E26 - 10 best hacks & apps to reduce your screen time in 2025

Attention to your phone settings.

Hi everyone,

My name is Stephan and this is my story of how I became The Attention Master.

If you want to be more in the moment and live a more present life in 2025, then episode 26 is for you. Let's dive in!

Here is what you are going to learn today:

  • 5 things to change in your phone settings.

  • 5 app features that will blow your mind.

  • Why screen time isn’t the golden nugget to change your life.

You asked for them, now you get them. My top 10 list of technical changes you can make on your phone to resist distractions.

  1. Replace notifications with badges

  2. Turn off Raise-to-Wake 

  3. Hide apps from home screen & app library

  4. Automatic red light filter at bedtime

  5. Use the screen time widget

  6. Use a morning schedule blocker

  7. Extract chats to respond to messages outside of social media

  8. Block feeds

  9. Live timer to see time spent in-app in real time

  10. Use app limits

Let’s jump into them one by one. I will explain to you why they matter, why these hacks work and how to set them up: ⬇️

1. Replace notifications with badges

It matters because:
We need 23 minutes to reach a deep state of work, but the average adult reaches for their phone every 3 minutes, driven by a notification every 2 minutes.

Notifications are seen as the bad part of your phone. That's why mindful people turn them off completely. And that's a big mistake. Because it fuels your FOMO. Now, every time you want to know if someone has messaged you, you have to go to WhatsApp, Slack, Instagram and the like.

Solution:
LockScreen + banner notifications off, badges on for messages.

Why it works: This setup allows you to have the best of all worlds: not being distracted by messages, not missing them, and not overusing apps because of message FOMO.

2. Turn off Raise-to-Wake

It matters because:

You've probably noticed that your phone turns on instantly when you pick it up. This feature called Raise-To-Wake makes it super easy to unconsciously open your phone without thinking about it. Likewise, the feature to unlock your phone quickly by tapping fuels the number of mindless opens.

Solution:

  1. By turning Raise-To-Wake off, you make sure your phone doesn't turn on when you pick it up.

  2. By turning Tap-to-Wake off, you won't be able to unlock your phone by tapping it.

Why it works:
Turning these two default settings off will make you think more about what you want to do when you grab your phone. And put it away when you realise there was no good reason to pick it up. It makes your brain switch from system 1 (autonomous thinking) to system 2 (rational decisions).

Pro tip: To keep the effect going, add a visual signal to remind you to think about your intentions. Ideally, this signal should be both visual and emotional. I recommend you create a story board with pictures that symbolize your dreams. Put them in a folder and turn on photo shuffle for your lock screen.

Setup instructions:

3. Hide apps from home screen & app library

It matters because:
Apps you don't use anymore distract you anyway. They distract you on your way to the apps you were going to use when you opened your phone. Why is that? Because their colours and red badges remind you of the other apps you love. They are triggers for you to waste time on Instagram and other apps.

Solution:
Declutter

Setup instructions:

1. Delete what you don't need anymore

2. Hide all apps from Home Screen

You should start with a clean sheet. Hide everything.

3. Empty your App Library

When people remove all apps from Home, they start escaping to their app library and access apps from there. So after cleaning your home screen, you should also empty your app library.

4. Sort your apps
!!! Keeping everything hidden is not good, because you will have a constant FOMO not seeing any badges when opening your phone and check whether something is new. So bring back the apps that you use daily or multiple times a week.

From now on, all other apps can be accessed through SEARCH: Type don’t swipe ;)

Then sort your apps based on different categories (work, social, etc.) and create one home screen page for each category.

4. Automatic red light filter at bedtime

It matters because:
Delayed sleep tonight is the #1 reason you will scroll more tomorrow.

Solution:
Turn on an automatic red light filter 1 hour before you go to bed. It blocks the blue light, makes binging less attractive and is a visual reminder that your bed is no place for scrolling.

Why it works: After a hard day, physically or mentally, you just want to relax and go to bed early. You are exhausted, but not tired. So you go to bed with the intention of sleeping early. And you watch a bit of Netflix or TikTok, hoping to get tired. But the moment never comes, because the blue light and visual context switching from your phone keep you awake. Suddenly it's 1pm and you've only got 6 hours of sleep left instead of the planned 8. Sounds familiar?

Setup instructions:

  1. Search -> Colour Filters -> Colour Tint

  2. Health App -> Sleep Schedule -> Set your times -> Go to Shortcuts app -> Automation -> Tap the "+" to create a new one -> Sleep -> Wind Down Begins + Run Immediately -> Next -> New Blank Automation -> Add Action -> Set Colour Filters -> Done

5. Use the screen time widget

It matters because:
There's no point in looking at your screen time a day or a week later. It will only tell you that you failed. What you need is a real opportunity to say NO, in real time. When you open your phone, your brain is often on autopilot. Imagine there's a bouncer, like in the clubs, waiting at the door to the most addictive apps, asking you every time: You had enough drinks today, do you really want to go? Finding the willpower to resist in that moment is still hard, but it gets a lot easier when you see in real time how much time you have already spent on that day. Imagine the bouncer would show you your blood alcohol ;)

The solution:
You can do this by putting all your problematic apps on a home page and adding a screen time widget to that page.

