11 easy ways to limit your screen time

On Google's Pixel phones, you can utilise the Digital Wellbeing app in Settings, which is similar in function to Apple's Screen Time. The dashboard helps users understand how they’re using their phones, with a graphic of how frequently different apps are used, how many times the phone is unlocked, and how many notifications it receives.

There's also an App Timers function, which lets you limit the time spent on them, and a Wind Down feature which puts your device into Do Not Disturb mode and fades the screen to grayscale to help you disconnect at night. Plus, if you're the proud owner of a Google Pixel 3, you can activate 'Shh Mode' by turning your phone face down, which automatically activates Do Not Disturb, ensuring you'll be left the eff alone for as long as you'd like to be.

If you can't be trusted to enforce your own limits on screen time, download an app that'll do it for you. Flipd lets you lock your phone for a set period of time - with no option to go back once you've done the deed - not even if you restart your phone. Bravery required, but you'll thank yourself for it. (Plus, it's free if you want to use it at a basic level.)

iPhone owners will be aware that whenever they pick up their phone, the lock screen will appear, displaying any notifications waiting for you. You'll probably also be aware how distracting this can be; you only picked up your phone to check the time, and now you're down a Whatsapp hole, replying to the 45 messages your friends (who clearly don't have jobs to go to) have been busy sending you over the past half hour.

But there's a way to reduce that distraction, and the accumulating screen time that goes with it: switch off the 'Raise To Wake' setting that enables your iPhone to turn on every time you pick it up. Here's how to do it: Settings > Display > Brightness > switch Raise to Wake toggle off.

Remember limiting screen time isn't just cutting down on your smartphone use - it can also be about stepping away from your computer more often. Teeny Breaks is an app built by an ex-Googler, which you install on your computer to remind you to get away from your computer screen, even if only for a short time.

The app reminds you to take breaks at work by offering tips backed by research - like 'take a walk' or 'take a musical break' - about how to distance yourself. New tips are added every week, and they're accompanied by some pretty soothing photography, too.

If you utilise work breaks more often, you'll find that when you do get back to your computer, your brain is refuelled, rested - and far more productive.

Binging TV shows takes up a lot of our time these days, but there's a simple way you could reduce your temptation to devour episode after episode each night. Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are automatically set to have autoplay on, meaning when you reach the end of one episode, it'll give you a short countdown before playing the next one. By disabling this, you'll have to make the conscious decision to click 'play' and watch the next episode, increasing the likelihood you might decide you actually have more productive (non-screen-related things) you could be doing instead.

How to disable autoplay on Netflix:

Sign in and click on 'Your Account'

In the 'My Profile' section, click on 'Playback settings'

Untick the box that says 'Play next episode automatically' in 'Preferences'

How to disable autoplay on Amazon Prime:

Sign in and go to 'Settings'

Find 'Player Preferences' and look for the 'Autoplay' toggle

Switch it to off

We all know you can mute Whatsapp groups to stop being notified of all the incessant chat going on in your groups, but Whatsapp is reportedly introducing a setting that helps people go one step further when they want to switch off (without actually switching the phone off - we wouldn't go that far).

Currently, it's still in development, but when Vacation Mode (will they call it Holiday Mode for us in the UK?) launches, it'll mean you get no notifications about messages even when you open the app - they get immediately archived. Only when you switch Vacation Mode back off will your missed messages come flooding through.

But even when you're not on holiday, this could come in handy. Switch Vacation Mode on while you're at work and you know you won't get distracted messaging your mates. Or if you just want a bit of ~space~ from the digital world in the evenings, why not activate it the moment you walk through the door, and only switch the mode off when you leave for work the following day? Can't wait for this one to be rolled out, tbf.

If you're not quite prepared to go the whole hog of locking your phone entirely, there's another app that might work better for you. Freedom works across multiple devices (so you can use it on your phone, tablet and computer) to block certain sites or apps for a set amount of time, ensuring you aren't distracted by them. Freedom's function to enforce blocks across more than one device means you can't cheat the system by logging on to Topshop's website on your phone when you've already blocked it on your laptop.

The app's free trial lasts for 7 blocking sessions (length determined by you), but after that you'll have to cough up for your self-imposed tech restraining order.

After discovering that more than a quarter of people use their phones for four or more hours a day, online local services marketplace Bark.com decided to offer a free counselling session to people on the more... intense end of a smartphone addiction.

iPhone users who spend more than 6 hours a day on their phones - and pick it up 300 or more times a day - can apply to be given a free counselling session by someone in their local area here. If that doesn't curb your usage, we don't know what will...

We're simple creatures, really, and that means part of the reason we get so captured by our phone home screens is because of how ~colourful~ they are. Siempo, an app currently only available on Android phones, changes that.

Siempo transforms your smartphone home screen into a more intentional and less distracting digital experience by literally simplifying it with a black and white display minus all the distracting app icons that represent your apps. As well as that, it enables you to select 'batch notifications', so you'll get them all in one go at specified intervals. It can randomise the location of your distracting apps, making it hard to find and open them, and it also offers the opportunity to include an 'intention' - a personalised you'll see every time you unlock your phone - that would be helpful to read dozens of times each day. Nothing short of genius.