Thanks to the multiple wellbeing related features on pixel phones I've been able to set up a decent phone environment to reduce my phone usage while also keeping all the features of a modern phone. Another method would have been to simply sell my current phone and get a minimalist one, but I don't consider this a decent solution since I think modern phones are necessary to live in our modern time, socially and professionally.

Beeper

I noticed that I often answered a message from a friend on a social network (instagram, snapchat, TikTok) then right away I would spend 15 min scrolling. This is how those apps work, they trigger an urge of spending time on the app by putting your social life and addictive entertainment at the same place. Like everyone from my generation I cannot delete those apps because this is an important part of my social life and this is how I connect to my friends and also reconnect to people. So I installed beeper which centralizes my messages from multiple apps in one single app on a single minimalist interface, very inspired by WhatsApp. I will still authorize myself to use the main app a few times per day to watch people stories, scroll, etc but I want to do it consciously instead of scrolling because I felt the urge to do it.

Custom phone mode

Google pixels let you create your own "focus mode". So I made my own one with the following features: - I can only receive real-time notifications from some apps (calendar, beeper for all the messages, calls, and some software information). I never have the need to receive the other notifications in real time, for example, it does not matter if I receive a new post notification from Reddit now or a few hours after but by hiding the notification I won't be clicking on it and wasting time when I should be working instead. - The screen is changed to black and white. It's crazy how much less I want to use my phone when everything is black and white. Sometimes I unlock my phone and I see some addictive apps and I wonder why would I even click on those, the attraction to those apps is almost annihilated.

App placement

Easy tip, but I noticed placing the "addictive" apps all the way on the last desktop of my phone reduced the urge a lot. Simply because opening my phone to read a message and then seeing TikTok or instagram right in front of me made it really easy to switch from answering a message to spending 15 min scrolling.

Usage limitation by app

Digital wellbeing app from Google pixels lets you limit the amount of time you can spend on an app before it is deactivated. Obviously you can reactivate the app easily, but I noticed I still save time using this feature because even if sometimes (often) I end up reactivating the app it's usually hours after (before the guilt would be too strong) so at the end of the day this feature helps me to use my phone less.

Spotify controlled from my pc

Another pattern I noticed is that I often use my phone to change the current music/playlist on spotify and I end up scrolling for 10-15 min right after instead of going back to my activities. So I now try to switch music from my computer instead.