Why it works:
This creates one thing: awareness. And awareness is so important for learning to say NO. Because when you lose awareness, you lose self-control. With awareness, screen time is a conscious choice. It's intentional. Without awareness, it's like being drugged.

Setup instructions:

  1. Go to your settings and check your screen time stats for the last week.

  2. Identify all the apps you spend the most time on. Typically, 5-10 apps account for 70-90% of your screen time.

  3. Put all these apps on a single home screen page.

  4. Add a screen time widget (there are several) to this page. Try to make the widget stick to the bottom of the page, not the top. This is really important because the way we hold our phones, our thumbs are always at the bottom of the phone. If you have your apps at the bottom, you will eventually just ignore the widget:

The next time you are shocked by your screen time, click on the widget and it will teleport you straight to your screen time stats for the day. Examine further when you have been abusive and reflect on your internal triggers. Ask yourself why you ended up there.

6. Use a morning schedule blocker

It matters because:
Dopamine is your motivation. If you use it up on social media in the morning, it will be hard to avoid a lazy day.

The solution:
Get an app that allows you to set a morning schedule and block all distracting, dopaminergic apps for this time of the day.

Why it works:
At the same time, your willpower is high in the morning. So working on hard, annoying tasks works best in the morning if you manage to do them first, before consuming the news and social media.

Tool tip: 

7. Extract chats from social media
&
8. Use a feed blocker

It matters because:
You come for messages, you end up on feed. Once you have completed the action you came for in the first place (many times that is messages from friends), our initial intention is gone. Our willpower to resist goes down and the pull effect from feeds and stories goes up. LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, and Youtube are perfect examples of “Just gonna check something quickly” apps that lure you in, then invite you to stay.

Solutions:

- Don’t let messages pull you in → Extract chats from social media and respond outside (Tool tip: Beeper)
- Don’t let them invite you to stay → Block feeds and story features

Tool tips for feed blocking:

For using apps in browser: Chrome extensions like News Feed Eradicator

For Android:

  • Distraction Free (but not sure about their security level tbh) -> Found it through a Youtube video and a quite popular post on Reddit a few years ago

  • Blocker Hero Tutorial

9. Live timer to see time spent in-app in real time

It matters because:
We come for a reason ("just to give a quick reply to that one friend"). Then our work is done and we get distracted, left alone in a candy shop of distractions, with a choice between sweets now or a salad later. Unfair, isn't it? We quickly forget our intentions once we are in the candy shop. And how much time we have spent there since we entered. Sounds familiar?

Solution:
The only thing that helps is a real-time timer that starts automatically when you enter a problematic app.

Why it works:
It reminds you when you arrived and holds you accountable to the promise you made to yourself. When your time is up, you might stay a few more minutes, but you won't double or triple your time. If you really have something else to do that matters.

Tool tip: Lemio

10. Use app limits

It matters because:
Dosage is important. Especially with apps that seem to be useful, but are not when overused (email, news, learning, …). These are perfect to procrastinate and do something not important + not urgent.

Solution:
So when you think about your apps, don't think about them individually. Think of them in categories and as if they were from the last century.

YouTube during your lunch break? Did your parents watch TV during their lunch break? No! Block all video apps until the end of the working day.

Reading your news apps 15 times a day? Did your parents do that? No, they would only open it at dedicated times, such as mornning, commute or evening.

Limit the time per day that you can spend on an individual app (like Instagram) or all apps from a category (like entertainment). Sometimes, it’s better to limit how often you can open an app or all apps from a category. For instance, how often do you want to read the news vs. how much time do you want to spend on watching video content?

But: Limits alone won’t do the job. When you’re brain’s default is that it can always access these apps, it will constantly push you there. So change your mindset. Instead of creating rules for “When to block”, rather find dedicated times for “When not to block”, ideally just once a day for each app category.

Why it works:
Numbers never lie. Numbers create transparency.

Tool tip:

BONUS TIP - Most important of all

Distraction is not the opposite of focus. It is the opposite of Traction.

A distraction is something (we do) that moves us away from what we really want.

Traction is an action that moves us towards what we really want.

You can’t be distracted from a non- existing target. 🎯

- Nir Eyal

Without traction, you are not distracted, you are either bored or unhappy.

Bored = no target

Unhappy = A target without doing something to get there (= a lack of action)

So are you distracted? Or bored? Or unhappy?

Whichever you are, the solution is the same:

Define your goal. Plan your daily actions. Carry them out.

If you want a buddy to help you along the way, try Lemio. This is our USP and the core feature of our app.

This knowledge comes at 0 cost

If you learned something,
be generous and share it with friends or family.

See ya next week
Stephan

Interested in more of our work?

If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you’d be interested in our other FREE resources:

1. Most read all time: The Happiness Checklist

2. Our Procrastinator Quiz to identify your unique procrastination type. (We all have at least one)

3. Check HERE to figure out whether your employer is a Lemio Partner and reimburses your subscription.

4. If you are a founder or leader and want us to turn your team into Attention Masters through a corporate workshop, contact us at [email protected] 

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ONE MORE WAY WE CAN HELP YOU

We know that mastering your attention is extremely difficult. It's not going to happen in a day. That's why we've created Lemio, an app designed to be your personal buddy on the journey.

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