Reading the World: 5 Ways to Reduce Screen Time

There’s a world blooming beyond your phone screen. A breeze that doesn’t ask to be swiped. A page that waits, not scrolls.

If your days have started to blur between tabs and timelines, maybe it’s time to return — to slower things, softer light, and silence that listens.

Here are five slow, beautiful ways to reduce your screen time without turning it into a self-discipline contest.

1. Make Your Mornings Sacred — Screen-Free for the First Hour

Let your day begin with your own thoughts, not someone else’s feed. Light a diya. Read a poem. Write in your journal. Water the plants while humming your grandmother’s song. These quiet acts create a membrane between you and the noise.

✨ Try this: Keep your phone outside the bedroom. Wake up with real sunlight, not blue light.

2. Set a Reading Ritual You Look Forward To

Trade some of your scrolling time for a daily reading ritual — not as a chore, but a sanctuary. Keep your book close to your chai. Carry a novella in your bag. Let your fingers turn pages, not glass.

✨ Try this: Replace one digital break per day with 10 minutes of reading something tactile — a book, a zine, a magazine.

3. Create ‘No-Screen Niches’ at Home

Designate a space that doesn’t allow devices — just for conversations, crafts, or quiet. Let that space smell like incense, wood polish, or freshly brewed coffee. Let it invite you to be.

✨ Try this: A low table with floor cushions, a woven rug, and a bowl of jamuns can be your phone-free haven.

4. Replace Endless Input with One Beautiful Output

Sometimes we scroll because we feel empty. But we don’t need more input. We need to create something with our own hands —Even if it’s a small sketch, a hand-sewn patch, or maybe a bowl of dal.

✨ Try this: Spend 30 minutes each week creating something you’d never post online.

5. Practice Digital Fasting, Not Digital Fear

This isn’t about guilt. Or shame. It’s about choosing presence over performance.Designate screen-free windows in your day —like you’d rest between meals or fast during sunrise.

✨ Try this: 2 hours offline each evening. Call it your “inward hours.”

And yes, we know —

You’re reading this on a screen.

But that’s the gentle irony of our time, isn’t it?

We live in a digital world, and yet long for things that slow us down.

Kriti lives here too — online —But we’re not in a hurry.We’ll be right here whenever you return. No pings. Just stories woven slowly. Come back when your heart wants a quiet corner again.

Kriti May 2025 Edition

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