The new versions of iOS contain a wide variety of customizable settings that can help us reduce our mobile addiction, saving us a considerable amount of time per day.
More and more people are trying to spend less time hooked on their mobile phones, aware of the waste of time that comes with scrolling infinitely on X, TikTok or YouTube. Almost everyone is aware that both social media algorithms and the smartphone notification system itself are designed to make you spend as much time as possible looking at the screen.
Big brands are no strangers to this new trend that focuses on health and the correct management of our time. For this reason, it is increasingly common to see adjustment options on our phones, whether iPhone or Android, that allow us to customize the interface of our device to our advantage. Thus, they give the user self-control tools that allow them to have a healthy relationship with the phone.
On this occasion, we are going to explain to you what are some settings that you can modify in your iOS system so that looking at your phone every minute stops being a habit.
1. Use color filters
The iPhone allows you to apply different color filters, such as completely inverting the colors or changing the tones. These types of accessibility adjustments are usually aimed at people with some type of disability or visual difficulty, but there is one in particular that we can use for our purpose. We can make the iPhone screen look monochrome. That is, in black and white.
Activating the monochrome filter is something that will instantly make the appearance of our phone less attractive, and therefore, will help us not spend so much time using it. To activate it, we have to go to Settings > Accessibility > Display and text size > Color filters. On the Color Filters screen, we select “Grayscale”.
Ready, we have our mobile in black and white. Maybe in addition to helping you concentrate, you will also end up liking it on an aesthetic level. But there is another setting that we can combine with the filter. We return to the “Display and text size” tab and activate “Reduce white point”.
This is a setting that reduces the intensity of vivid colors. This will, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the percentage we apply, make your mobile screen stop being so visually striking. At first seeing your phone like this will seem very strange, but you just have to get used to it. Since you’re here, to top things off, you can also activate the “Screen Distance” function, with which your phone will notify you if your screen is too close, for example when you use it in bed.
Finally, to be able to switch between black and white and color quickly when necessary (for example, when taking a photo), we can use a shortcut. Let’s go to Settings > Accessibility > Quick Function. We put color filters above, and with this, by pressing the phone’s power button 3 times we can change this setting in seconds.
2. Activate time restrictions
The next thing will be to make the phone itself temporarily block the applications when we have used them too much. Let’s go to Settings > Screen Time > App Usage Limits. On this screen, we will add limits for each of the applications that have us hooked. In the social tab we will surely find the majority of culprits: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or even LinkedIn.
We select how much time we allow ourselves to use each app per day, such as half an hour, and that’s it. We can also differentiate between the days of the week in case we want to treat ourselves by resting while watching stories on Instagram on the weekends. When you miss the limit, the app icon will appear dark, although the iPhone will allow you to extend the time by a minute, 15 or indefinitely. This is where your willpower will come into play.
3. Activate “downtime”
Just like on the iPhone we can adjust our sleep schedule along with the alarm for the mornings, we can set an inactivity time when we don’t want to be on the phone. That is, if we usually go to bed at 12:00 a.m., maybe we want to stop using our cell phone at 11:00 p.m., and spend that time reading or doing another activity.
You’ll find this option in Settings > Screen Time > Downtime. Set your desired schedule and that’s it. Again, you can also choose a different schedule for weekends or other days when you want to be more lenient with yourself.
4. Adjust iPhone modes
If you are a teleworker or have to pay attention to an important call, you should make sure that the volume of your device is activated so that you can stay alert. But, if, on the other hand, you don’t usually have to use your cell phone for immediate issues, you can take advantage of the iPhone’s modes so that it doesn’t bother you beyond what is essential. Even if you have to pay attention to calls, you can configure them so that the phone rings if they call you, but does not send you notifications from other apps.
Go to Settings > Focus Modes. There, click on one of the modes to configure it. The ones that come by default are “Do not disturb”, “Free time”, “Rest” or “Work”. Above all, it is useful that you schedule each person’s schedule, which can include your work hours or the hours you are dedicating to other activities such as exercising or writing in your free time.
Choose which apps you allow to send you notifications and that’s it. You can also block app notifications manually one by one, but this way, you can restrict them by time slots. You can check more information about the modes in this link.
5. Use shortcuts and automations
Something that can complement all these changes that we are making very well is using the iPhone shortcuts. Creating shortcuts can streamline our typical use and save us time. We can create shortcuts to these everyday actions and then create shortcuts to them on the iPhone’s home or lock screen.
The same with the automationsallowing us, for example, to activate the low consumption mode with a single touch without having to search for it in Settings, with the time that this entails.
With this, we can make the iPhone home screen not show so many apps, which can be distractions. We can fill the screen with a few shortcuts for the things we usually do most (perhaps reading a particular newspaper or sending emails). If at the same time we put the rest of the apps in folders or hide others from the home screen (without completely deleting them), we will make the aesthetic appearance of our mobile phone simpler and more minimalist.
