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A customer of ours recently wrote us a letter to share how she got a handle on her screen addiction habit and we thought to share her inspiring story with you. So here it is!
Feeling Trapped by Screen Addiction
Dear Jon, I just want to say how grateful I am for your app. It’s an absolutely essential part of me living my life’s purpose.
In January 2018, I had spent $1600 on a 12-session coaching package and tried ALL these things to overcome my screen addiction habits.
I was glued to the screen as soon as I engaged with it – whether it be my smartphone or laptop. I was wasting on average 17 hours per week on social media (yikes!), going to sleep 2 hours later than I wanted, opening up new browsers to follow research whims (instead of working), and getting lost on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
I’m a major procrastinator and I work online, so I was struggling to keep the focus.
And as a stay-at-home work-at-home mom with two young children, I needed ways to “take a break”, and found it super easy to choose the less healthy escape of being on a device.
So much time was lost. I felt low energy and sort of depressed from the habit. I was stuck.
It wasn’t really me. I knew that I was way off track with thriving in my life. So I began a journey of discovering what I needed to act in more integrity.
Extreme Attempts to Break the Habit
I talked to my friends about my new inspiration to separate from screen addiction. One friend of mine, who I experience as very self-disciplined, told me she was “too weak” to have a smartphone. I was like, wow, she’s so healthy and conscious about her life choices, and here she is admitting to being weak!
That gave me permission to admit I’m weak too.
I decided to try getting rid of my smartphone. I downgraded to a “QWERTY” phone (one with a mini keyboard) to make it easier for texting. I had to rig up a service, and to be honest, the signal wasn’t strong enough, and I still kept my smartphone for the camera, etc.
So I decided to go back to the smartphone, but changed my service (no data) and got rid of WiFi in the house so that there was no way I could stay up late one more night on my phone scrolling and consuming useless content (that made me feel sick – like eating too many donuts! [which I was doing too, but how I’m overcoming food addiction is another story for another day!]).
When we got rid of the WiFi, I still had to deal with the internet on my laptop.
I tried three other productivity browser extensions and two other productivity apps, before finding FocusMe. The problem I had before FocusMe was that I could not fully customize the settings of the other apps. I had to get extra add-ons and services to make the whole thing work for me. Not to mention that the other apps and extensions were easy to uninstall.
Finding What Actually Worked
So I found FocusMe and immediately set up what I needed! As the months went on, I closed up the loopholes of which websites I need to stay blocked from, and how. I’m refining my FocusMe settings every 2–4 months.
Through all of this, I realized there’s really nothing wrong with me. I have weaknesses and I have strengths, and just by being honest about my addictive habits with screens, I found a way to build better habits.
So that’s really all! I tried coaching, getting rid of my smartphone, getting rid of WiFi, and a bunch of other apps, but FocusMe is pretty much all I need and will need for years to come. So grateful.
By the way the 12 coaching sessions in 2018 were actually fantastic, and one reason is that they served as an accountability support for me to get FocusMe all set up! Ha ha.
Thanks again for your service and all the regular updates and friendly community.
Sincerely,
Dominique
Wow, right? We hear stories like this sometimes, but not enough. If you’re killing it with FocusMe – or even struggling – would you comment below or email me on jon [at] focusme.com? What’s working and what’s not?
We need to get these stories out there. There’s nothing wrong with you if you struggle with digital addictions. It happens to the best of us! But I’d love to see a world of empowered purpose-driven people free from the screen.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
The blog tells the story of a stay-at-home mom who couldn’t stop scrolling Facebook and felt trapped by screen addiction, losing time and energy and struggling to focus on her priorities.
She was wasting about 17 hours per week on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, which affected her sleep and productivity.
Because she worked and lived at home with her children, she used scrolling as a convenient escape, which became a default break that actually drained her energy and pulled her off track from her goals.
She first talked with friends about her goals and even tried removing her smartphone, switching to a basic phone and later changing service to remove data and the home Wi-Fi, but still struggled with access on her laptop.
Removing Wi-Fi helped limit phone usage at night, but she still had the internet on her laptop, so the distraction remained and she couldn’t fullyquit the habit with that change alone.
She experimented with several productivity browser extensions and apps, but they didn’t work well because they lacked customization and were easy to uninstall or bypass.
She found FocusMe, a productivity tool that allowed her to customize blocks and settings precisely for her needs and gradually remove distractions over time.
She sets up rules to block sites that distract her and refines her settings every few months to stay focused, closing “loopholes” and maintaining better habits.
She learned that there was nothing inherently wrong with her, she simply had strengths and weaknesses like anyone else. Acknowledging her screen addiction honestly helped her build healthier habits.
Yes, she felt that her earlier coaching sessions were valuable, especially as accountability while she was setting up FocusMe and working on her goals.
