For the month of March, I tracked my phone usage. I wanted to see exactly where I was spending most of my time on my phone because my daily usage is on the high side when compared with others (like Elisabeth, who regularly spends just 1-1.5 hours on her phone daily, which is astonishing to me!) Even if my phone usage is high, does that really matter if I’m spending it doing things that bring me joy, like listening to podcasts and playing Happy Color? How does my phone usage really break down when I take an entire month into account? These were the questions I wanted to answer.
Each day, I wrote down the overall time spent on my phone as well as the number of pickups I did and notifications I received. And then I broke down every app and how much time I spent on them that day. Here’s what March 1st looked like:
Then, I started another tab in my spreadsheet where I listed out my apps in specific categories and would input the total number (in minutes) per day. Yes, it was a very intensive process and I was very happy when April 1st rolled around and I didn’t have to worry about continuing detailing my phone usage in this way!
At the end of the month, I tallied up all of my numbers and it gave me this breakdown:
Here is what all of these categories entail:
- Phone Games (41%) – Happy Color, Candy Crush Soda, Match 3D, 1010!, and Wordscapes. (These are my favorite phone games to play!)
- Listening Apps (24%) – Overcast (podcast app), Libby (audiobooks), YouTube (ASMR videos to fall asleep), and Spotify.
- Social Media (12%) – Instagram, Facebook, Feedly, Goodreads, Messenger, and Patreon.
- Reading (8%) – Serial Reader, CNN, and Chrome (which I use as my web browser).
- Social (8%) – Marco Polo (video app I use to keep in touch with friends), Messages, Mail, Phone, and Maps. (Funnily enough, FaceTime is not counted as “screen time” by Apple.)
- Productivity (3.5%) – Apps that I only really use for a purpose, like Notes, Clock, Calculator, Settings, and Todoist.
- Photos (2%) – Lightroom (how I edit photos), Camera, and Photos.
- Shopping (1%) – Starbucks, Ubereats, and Target.
- Health (1%) – My Wahoo app, which is what I use to track my cadence on my spin bike, and Sleep Cycle, my alarm clock app.
- Work (>1%) – Just some work-related apps I have on my phone that I will use throughout the day if needed.
After looking over my data from March, it became clear to me that I spent a lot of time on very few apps. It also became clear that my phone was counting my time as double if I had a podcast playing on Overcast (or an audiobook on Libby) while also doing something on my phone like playing a game. And I spend a lot of time playing games while listening to a podcast. So that can skew my overall screen time.
There are five apps that I spend my most time on:
It’s not surprising that Happy Color is where I spend the most time. Most days, I spent over 2 hours on that app! (Happy Color is a coloring app and it brings me immense joy and comfort, lol.) It’s also not surprising that Overcast was my second-most-used app. I love listening to podcasts and listen for hours every day.
Want some other maybe-fun stats? I gotchu:
- On average, I pick up my phone 86 times a day.
- On average, I get 43 notifications a day.
- My highest phone usage day was Saturday, March 19th—8 hours, 58 minutes (!!!)
- My lowest phone usage day was Monday, March 14th—4 hours, 22 minutes
All in all, detailing my phone usage throughout the month was a good exercise and it helped me to better understand my phone habits. (For example, as much as I love Happy Color, I sometimes use it as a crutch to not do the things I need to do.) After seeing my phone stats, there are a few changes I made:
- I put time limits on Instagram (30 minutes) and Happy Color (90 minutes). These are two of the apps that I can sometimes spend too much time on, and it’s been so, so helpful to give myself this time limit.
- I limited notifications. I used to get push notifications for so many things, especially things I didn’t need. Now, I only get notified for CNN/ESPN breaking news alerts, my dating apps, phone/messages, and Ubereats.
- I changed my Do Not Disturb parameters to turn on from 9:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m., dim my lock screen, and hide all notifications. When it turns on at night, it’s a signal to my brain to get to bed and in the morning, it’s a signal to not use my phone first thing.
I also want to get better about putting my phone in my bedroom to charge at night. It’s so easy for me to get sucked into coloring a page on Happy Color or scrolling through Instagram when I should be getting ready for bed.
What I learned most from looking at my phone usage throughout the month is to not beat myself up too much for how much time I spend on my phone. I spend a lot of time alone, and it makes sense that I would be on my phone during that time. When I get lonely, it helps to scroll through Instagram (sometimes) or to listen to a podcast and play Happy Color. If I had a partner or kids, I’d (hopefully) be on my phone a whole lot less. When I’m with friends or my family, my phone is always in my purse. One of my pet peeves is people who are on their phones (especially people who are texting on their phones!) around me, so I try my best not to do the same. If my phone is out, it’s usually because I’m taking pictures.
I’m glad I did this exercise and I’ve now turned off the Screen Time alerts that tell me how much phone usage has increased or decreased from week to week. I’m doing just fine.
Do you feel like you spend a lot of time on your phone? What is your most-used app?
I would never track my phone habits – ha! I’m terrible, but mostly it would be about me listening to podcasts, so I guess that’s something I already know. Good for you for being so meticulous about tracking every detail – very impressive!
It was really an insane exercise for me, haha. But I’m still glad I did it, if only to help me recognize some of my more troublesome phone habits (i.e., Instagram) and validate me that I’m not spending SOOO much time on my phone, even if my screen time feels a little crazy some weeks.
