Breaking the Black Mirror: How I Reclaimed 1,460 Hours of Time

I Broke Free from My Smartphone Sentence and You Can Too

I was a Digital Zombie and I had no idea.

There's no better way to put it, for years I was sleepwalking through life, my face perpetually illuminated by the glow of my screen, my consciousness constantly interrupted by hundreds of notifications.

My phone records only go back a few weeks, but even in February, after intentionally cutting back on phone usage I was still clocking six hours a day.

Here’s a note I wrote in response to

Giacomo Falcone

’s bombshell, my usage was even worse than the average!

Six months ago it was Closer to Eight hours daily. That's not a habit, that's a full-time job! That's 56 hours a week surrendered to the algorithm gods, my actual life, draining away, one dopamine hit at a time.

Let that sink in. I was spending more time with my phone than I was sleeping. Sometimes double the amount of time! Cause and effect perhaps?

The Wake-Up Call I Needed

Here's the scary maths of my digital addiction at its worst:

8 hours daily × 365 days = 2,920 hours annually

2,920 hours = 121 FULL DAYS

That's ONE-THIRD OF A YEAR gone. Vanished. Sacrificed to the endless scroll.

I remember a point when reality punctured through my screen induced trance. I dropped my son off at school one morning before a day off work, then I sat down with a brew to answer "just a couple" of notifications and somehow when my alarm went off to remind me to pick him up 6 hours later, I was still scrolling.

360 minutes of my day evaporated while I sat hypnotized by a 6 inch screen.

What the fuck was I doing with my life?

If you knew you had only five years left to live, would you voluntarily spend almost TWO YEARS of that remaining time mindlessly scrolling through other people's holiday photos, comedy sketches and rage bait?

Of course you bloody wouldn't. Yet that's exactly what some of us are doing and it’s not going to get better on its own.

MEMENTO MORI: REMEMBER YOU WILL DIE

Breaking the Digital Shackles

I didn't ease into this transformation. I went for the scorched earth approach.

First to die: notifications. Almost all of them, gone. Emails, social media, even Substack. Because a single notification was all that was needed to lead me onto hours long reading and replying sessions. Once I decided to kill off notifications I waited to get one, then I went into the app and turned them off.

The phone became MY tool, not the other way around.

Reddit and YouTube, my digital crack dealers, I didn't delete them entirely, but I just decided to use them on my terms instead. If I need to look something up, find a tutorial or need some relaxing music to play to fall asleep or block out the world, I'll use them. I just don't get caught up in the doomscroll spiral now, because I am more intentional with my use.

I have noticed that when I open the Youtube app now it automatically starts playing a short. They want to hook you from the first moment. Don't let them.

If I fancy a quick scroll I set myself an alarm for 20 or 30 minutes with the title "Is this truly how you want to spend your life?"

Most days, that is enough to snap me back to reality.

TV got the same treatment. I didn't divorce it entirely, I am just very much more intentional in what I watch. I treat shows like investments and they need to prove their worth. My new rule is I'm prepared to give something that has been recommended by a like minded friend two episodes. If it doesn't make me feel something by then: fascination, joy, proper thoughtful reflection, side splitting laughter, it's gone. Life's too short for mediocre entertainment.

This post is an entry for the April edition of the Kaleidascope Project Monthly Challenge. A joint effort between myself and

Moon Arica

which you are more than welcome to take part in. Check out the post below for more:

The Kaleidoscope Project April Challenge: Intent

The Staggering Payoff

Here's what cutting just 4 hours from my daily screen use has given me:

28 extra hours weekly (a whole extra day)

1,460 hours yearly (60 complete days)

Over a decade? 14,600 hours (a staggering 608 days)

That's nearly TWO YEARS of life reclaimed over a decade. I know for a sad fact that is an underestimation too.

But the numbers don't capture the real transformation. The quality of my existence has fundamentally changed.

Instead of the shallow, fragmented attention of a digital addict, I've rediscovered deep focus. I can sit with a single thought, explore it, wrestle with it, until something meaningful emerges. And I'm writing about it, not just typing forgettable comments that disappear into the void on twitter, but crafting ideas that matter to me, that might outlast me. Maybe you're reading one such example that will give you the same freedom it has for me.

I'm building things with my hands again, actual, physical objects that exist outside the digital realm. I'm woodworking, doing home improvements. Making memories with my kids that don't involve them watching the back of my phone case.

A legacy of Distraction

When I think about how much quality time I've missed with my kids since they were born, I feel physically ill. I'm not being dramatic, there's a genuine nausea that comes with realising you've squandered irreplaceable moments. I've been a massive failure in this regard and I know I could have done better.

Like when I've been tapping away at something unimportnt when I should have been playing Scrabble with the family or engaging in conversations. Like when I've been laughing at strangers comedy sketches when I should have been laughing with my kids. And I've set an absolutely terrible example for them.

Children don't just learn from what we say, they learn from what we do. Some of the biggest lessons they learn come from our actions, not our words. How absurdly hypocritical is it for me to set their screen time limits like it’s currency when I've been clocking eight hour digital marathons myself?

