minimalism by using your phone less, not by never using your phone at all. But how can it work?

I’ve experimented with these methods for several months now, and based on experience, here are five ways you can regain your time, brain energy, and sanity without completely leaving your phone:

Sometimes, the most obvious answer is just the one that works.

From experience, and based on the many stories I’ve heard and watched, the fact that we know the apps are there is more than enough to make us randomly open them whenever we’re bored. Eventually, this opening-and-closing sequence becomes a habit, something your hand automatically does without you realizing it.

You might have tried or thought of hiding the apps instead—out of sight, out of mind, right? The thing is, we tend to still make workarounds and excuses when we know the apps are there anyway.

Of course, removing the apps themselves is just one part of it. Removing your accounts entirely is a more direct way of detaching yourself from the magnetic pull of these social media apps.

You may feel hesitant, especially if you’ve spent years on any of these platforms. But here’s the thing you need to know: if it is for your own sanity, mental health, and to regain your time, a social media account is just that—an account for you to "exist" in a fake world that is becoming more corrupt from within as time passes.

Deleting your accounts also gives you an additional barrier when you find yourself reinstalling, as you’ll have to start from scratch and go through the process of creating a new account. From experience alone, the thought of having to register and verify myself again is enough to make me not want to spend a few precious seconds of the only life I have reinstalling apps that offer no value to me.

It’s more than fine to disappear from the online world if it means you get your life back in the real one.

Install minimal launchers and app blockers

Note: This section is more applicable to Android users. This video shows a great example on how to make a minimalist iPhone homescreen.

Often, surroundings that are organized and minimal in clutter give us a sense of calm. The same can be said for your smartphone’s on-screen appearance.

If I hadn’t decided to delve deep into digital minimalism, I would have never learned about the power of minimal launchers.

From Olauncher to Niagara Launcher, these options help you declutter your home screen by removing app icons, sorting apps automatically (Smart Launcher is best at this, in my experience), and letting you only see your most important apps whenever you open your phone.

I’ve been using Olauncher the most, and I would definitely say that not only has it made my home screen a little more boring, but it also only shows me the most essential apps I need my phone for. Everything else is hidden in the app drawer, and with just text available, the very appearance of the home screen is already less stimulating.

App blockers and usage timers are also great tools to add to minimizing your phone. You can go cold turkey and use apps that completely block features of specific apps, or you can block websites that are huge time sinks.

Of course, app blockers or usage timers do have their downsides. Many can be easy to get past, or you might unconsciously keep extending the usage limit of a certain app per day.

However, it’s important to remember why you’ve installed these apps in the first place. Several of these apps are also highly customizable, letting you add your own message to remind yourself of your screen time goals whenever you go beyond a set usage time.

Don’t use your phone or any screen right after waking up and before sleeping

You may have heard several times about how the blue light emitted from our screens affects our circadian rhythm, changing how we sleep. What’s not always said is just how effective it is to avoid screens after waking up as well.

I used to reach for my phone right after waking up. I’d turn off my alarm and then allow myself to scroll through social media for a few minutes, thinking that now was the right time to catch up on whatever I missed.

Before I realized it, I was still glued to my phone while making breakfast, eating, grabbing coffee, and even while getting changed for work.

I didn’t realize until after I started practicing digital minimalism how draining it made me feel to be on my phone right away. My brain, still adjusting from sleep, was instantly assaulted with too much stimulation.

Bright colors, walls of text, and constant hits of dopamine filled my brain before I even noticed it. It led to brain fog, easy distraction, and a constant craving for quick dopamine hits.

I’ve since put my phone aside and kept it away from me while doing my morning routine. Instead of putting on a YouTube video while I ate breakfast and made coffee, I sat in silence.

It wasn’t easy or comfortable at first. The silence often made things feel awkward, time suddenly moving in slow motion.

But it was worth it, as I felt my brain slowly warm up and adjust. I only noticed then the birds outside my window every morning, how the sun hit my neighbor’s roof and made it almost sparkle, how good my coffee tasted when I wasn’t distracted by a video.

The same can be said when I replaced my pre-sleep doomscrolling sessions with reading. My eyes and brain relaxed naturally as I began to enjoy reading again, rather than the anxiety, fatigue, and brain fog that often filled me when I spent another hour or two on my phone before bed.

Now I can’t imagine spending my mornings or evenings any other way, and it could save your life and sanity if you’ve never tried it.

Replace picking up your phone with journaling

When I was bored, anxious, or stressed, my hand would often reach for my phone.

Even when I put it aside rather than on my desk, or even hid it when I was still learning how to practice digital minimalism properly, my hands would seek it out. Like my brain, they itched to hold that cold screen, itching to scroll and tap something.

Now, instead of having my phone near me, I keep a small pocket notebook and pen within arm’s reach.

We may find ourselves randomly scrolling through social media apps or even just random apps on our phone because our hands are seeking some form of distraction. It’s just like fidget toys or cubes that were all the rage a few years back.

Turns out, all we needed was something to touch and play with while we’re bored, and we’ve turned our phones into the new fidget toys.

Since I’ve started journaling instead of scrolling, even if it’s just one or two sentences, I’ve felt the urge to doomscroll slowly disappear. I’d write down anything on my mind, sometimes even repeating the same lines about avoiding doomscrolling, just to keep my mind and hands busy.

Slowly, I began to journal without the initial urge to use my phone. My notebook became the perfect mind dump, helping me reflect on what I want to distract myself from rather than immediately turning to what distracts me.

You may have seen people posting about how journaling has helped them mentally, and I can tell you from experience that it is no cliché.

Even if you’re not the type to journal, you don’t need to fill a whole page, write in a traditional journaling style, or decorate it with stickers and washi tape.

What matters is getting your thoughts down and keeping your hands busy. Over time, you’ll find that writing in whatever way works best for you is more enjoyable than it seems.

Train your mind to learn something new, no matter how small

One of the worst side effects of doomscrolling is how much it saps our brain energy, comprehension, and memory.

The term "slop" has been used more frequently lately, whether it’s AI slop or general brain-rot content that serves no purpose other than to melt your brain. The reason it’s called slop is because of how detrimental it is to learning.

Whether you’re a kid who grew up glued to an iPad or an older Gen Z or millennial who grew up with the internet, you’ve definitely experienced this feeling at least once: that sense that you’re getting dumber the longer you scroll.

Overstimulating short-form content rots your brain. You learn nothing new, you retain nothing, and the worst part is that it’s addictive. After all, you might be tired from studying or working all day. What’s wrong with destressing through mindless content?

You only have to look around to see how badly this has affected all of us, regardless of age. Children struggle to read at their grade level yet are experts at using iPads and the internet.

More teenagers and adults believe hobbies need to be expensive because of TikTok trends. Some don’t even have enough mental energy left to stick with hobbies that don’t involve the internet.

You don’t have to stay this way. Alongside replacing your phone with a notebook, you can look for physical puzzle books to train your mind. Learn Sudoku, do crossword puzzles, or play chess with a physical board or on desktop sites.

Learn a new language using physical workbooks. Exercise your brain and teach yourself something new, even if it feels like too much work at first.

We only have one brain and one life. We can’t allow something designed as a tool to become anything more than that.

Will the urge to keep using your phone persist? It can, especially if you’ve dealt with addiction like I have.

But these small yet meaningful steps can help you keep going, just as they’ve helped me.

You can regain control of your life without the online noise. You just have to step back, see how much time you get back, and keep giving your mind the peace and quiet it deserves.

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