I think this would be an interesting activity for me, more so to understand how I am using my phone than out of a need to change any habits. I have a new obsession – Spelling Bee on the NYT – so my chrome time has really increased. I paid $4 to have access to NYT games so I could try out Spelling Bee and I do really enjoy it. That and Wordle are what I primarily use chrome for. Other than that, I mostly use my podcast and kindle ap. I’m not on social media anymore and before quitting, I limited myself to 20 minutes between the 2 aps. I’ve been off for 4 months and really don’t miss it all that much, which is surprising!
I wish that screen time on the iPhone was more customizable. It seemed to include time spent talking on the phone. I would have gray shading on days when I WFH. I can be on my phone A LOT when I am home.
I am sure my # of pick-ups is atrocious, though!!!
It would be nice if the screen time were customizable. I really don’t like that it counts my time as double if I’m listening to a podcast while playing a game on my phone. EXCUUUUSE ME?! Not cool, iPhone!
Hooray for being off social media! I only use Instagram at this point and it’s nice to have that 30-minute time limit. I’ve been good about staying off the app when I hit my limit!
Fascinating breakdown! I don’t think I have the discipline to track my phone habits, but I do know that I spend a LOT of time on my phone.
It was quite the exercise in March! I am glad I did it, but never want to do it again, haha.
It is also one of my pet peeves when people are on their phones around other people! We have always had a no-phones at the table rule, and occasionally when we have a certain dinner guest, that guest will check his phone during dinner and conversation. NO SIR. It drives me crazy. SO RUDE.
Mind you, often we are all chilling and my husband will be on his phone while I’m reading, and that’s fine by me.
I keep track of my phone habits and my biggest usage by far is Spotify. I listen to a lot of music and podcasts. I am trying to learn Spanish via Duolingo, so that’s a big one too, as is Instagram.
Gosh, isn’t it just so annoying when someone is on their phone when you’re trying to talk with them?! BLERGH. My mom and I can fall into a habit of being on our phones when we’re out to dinner or hanging out but I don’t mind that as much since we also spend a lot of time with each other. It’s different when it’s the person you already spend a lot of time with vs a friend you only see every once in a while.
You know how I feel about my phone – such a love/hate relationship!! And I agree with others that it would be nice to be able to set specific parameters in the Screen Time app.
For me I needed to tackle the number first (i.e. being mindful of pickups/total time) and also to identify what I love about my phone – texting with friends, taking/editing photos.
I’m not tracking my use as much the last few weeks because I think I’ve got a good rhythm going. A big change has been actually shutting my phone off completely at night. I know this isn’t relevant for many people because of emergencies but it works for me in this stage of life (the kids are home in the evenings, my husband leaves his phone on). This has really helped me cut down screen time because I was scrolling mindlessly at night.
I DO use my phone first thing for about 5 minutes in the morning to get caught up on texts, overnight e-mails and a quick check of the news. But that 5 minutes works much better than 60 min at 8 pm the night before.
Also, I LOVE Happy Colour; I don’t do it much anymore, but my 11-year-old ADORES it.
I love that you have the ability to turn your phone completely off at night! I put mine on Do Not Disturb which helps somewhat because my screen dims and it reminds me that it’s not time to be playing on my phone. But it would be much easier not to do that if my phone was turned completely off!
Happy Color is my favorite!
This is so interesting! I am very glad it did not make you feel bad. Like you said, you use it when you are alone for things that make you feel good. It’s a pet peeve of mine when people have their phones out in social situations too – I also only try to use it for photos, or if I want to show someone something.
I am glad you turned off some notifications! That has helped me so much. I just have messaging apps on on mine!
I spend a lot of time on my phone and Instagram is my most used app. I’ve made a lot of friends on there, so I use it to keep in touch with them!
I think it’s a lot different to use Instagram to connect with people than for those of us who simply just scroll, scroll, scroll mindlessly. I think it’s amazing what a lovely community you’ve built on Instagram! I’m just a mindless scroller most of the time, ha.
It’s really nice to not receive so many notifications now! Thanks for that suggestion. 🙂
Are you sure you weren’t a statistician in a previous life? 🙂 this is, of course, fascinating. For me, mostly, because I don’t use the apps you use at ALL. I never play games on my phone, and I don’t listen to podcasts other than those available through ESPN. My only notifications are those from messages, calendar, and phone calls. My usage would probably be 45% Washington Post (read the paper through the app), and then 20% ESPN radio (podcasts, see above), and 7-10% for Outlook (work email), Gmail (personal email) and Instagram. I should look for a couple of days just to get an idea, though!
So glad you turned off notifications and that you are limiting your time – but not TOO much! – on the apps that chewed up a lot of it…
Hahaha, I did dabble in data analytics for a previous marketing job. It was the only part of the job I liked! That’s probably where I got all of these data-gathering skills. It’s fun for me to put together charts like this and find connections. 🙂
This is so interesting in so many ways. I’d like to track my phone usage for a month or so some time to gain some more insights. One thing I can definitely relate to: I am MUCH LESS on my phone when I am around other people. Like, when I was in Germany with my family, I only used my phone to take pictures or to quickly look something up.
You use your phone a lot for games and listening apps – probably apps I use the LEAST. Isn’t that interesting? I definitely spent a lot more time on social media and my workout apps (looking at stats LOL, planing workouts, etc.)
I find the way people use their phones and what apps they use the most so interesting, too! We all have different needs and interests when it comes to our phones and all utilize our apps in entirely different ways!