Left to your own devices

To break free from screen time, here's a trick: Spread your apps and use across more devices. It will trim distraction, if you let it

- Christalle Fernandes

Picture this: It's TooEarlyAM. The phone alarm's ringing. You've hit Snooze twice already. Now it's time to wake up. The screen, however, shows 11 notifications on Gmail, four on Insta and - wait a minute - two on Hinge. You're in bed, checking people out. Then, on to Insta. The landing page throws up a new cat video with hilarious comments... LOL Reaction. Heart. And, finally those DMs. Now for Gmail: Ads. 50% off coupon with a link to the site. So you do a little browsing, and add an outfit for date night with Hinge cutie. Wait. How is it TooLateAM already? Didn't you just wake up?

It's like that all day. We're on our laptops, but we've got 20 tabs about Justin Baldoni open as the office meeting drags on. We pick up the phone to set a reminder, but fall into the rabbit hole of plane crash footage and sushi ASMR. We open Facebook to check on an event, but end up stalking all the people tagged in the ex's NYE photo.