If you read my recent piece on refining how I use my devices to maximise their value, you’ll know that the one major thing I wanted to help this was more insight into how I used them. Screen Time is that thing.
In the most Apple way, the data is accompanied with pretty graphs, and there’s quite a bit of information available. You see the apps that have taken up your screen, how many notifications you receive from each app, how often you pick up the phone, and even what your longest session was.
I haven’t received one yet, of course, but Screen Time will also give you a weekly activity summary. Which would be a good time to reflect on how the week went, and then take measures to ensure you use your devices in the ideal way.
If you want to be more strict with yourself, there’s some settings you can play around with, to ensure you know when to stop looking at your phone.
Downtime is a period of time where you will not be able to open any applications that are not in your Allowed list, ideal for setting a strict bedtime. Then you have App Limits, where you set an amount of time that you’re allowed to use on a specific app, or category, and they can even be specific for each day of the week. Finally, there’s a bunch more restrictions you put on yourself, but these apply more to parents who want to stop their children from accessing certain content, or just ensure they don’t just sit on Minecraft all day (what I used to do).
I’m super happy with this feature, and I can’t wait to see my first weekly report. Although I imagine this weeks will be completely skewed, as I’m using my device more than usual to try and find any cool new things in the beta.