How Cutting My Screen Time Helped My Business Grow More Than Ever

A year ago, I tossed and turned in bed at night trying to fall asleep, feeling like my head was a fuzzy, buzzing mess.

I couldn’t stop replaying moments from my day: an annoying text I got from someone, a reel I saw on Instagram about an earthquake that destroyed an entire community, worrying about what would come tomorrow.

The next day, I woke up to my weekly screen time report.

“This week, you averaged 8 hours per day of screen time on this device.”

Eight hours. That’s longer than I’d slept the night before. I could get to Paris faster than that.

The Trap of Calling It “Work”

There’s this funny thing that happens when you run an online business. We can easily justify all time spent online as time working.

What I didn’t know then, but know now, is that so much of the time I was spending online wasn’t just unnecessary doomscrolling. It was actually hurting my business’s growth.

Over the past year, I’ve completely reshaped my relationship with my phone and my screen time overall. Not just to be more productive offline, but because I’ve reevaluated how I spend my time in general, and worked hard to wrestle my attention span and my ability to be present back from the algorithm.

The Results Speak for Themselves

It’s no accident my business grew a lot this year. It’s doing better than ever, at a time when everyone’s saying everything online is dying and nothing works anymore.

And I’m not hustling harder to make that happen. I’m actually hustling a lot less.

The difference now is where I spend my time. When I work, I work on things that matter: my newsletter, big-picture marketing strategy, reaching out for podcast interviews, planning and writing my own content with the mental space to actually approach it creatively.

By removing the wasted time on social media, time I would have called “work” before, I’ve also let my nervous system relax enough that it doesn’t constantly feel like it’s being chased by something.

It’s Not About Doing More

I know it feels like you have to do more, more, more to grow. But maybe it’s not about doing more. It’s about doing less, better. It’s about taking care of yourself as a business owner enough to actually come up with great ideas, or have the energy and desire to shoot a video in the first place.

Try combing through your to-do list and focusing on quality over quantity. I’m curious what happens when you do.

36 Days With a Bricked Phone

I’ve had my phone “Bricked” for 36 days straight. The Brick [affiliate link] is a small device that goes on your fridge. You choose which apps to block, then physically tap your phone to the device to unblock them, adding real friction to the reach for social media. It also has a scheduling feature that blocks apps automatically at certain times.

For 36 days, I haven’t had Instagram on my phone. Honestly, I’m a little scared of how good it’s felt.

Can we really run online businesses without constantly being on social media? Is there a happy medium? I batch record content and have my team handle posting, and I’ve sacrificed doing Stories or staying on top of every trend. I’ve accepted the trade-off, for now.

If your relationship with screen time and social media has you questioning whether online business is even worth it anymore, you’re not alone. I’d love to know how you’re feeling about it too.

Learn how to confidently setup your online business without worrying you’re making legal mistakes in my free legal class, 5 Steps to Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business.

In my free legal class, you’ll learn:

• if the fear of doing something wrong is blocking your potential
• what your website needs to be legally sound
• which contracts you need that will totally save your (vegan) bacon
• how to form your business the right way to protect YOU
• the only way to keep copycats from stealing your content (it’s not what you think!)

Ready to breathe a gigantic sigh of relief?