20-20-20 Rule for Eye Strain
A simple evidence-based protocol to prevent digital eye strain (computer vision syndrome): every 20 minutes, look at something 20...
20 seconds every 20 minutes during screen use
24-Hour Phone Fast
Once per month, turn off your phone for a full 24 hours. Not airplane mode — OFF. The first 2 hours feel like withdrawal. By hour...
24 hours, once per month
App Time Limits with Friction
Behavioral economist BJ Fogg's research at Stanford shows that making a behavior even slightly harder dramatically reduces its...
15 min setup, then ongoing
Digital Declutter (30-Day Reset)
Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism protocol: remove ALL optional technology for 30 days, then reintroduce only what adds genuine...
30-day commitment, saves 2-4 hours/day after
Digital Minimalism 30-Day Declutter
Cal Newport's structured 30-day protocol for resetting your relationship with technology. Rather than tweaking screen time, you...
30 days full protocol, then ongoing intentional use
Digital Sabbath (Weekly Tech-Free Day)
One day per week (Saturday or Sunday), go completely screen-free. No phone, no laptop, no TV, no tablet. Inspired by the ancient...
One full day per week
Digital Sunset (No Screens After 9 PM)
Set a hard cutoff: no screens after 9 PM (or 2 hours before bed). Phone, laptop, tablet, TV — all off. The blue light suppresses...
No extra time — reclaims 1-2 hours of evening
Doom Scrolling Interruption Protocol
A multi-layered strategy for breaking the compulsive consumption of negative news and social media feeds. Doom scrolling exploits...
Immediate implementation, 2-4 weeks to establish new patterns
Dopamine Baseline Reset
Andrew Huberman's protocol for resetting dopamine to healthy baseline levels. Rather than eliminating dopamine, the goal is to...
30 days minimum, ongoing practice
Dopamine Reset Protocol (30-Day Fast)
Dr. Anna Lembke, Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Clinic, explains in 'Dopamine Nation' that our brains maintain a...
30-day commitment
Email Batching Protocol
Tim Ferriss popularized email batching in 'The 4-Hour Workweek,' and subsequent research from the University of British Columbia...
3 fixed windows of 20-30 min each
Mindful Consumption Audit
A comprehensive weekly self-audit protocol for examining all forms of digital and media consumption — not just screen time, but...
1 week audit, then monthly 30-minute reviews
Notification Audit Protocol
A study by Duke University and the University of British Columbia found that people check their phones 96 times per day on...
20 min initial audit, 5 min/month maintenance
Notification Diet
Systematically eliminating all non-essential push notifications to reclaim attention and reduce the Pavlovian dopamine response...
30 minutes to set up, permanent lifestyle change
Phone Grayscale Mode
Converting your phone display to grayscale (black and white) to reduce the dopamine-triggering effects of colorful app...
7-day minimum trial, seconds to set up
Screen Time Audit & Reduction
A data-driven protocol for understanding and systematically reducing screen time. Most people vastly underestimate their daily...
1 week audit + 4-6 weeks active reduction
Screen-Free Morning Protocol
Checking your phone first thing in the morning puts your brain in a reactive state — you're responding to other people's...
30-60 min screen-free after waking
Single-Tasking Deep Work Blocks
Cal Newport's 'Deep Work' hypothesis, supported by research from Gloria Mark at UC Irvine, argues that the ability to focus...
1-4 hours/day
Social Media Audit & Curate
Your feed is your mental diet. Audit who you follow: unfollow everyone who makes you feel worse about yourself, and deliberately...
30 minutes for the audit, then better daily experience
Social Media Diet (Curated Consumption)
Research from the University of Pennsylvania found that limiting social media to 30 minutes per day significantly reduced...
30 min/day social media cap
Social Media Fasting
Structured abstinence from all social media platforms for either 7 or 30 days. Research consistently shows that even 1 week off...
7 or 30 days
Tech Sabbath (Weekly Digital Rest)
Inspired by the ancient practice of Sabbath rest and adapted by Tiffany Shlain in her book '24/6,' the tech sabbath is a full...
24 hours/week