12 Phone Habits for Better Health

The average person spends 4 hours 37 min on their phone each day.

That's 78 days every year. Over a lifetime, that's over 14 years.

Every one of those moments chips away at sleep, health, focus, and time spent with loved ones.

Here are 12 phone habits to build, and why you should build them.

#1. Use grayscale

Apps use colors to create dopamine loops. Fight back by changing your phone colors to monochrome.

Studies show that it can reduce phone usage by 11% in 1 week.

On an iPhone:

• settings → accessibility → display & text size → color filters
• turn on color filters
• select grayscale

#2. Activate "night shift" or "bedtime mode"

Ideally, screens off 60 min before bed. Your phone will keep you stimulated via doomscrolling, work, and other activities.

If you must go on your phone, watch out for blue light.

Blue light suppresses melatonin (the sleep hormone) and spikes cortisol (the stress hormone). Sleep quality drops even if you fall asleep fast.

Two fixes:

• night shift mode (iPhone) or bedtime mode (Android): swaps blue light for warmer tones, keeping light below the 30 lux threshold that preserves melatonin. Activate in the evening.
• red light mode: eliminates blue light entirely. Use this if you need to check your phone at night.

To enable red light mode on iPhone:

• settings → accessibility → display & text size → color filters
• turn on color filters → select color tint
• set intensity and hue sliders to maximum

To run automatically:

• shortcuts app → new shortcut
• search "color filters" and select
• go to "automations" within the shortcuts app
• select a time of day (1-2 hours before bed) and "run immediately"
• set up another automation to turn off at your wake time

#3. Men, don't keep your phone in your pocket

A lot of men carry their phone in their front pocket, not realizing that it may affect their fertility.

A meta-analysis of 18 studies showed that close exposure to a mobile phone reduced sperm motility, viability, and concentration.

Having a little distance lowers your exposure a lot.

#4. Cap your volume at 80 decibels

Earphones can easily hit 100 decibels on max volume. Just 15 min at that exposure can cause hearing damage.

In your phone settings, set a decibel cap at 80 decibels.

#5. When you get in the car, switch on "do not disturb" mode

Driving is probably the most dangerous thing we do on a daily basis.

Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for as much as 5 seconds. At 55 miles per hour, that's equivalent to driving the length of a football field blind.

Even glancing at a notification increases your crash risk ~4-6x.

The solution: Turn on "do not disturb" when you get in the car.

#6. Clean your screen daily

Phones are pretty disgusting. Researchers found that phones have 10x more bacteria than toilet seats.

Wipe your screen with a microfiber cloth and 70% alcohol every day.

#7. Follow the 20-20-20 rule

If you're staring at screens for hours, you're irritating your eyes.

Follow the 20-20-20 rule:

• after 20 min of staring at a screen
• take a 20-second break
• to look at something 20 feet away

#8. Turn off all notifications

It takes the average person 23 min to regain focus after an interruption. Turn off notifications to reduce distractions.

Only allow notifications for:

• emergency contacts
• messages that are actually useful to you

#9. Block distracting apps

Addictive phone-checking behaviors predict mood disorders, like depression, more than minutes of phone use.

Apps like Opal and one sec help you manage your access to apps you find addictive.

#10. Have phone-free zones

Put your phone away when:

• at the dinner table
• in the bedroom
• in the front seat of the car

As a first step, keep your phone charger outside of the bedroom to stop yourself from doomscrolling all night long.

#11. Schedule phone-free times

We need long stretches of time without our phones.

Do a small experiment. Lock your phone in a drawer for 60 min and see how you feel. Then, try half a day.

For better sleep, put your phone away 60 min before bed.

Try social media-free time, too. Bryan recently did a 40-hour then a 70-hour social media fast and saw a 10% improvement in his resting heart rate before bed. A lower resting heart rate before bed can lead to better sleep.

#12. Do a screen time audit

Sometimes, just seeing how much you use your phone can lessen your usage.

Identify which apps you're spending the most time on.

If Instagram is your weakness, try cutting that time in half. Once you've accomplished that, check in weekly to see if you're on point or if you can cut it further.

Final thoughts

Changing your phone habits starts a domino effect. Instead of damaging your health, you're amplifying it. You have more time, energy, and focus for positive health behaviors, like sleep, nutrition, exercise, and time with loved ones.

Choose 1 phone change to make today. Monitor how you feel. Build from there.