How I Created a Minimalist Phone to Cut My Screen Time in Half

by The Productive Pixie - May 23, 2026

Phones. Everyone has one, and at this point, they are pretty much necessary to have. You may have a love/hate relationship with your phone, and whether you like it or not, you probably have your phone with you constantly. There's been a growing trend of moving towards digital minimalism. Today, I'll share my experience with creating and using a minimalist phone!

How I Created a Minimalist Phone to Cut My Screen Time in Half

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While some people get rid of their smartphone entirely, and buy a flip-phone, that is not feasible for me as a college student. I would get so lost without Google Maps! 🤣

While I often use my phone to read books on Libby or to look at my schedule, I also find myself wanting to look at YouTube or read funny stories on Reddit.

As a college student, it is super easy to open up YouTube and watch random videos whenever you have downtime (during meals, before bed).

During my sophomore year of college, I had a lot of dance classes (5+ hours some days!!) and it was exhausting. During meals, I would grab some food and then just watch YouTube. The minutes add up quickly.

While YouTube can be informative, it can also be distracting, and I knew I wanted to use it in moderation. Plus, I already have enough screen time from doing homework!

Today, I'm going to share how I've built a minimalist phone. Some of these tips I've been using for over a year, and some of them I've been using for three months or so, and I've found them very helpful to remind myself to put my phone down if what I'm doing is unproductive.

I've cut my phone screen time by around 50% over the past two years, and these are tips you can easily implement on your own phone to reduce your screen time!

How I Created a Minimalist Phone to Cut My Screen Time in Half

1. Delete All Unnecessary Apps

This is more of a cliche tip, so it may not apply to you, so you can just keep scrolling if you already only have a minimal number of apps downloaded. But it's an excellent place to start when turning your phone into a minimalist tool.

Go through all of your apps and make sure that you only have necessary apps that you use regularly downloaded on your phone. I try to do this regularly!

My apps fall into these categories:

Scheduling Tools (calendar, time tracker)
Education (podcasts, reading)
Communication (emails, messages)
Tools (clock, calculator)
Health (health trackers, music)

At the time of writing this post, I have 55 apps downloaded on my phone. 12 of those apps are for communication (Messages, GroupMe, WhatsApp). Some apps, I cannot uninstall because they came pre-installed on my phone.

The number of apps you have on your phone may surprise you! I thought I had less, but here we are lol.

I don't have a single social media app on my phone. If I want to use social media, I have to use it in my browser, and the default on social media sites is to have them blocked, which means I have to go to an app that I'll talk about in a second and unblock it if I want to use it.

2. Turn Your Phone Black + White

Earlier this year, I read the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt because one of my marketing professors recommended it and this book made me think about how addictive my phone is. As a result, I started researching ways to make my phone less addictive.

Turning my phone display black and white is something, I never would have thought of doing on my own. In fact, I didn't think it was possible, but it is, and it is easy to try out.

Now, I can't say for sure if this tip has reduced my screen time, but it's been three months, and I haven't turned it off because a black-and-white screen is now my preference for my phone. Not sure if I'd say the same if I tried to turn my laptop screen black and white, but I prefer it on my phone. 🤣

It seems to be much more relaxing on my eyes, and it supposedly makes watching videos and colorful content less addictive, which I am a supporter of!

If you want to try it out for yourself, you can search online for instructions for your device to make your display black and white. It should be in your phone's accessibility settings!

3. Install a Minimalist Phone Launcher

I installed a minimalist launcher on my phone about three months ago. I no longer have app icons, and I have to search or scroll through a list to find the app I want.

This cuts down on mindless clicking from one app to the next. Previously, I had all of my apps in separate folders, but supposedly having app icons increases your screen time, so I've been testing out a minimalist phone launcher. It's basically just a list of all my apps in black and white, with a search bar at the top.

I like it, and I don't have any reasons to switch back to my old phone interface. When you have to search for an app, it makes you stop and think about whether you want to actually be using the app or not.

4. Track Your Screen Time

This was my first step towards controlling my screen time and building a minimalist phone. I started using an app called StayFree on both my phone and laptop. It's free, and I'm not sponsored by them or anything!

This app tracks my screen time on both my phone and my laptop, and it sends me a notification at the end of the day, telling me what my screen time is, which is super helpful for me!

If you aren't interested in using StayFree, there are bunch of other screen time management tools, you can use. You can also use your phone's built-in tools.

Tracking your screen time will help you identify areas of improvement. I aim for 2 hours or less on my phone each day.

5. Install an App Timer

This is such a gamechanger, especially in the beginning! StayFree has a built-in app blocker, and timers, so I use StayFree as my only screen time management tool. StayFree can be used to block any website or app.

I'd starting by putting a time-limit on apps that are taking up too much of your time, and then eventually deleting. An alternative option to deleting is to always have them blocked and then unblock the app when you need to use it, or it is your break day.

I allow myself to use YouTube over the weekend on my phone browser! For the most part, social media sites are always blocked.

6. Turn Off Nonessential Notifications

You almost have a minimalist phone! The last step is to turn off notifications on all of your nonessential apps because it's so distracting to be getting notifications at all hours of the day.

I like to have notifications on for all of my communication apps, and my school apps, so I know when people are trying to reach me, and so I know what my grades are.

The less notifications you have turned on though, the better!

How I Created a Minimalist Phone to Cut My Screen Time in Half

That is all there is to creating a minimalist phone! You can be as strict or as lenient as you like with these rules, as everyone uses their phone for different purposes.

I've been able to cut my own screen time on my phone by around 50% over the past two years, and I now use my phone for more productive purposes, such as reading books. (Reading books on my phone has caused my screen time to increase a little, but for a good purpose.)

Just remember that reducing your phone screen time is a process, and some days will be better than others. :)

If you enjoyed this post, you can read these other posts about how to reduce your phone screen time too!

I hope this post helps you build a minimalist phone! Let me know in the comments how you reduce your phone screen time!

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Tags : life systems, productivity

How I Created a Minimalist Phone to Cut My Screen Time in Half