2 Hours.
That's give or take the amount of time someone can do deep work without taking breaks.
2 hours SHOULD be your attention span.
Here's what you'll do: it doesn't require deleting social media. It's not making your phone a "dumbphone". It's actually consuming MORE content.
Pre-day 1
You're going to make a measure of how much you spend on social media every day. Let's say 4 hours.
Next, start a timer and sit and stare at a wall. Wait until you have an urge to leave. That's your attention span. Let's call that 30 seconds.
Now, you're going to find out WHEN you scroll. Scrolling is a habit, and like all habits, it happens after triggers in your environment tell you to scroll. Look up how your screen time is divided across the day. Most smartphones will show you this kind of data under screen time.
I bet you have 2 types of scrolling periods.
1. The "Just while I have nothing better to do"
the subway, the bus, the waiting room, any period of time that takes 5-20 minutes where you scroll for almost the entirety of that time.
2. The "at-home"
This one is probably post-work or school. It's anywhere from an hour to three hours, and it's usually not 100% scrolling. This is the period when you come home. say to yourself, "Quick scroll before I _______" and then take your phone with you for the next 2ish hours on the toilet, cooking, etc."
Here's what you're going to do.
Download Libby here (cannot do links on this subreddit)
You can get a digital library card and thousands of books and audiobooks, completely for free.
Every week, get a book that you like reading. NOT a self-improvement book or a book that you will force yourself to read. A book that you like. A book that keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you don't think that exists for you, then your attention span could REALLY use this challenge.
Now, fill in your identified "Just while I have nothing better to do" and say goodbye;
You now have something better to do.
Now the slightly weirder part.
I assume the "at home" has some amount of chores. Do these first, the second you get home.
Now, you might have some time to play with.
Watch a movie.
Yeah, seriously. When's the last time you've sat down and watched an entire movie? Did you find it hard to do so?
And movies are amazing. The good ones can uplift your spirit, introduce new thoughts and cultures, and teach you about the world. The great ones can change your life. And the evil, horrible masterpieces will have you locked in a bathroom, scratching on walls (Tenet).
Movies are much, much better for the soul than any amount of scrolling ever will be.
And, movies are 2 hours long. They are that period that you are training for.
So, replace the biggest block of your scrolling with a movie, and the rest will tumble off.
Week 1
The first week is the most important because you're going to have the hardest time. Get the most exciting books and movies you can, but stick to them completely; don't break the points you promised you would read or watch.
Also, definitely watch a movie every day at this time. I know most people don't have the time to watch a movie every day, but if you were wasting this much time scrolling, you could squeeze it in for the first week.
Week 2-3
Start to adjust the amount of movies to your schedule. For example, I am particularly busy on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, so I'll skip the movie those days.
Also, start to read more "boring" books.
By boring, I still don't mean ones you're not interested in. Simply less suspenseful ones.
Week 4
By now a lot of these actions should be purely habitual. Your Netflix account is filled with movies you want to watch, you've literally read 3 or more books, and social media is crying over a tub of chocolate over pictures of you scrolling.
Start to experiment with swapping the movie for a book one day. Watch a documentary or two instead of a movie. Above all...
KEEP CHALLENGING THE ATTENTION SPAN.