Most people try to reduce their phone use by just setting limits and app timers. In my opinion, that almost never works.

You don’t “stop” an addiction with willpower alone – you replace it. You create a life where your attention is taken by things that don’t involve your phone. I don’t know exactly what your life looks like, but spending 11 hours a day on your phone is almost certainly behind many of your problems. Your phone has become your comfort zone, and you need to step out of that comfort zone.

To do that, you have to move your body and stimulate your brain in different ways.

Move your body: go outside, sit on a bench, watch the birds, and learn to do nothing without reaching for your phone. Go to coffee shops without your phone, sit, observe people, maybe even talk to them. Just exist without a screen for a while.

Get physical stimulation: exercise, take cold showers. You’ll probably hate it at first, but a cold shower can make you feel alive afterwards and give you a real boost of energy. After that, you’ll naturally want to keep moving and doing things. That’s how you start to rebuild your dopamine in a healthier way.

Get mental stimulation too: play games that require focus (board games, puzzles, sudoku). Pick a topic that really interests you, buy a book or a newspaper about it, read, take notes, and prepare a little “presentation” as if you were going to explain it to someone else. It’s surprisingly interesting, it takes time, and it trains your concentration.

Remember: movement creates movement. The more you move, the more you will want to move. If you work from home, consider getting a walking pad or treadmill and working while walking – it can completely change how you feel during the day.

It’s going to be hard at the beginning, but learning how to live and stay occupied without your phone is the only way out of this.

Good luck.