Yes, I had excuses for my phone use. But so do they, they do homework on apps, research on Google, watch educational videos on YouTube. And yes, they play games too, but they're kids. Would they spend so much time glued to their screens if I hadn't normalized it through my own behaviour?

I know there are readers thinking, "Kids shouldn't have phones at all." In a perfect world, perhaps that's true. But we don't live in a perfect world, we live in the real one. Without phones, they "wouldn't have lives" (or so I'm led to believe when they beg for ten more minutes so their friends don't think they're "ghosting" them, or so they can finish their FIFA match while chatting with mates).

The uncomfortable truth is that I can't change the past, but I can change what happens next. And that starts with being the example I should have been all along.

The Escape Isn't Easy

If you feel like I felt and want to make a change, this isn't a simple lifestyle tweak. Digital addiction is real and deliberately engineered by trillion-dollar companies. You might not even realise you are addicted, or might want to downplay it like I did at first. Check your screentime. If you are surprised by your average daily use you might want to do something about it.

Those apps we use have been meticulously designed by army’s of psychologists and engineers to keep you hooked. Your attention is the product being sold and they'll fight you to keep it.

Breaking free might feel like withdrawal at first. Your brain, accustomed to constant stimulation, will scream for its fix. You might feel bored, anxious or disconnected. You will feel your hand subconsciously reach to your pocket.

Push through it. The discomfort is temporary; the freedom it brings is transformative.

Are You Trapped Without Knowing It?

My friend

Dom de Lima

put it perfectly in a recent “conversation in the comments”:

"I think part of the reason people stay on autopilot is that there's very little space in everyday life to pause and examine what's going on internally. The pace, the pressure, the noise, it all keeps us externally focused."

It’s the perfect prison, one where the inmates don't even realise they're incarcerated. Most people don't question their digital consumption because they don’t get chance to stop and reflect on their life because they’re always doing something. This isn’t helped because usually everyone around them is equally enslaved. It's normalised madness.

Ask yourself honestly:

• Do you check your phone within 5 minutes of waking up?

• Do you feel phantom vibrations, reaching for a device that didn't actually notify you of anything? (I feel vibrations in my pocket when my phone is in my hand!)

• Have you ever said "just one more video" and looked up an hour later?

• Do you take your phone to the bathroom?

• Do you open your phone for a specific purpose and end up doing something else entirely?

If you answered yes to any of these, you're not alone, you’re an inmate too.

How to Stage Your Own Jailbreak

You need to get angry. Not at yourself, but at the system designed to waste your precious, finite existence.

1. Track your actual usage. Most phones have screen time trackers built in. Look at your weekly total and multiply by 52. That's how many hours you're surrendering annually. Now divide by 24. That's how many DAYS of life you're trading for digital distraction each year. (If that number is scary to you. Good!)

2. Set hard boundaries, not vague intentions. "I'll use my phone less" is meaningless. "No phone use after 8pm" or "Social media blocked until noon" are actionable.

3. Create a physical environment that doesn't enable addiction. Charge your phone outside your bedroom. Delete the most addictive apps or set limits. Turn your phone grayscale. Keep it in your coat pocket and not at your desk.

4. Replace, don't just remove. Swap phone use with something constructive. Have books visible and accessible. Keep a notebook handy. Have projects ready to work on. The first question an addict asks is "what now?" have an answer ready before you need it.

5. Expect resistance, from yourself and others. Your brain will rationalise returning to old habits. Friends might even undermine your efforts ("Why aren't you active on the groupchat anymore?"). Stand firm, stay strong.

The Uncomfortable Truth

If you're average, you're going to spend about 9-10 years of your adult life staring at screens outside of work.

A decade, gone to the dreaded black mirror.

That's more time than you'll spend driving, eating, exercising and having sex COMBINED. Unless maybe you drive for a living or are named Bonnie Blue. (Don’t google it!)

Is that really how you want your limited time on this planet to be spent? Because your time IS limited. Your life is literally counting down, one precious second after another.

Every notification, every scroll, every "just checking" moment is a tiny slice of your actual life being fed into the digital furnace, never to return.

Polls are anonymous, nobody will see your shame.

Choose Intentional Living

I'm not a digital hermit living in a cave. I still use my phone, I still watch the occasional TV show. The difference is I choose when and how these tools serve me, not the other way around.

The difference between a Screen Servant and a Digital Master lies in one word: intention.

Intention transforms the mundane into the meaningful. Intention separates simply existing from actually living.

The next time your hand automatically reaches for your phone, STOP. Ask yourself: "Is this actually what I want to be doing right now? Is this a worthy way to spend these irreplaceable minutes of my life?"

Sometimes the answer will be yes. Often, there will be things more worthy of your time.

Your Life Is Waiting

Remember this: Nobody ever reached the end of their life and thought, "I wish I'd spent more time scrolling Instagram." Nobody's epitaph reads "She watched all the Netflix shows." Nobody's proudest achievement is "I saw every meme from 2023."

Your real life, rich with possibility, connection, creation and meaning is waiting patiently on the other side of your screen.

All you have to do is look up.

What will you do with your reclaimed time? What could you build, learn, experience or become with a whole extra day each week?

The possibilities are limited only by your willingness to escape the digital prison you've been living in.

Your life is calling. Will you answer?