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

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.

Setup instructions:
https://www.kapwing.com/c/7r63BbkM8R

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:

• Tap & Raise to wake - Tutorial for iPhone

• Tap to wake - Tutorial Android

• Raise to wake - Tutorial Android

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

• iOS Tutorial

• Android Tutorial

2. Hide all apps from Home Screen

You should start with a clean sheet. Hide everything.

• iOS Tutorial

• Android Tutorial

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.

• iOS Tutorial

• Android Tutorial: not sure this exists tbh

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.

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