I’ve recently changed to a new mobile phone (after several months of using a phone that wasn’t functioning too well). The phone displays the total time I’m looking at my screen every day. So far I’m averaging one hour and 50 minutes of screen time per day!
That’s a lot of time spent on my phone.
Being aware of the hours spent on my phone makes me realise that I’ve wasted a lot of my time (which is basically my life) scrolling on Instagram, checking on unimportant emails and reading random stuff on the Internet.
Now my goal is to get my daily average down to one hour and 30 minutes.
So every time I feel like picking up my phone, I’ll find another activity I can do that’s more productive. Whether it’s reading a book, getting a pending task done, moving forward on important goals or just to connect with my family.
I know this doesn’t really have anything to do with learning English, but we sometimes get emails from people saying that they don’t have time to learn English. I want you to take note of where you spend your time. Download an app to measure the total number of hours you spend on your phone.
Now not all screen time is meaningless. Perhaps you’ve enrolled in an online course, you’re reading an e-book, you’re listening to informational podcasts, or you’re researching something on the Internet. To me, this is good because you’re learning.
Screen time that may not be so meaningful is spending too much of it on social media or browsing the Internet without any specific intention.
What could you be doing with that time instead? Is there anything that you’ve been wanting to do, but never find the time for? Perhaps you can replace the hours of screen time with actual, meaningful activities.
So share with us, what have you been meaning to do but haven’t done because you don’t have the time? What are you going to do to make the time for it?
We are losing precious hours on our screens when that time can be used to have real conversations, to connect with our loved ones or to do activities that are important for our overall well-being.
