A study recently reported that, in 2020, the average American spent 1,300 hours scrolling social media. That comes out to about 3.5 hours a day. Pretty crazy, huh? Maybe you’re grabbing your phone out of habit, boredom, because you have “free time,” or just to check in on friends. It starts as filling just a few minutes here and there, but it adds up fast! If we aren’t careful we’ve wasted more time than we intended just aimlessly scrolling through pictures of food! If you’re looking for ways to spend less time on your phone, here are four things you can do instead of scrolling social media.

Three Paths for Dual Credit

Read Something

Do you have a stack of books that you’d love to read, but you just “don’t have time?” Try reading instead of scrolling, and watch how quickly your pile shrinks! Having books available at your desk, on your nightstand, or on the coffee table make it so much easier to grab when you need to take five! You may only have a couple of minutes, but it takes less than that to read one page of a book.  If you make reading a habit instead of reaching for your phone, I think you’ll be amazed at how much you can actually read in one day!

Call or Text a Friend

I have friends that live all over the globe, and it can seem like a lot of work to stay in contact with them. I can learn a little about what is going on in their lives by scrolling through my newsfeed, but that isn’t really friendship. If I want to have actual meaningful relationships with my friends, I need to find the time to actually talk to them! I can do this by picking up my phone -not to scroll- but to call or text them! It just takes a few minutes to invest in someone!

Go For a Walk

Fresh air can work wonders on boredom. Take a walk around the block, go for a quick jog, or check out some plants in the backyard. Just go outside!  All it takes is a few minutes in God’s creation to feel refreshed! Getting outside is good for your mind and your lungs! When it’s time to go back inside, you can feel refreshed and ready to accomplish the next task rather than feeling sluggish and reaching for your phone.

Tackle a Project

Instead of turning to social media to kill time, is there something more productive you could do? In ten minutes, you could clean out or organize one dresser drawer. You could sort through a stack of papers. You could water houseplants or pull weeds. The possibilities are endless! Instead of scrolling mindlessly, set a timer and see what you can accomplish! I promise you it will be more fulfilling than seeing more staged pictures of people you don’t really like or plates of food that you can’t eat!

Next time you grab your phone out of habit because you have a few minutes to spare, I hope you think of these ideas! These are just some suggestions to get you thinking. There are so many other ways to wisely use our time to ensure we aren’t wasting it! If you have any other ideas that you think should be added to the list, let us know!

Get Becky’s Weekly Newsletter on Homeschooling High School

We will never sell or share your email address.