Why I'm re-starting the smartphone challenge this time in family mode?

A few months ago I started a challenge for myself: using my smartphone way less. No more than 15 minutes per day.

How it went so far

For a few weeks I really was able to make it happen in solo mode. In fact I found also smart work arounds like using my Apple Watch to reduce screen time. The Apple watch is frustrating enough as a tool to make you think often: I don't need to do that, or I don't need to do that now.

But in the end it didn't work out longer, after a few months with some mental health challenges, it wasn't the best time to do one of these challenges.

Why I'm starting again

The reasons for doing the smartphone challenge haven't gone away. In fact I have even more reasons to do it:

• Mimicking: my son suddenly when playing "dad" swiped on his hand as dad does. That was not a thing I liked to see my son mimick.

• Teenage impact: friends have been telling me about how smartphone usage is a real challenge for their teens.

So we set out with my wife to do again this challenge, but this time together.

We've decided to reduce drastically our smartphone usage for one full month. The idea is that:

• If we can't manage: it's a sign that we have a real addiction and that therefore we need to take some serious actions.

• If we can manage it: it's a sign we don't need to have our smartphones to be so present in our family life and we can't continue the challenge for longer up until it's not a challenge anymore but just a habit.

Our rules for this challenge

This time we've set out the following rules for our challenge:

• We do it together: so we end the day by sharing how much screen time we each have.

• 30 minutes: that's the max screen time on our smartphones we're allowed in a day, and that includes everything.

• No smartphone in the flat: in our entry where we put our keys and shoes we put our smartphone in a drawer whenever we enter our flat.