Can you reduce your screen time as a creator?

Hey passionate creator,

You’ve heard the warnings before: Too much screen time is bad for you. But as a creator, isn’t it inevitable?

According to the experts, we should be limiting our screen time to no more than 2 hours outside of work. But when your working hours aren't defined, the boundaries are easily blurred. And for the side-hustlers who have full-time jobs, this limit seems even more impossible.

This is definitely what I struggle with: I create for Passionfroot full-time, and I work on my own YouTube channel outside of my working hours. As a result, my screen time has been shockingly high. I clocked in at almost 14 hours a day in December and it had a lot of negative effects:

🤕 Headaches

👋🏽 Eye strain and saying goodbye to 20/20 vision

🥱 Poor sleep quality

🛋️ Less exercise

😠 Feelings of irritation and restlessness (dopamine addiction)

I realised that I had to make some changes. So, despite my need to be online for work and YouTube, I’ve managed to cut down on my screen time by approximately 4 hours a day. Here’s how:

• I use Slack more efficiently. We use Slack to communicate, but I wasted a lot of time trying to read every single message, even if it wasn’t relevant to me. Now I hide all channels except for those with unread messages and I've marked the channels that are relevant to me as high priority.

• Dictation. I stare out of the window as I reply to messages, emails, and even write articles using dictation. I look at the screen to edit my writing afterwards, but this has helped my eyes and my train of thought. Voicenotes have also been a game changer for replying to WhatsApp messages.

• Listen instead of look. If I’m in a meeting, and there aren't any slides to look at, I rest my eyes and listen to everyone instead of staring at them. When possible, I'll even request calls instead of virtual meetings.

• Turn off notifications. I never let my devices tell me when to look at them. Instead, I check emails twice a day, and I use my phone only when I actually need to.

• Going tech-free wherever possible. I choose my notebook over Notion or apps and I enjoy painting and cooking over browsing.

• Batching screen time. I used to reply to comments on YouTube whenever I got a free moment and felt bored. Now I set aside a few minutes each day to reply to comments or go on social media.

Online creators don’t have to be doomed to excess screen time. Our work might be on the screen, but our lives don’t have to be.

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Passionfroot Community

We're thinking of starting a community for creators! This could be a space for you to get feedback on your Passionfroot page, sponsorship rates, content, or anything else! We want to make this as valuable as possible, so if you have 2 minutes to spare, we would really appreciate it if you could fill out this survey.

Stay passionate,

Akta