Why I Stopped Tracking Screen Time (And What I Track Instead)

When you think about ways of monitoring your technology usage, most people will probably turn to screen time statistics.

Today, I want to share why I stopped tracking screen time, and why I'm tracking something far more important: phone pick-ups.

Let’s dive into why pick-ups are a useful metric, what they tell us, and actionable strategies for using our phones more deliberately.

📱What Are Pick Ups?

On most modern phones, a pick-up is defined as when the phone is woken from an idle state, which can consist of unlocking the device or actively engaging with a notification.

When I tried this with my iPhone, pick-ups were only logged when I actively engaged with my phone, rather than just moving it.

At the beginning of 2025, a survey carried out by Reviews.org found that Americans check their phones 205 times per day. This number has risen a crazy 42%, from 144 pick-ups, compared against a similar survey carried out in 2024.

Reviews.org carried out this survey on 1,000 Americans 18 years and older, so there is scope for broader research into this information.

🚨What Do Pick Ups Tell Us

The reason that I have started to monitor pick-ups is that I believe they provide a better indication of how deliberately I use my phone.

I leave a few apps running during the day, which can distort my screen time figure. For example, I do this when logging a gym workout or using my calorie-counting app. One of the worst, though, is when I use CarPlay while driving, as this is all logged as screen time despite not having the phone in my hands.

Leaving apps open and building screen time can then create an excuse for why that figure looks high. It was only when I noticed my high number of pick-ups that I recently recognised that my phone use was getting out of control.

Research continues to probe the impact of screens on our mental health, but there is a correlation between excessive screen time levels and an increased risk of depression, anxiety and concerns of isolation. For this reason, it is important for us all to be armed with the tools to control our phone use.

🧮Ratios

A ratio that I use to understand how deliberately I use my phone is pick-ups against notifications.

A study completed by Michigan Medicine of 11 to 17-year-olds found that the average number of notifications is currently 240 times per day.

If we take the 205 times on average Americans pick up their phone per day, and the 240 notifications in this example, this would provide the following ratio:

205 : 240, which equates to 0.85 : 1

My personal target = 0.5 : 1

With this ratio calculation, we are always looking to bring our pick-ups below our notifications. The lower this ratio, the more deliberately we are more likely to be using our phones.

Equally, we want to avoid an imbalanced ratio, where our pick-ups rise above our notifications, suggesting that we may use our phones more impulsively.

♟️Actionable Strategies

1. Consider Your Realistic Downtime: Work out when it is realistic for you to be away from your phone. There is no benefit if you pick times that you knowingly can’t stick to.
2. Emergency Contact Planning: A concern people raise around carrying their phones less is what happens when they need to be contacted in an emergency. To work around this, utilise the Do Not Disturb features to enable calls from certain individuals when switched on, or provide details of someone who will be with you when you are out of reach.
3. Do Not Disturb features: Looking at notifications is more likely to draw you to your phone. Do Not Disturb is great for ensuring that we aren’t drawn to our screens by incoming distractions.
4. Think It/Write It: Get into the habit of carrying a pocket-sized notebook and pen to capture thoughts. If you have a thought, idea, or fact you want to check, write it down in the notebook, and if you still have the inclination, check it later at a more deliberate point in time, when you need to go on your devices.
5. Buy a kSafe: This is a system to place your phone into a box, which sets the amount of time until you can open it again. This works best when you have a clear idea of your realistic downtime, but it helps to prevent willpower battles.

📈The Benefits

The major benefit of swapping pick-ups for screen time is that I believe it is a better gauge of how deliberately we use our technology.

I now think more consistently about my phone use, after realising screen time had become a metric I could hide behind.

I became more aware of that feeling of addiction when I could be on my phone one moment, put it down to focus on a task, and when a thought came to me, I would pick up my phone again. This pattern happened consistently.

Instead, focusing on pick-ups has reduced this anxiety-ridden feeling of needing my phone around me to satisfy a dopamine hit.

Technology can be a huge benefit to our enjoyment of life, but swapping screen time for pick-ups will help us to think about how deliberately we use our devices. If you can combine ways to think about screen time and pick-ups, then even better.

💭Closing Thoughts

Swapping screen time for pick-ups has had a positive impact on my life, and I hope after reading this, it will for you too.

It feels like pick-ups are still a metric which needs to be further supported. For example, at the moment, Apple enable iPhones to show a screen time widget on your home screen, but not for pick-ups. The more awareness people have around pick-ups, the more likely it is for companies to support these features.

If you want to find out more about this topic, check out my latest YouTube video.

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