The primary goal of eradicating consumptive screen time is using that time towards something productive instead (like work, health, relationships). There are definitely qualitative mental health benefits as well (speaking from personal experience) but the scope of this post is time saved only. I will only be tackling consumptive screen time categories that have the highest potential to steal away long chunks of your time.
I believe that making hard environmental changes (i.e. adding more friction between you and more consumptive screen time) is better at achieving that goal as opposed to relying on will power. This could mean both digital and physical restrictions such as getting rid of a "problem" device altogether. (Though I am not yet sold on the so called dumb phones). Just keep 1 regular laptop and 1 regular smart phone since they are essential to modern life and work. Having lesser devices always helps towards this goal as it simplifies the system, leading to less failures.
I only believe in blocking "problem" applications/flows. I do not believe in "minor" frictions like making your screen greyscale, or time/duration-based blocking. Keep ONLY the "problem" screens blocked 24x7. Do not make the usage of actually useful digital applications harder on yourself.
For me, consumptive screen time usually falls under these 3 categories: doom scrolling, TV, YouTube. It is essential that you become aware of what your categories are. For example, yours could be video games. The rest of this post is specific to my categories, but please adapt and cater it to your own predilections.
Doom scrolling to me means any screen where you can keep on scrolling infinitely. Which includes apps like Instagram/Reels, YouTube/Shorts, X/Twitter, Reddit, TeamBlind, LinkedIn, etc. I also used to waste a lot of time on HackerNews even though it is technically not doom scrolling. But I mostly only wasted time on the comments section so I try to block that selectively.
Delete all native applications on your phone/laptop that allow for consumptive screen time, except for 1 web browser (as it is essential for modern work/life). Figure out a way to block individual websites through browser extensions (like LeechBlock) or through other provisions that are sometimes given on an operating-system level.
For me, it was easiest to de-addict myself from the nastiest culprits like Reels/Shorts/Twitter. Apps like HackerNews/YouTube fall under a grey area where you DO derive some value from parts of the experience. These need to be blocked selectively. Again, do not rely on your will power for these grey area items.
Do not deal in absolutes. For example, if you doom scroll Reddit, realize that instead of blocking all of Reddit, you can choose to block only the doom scrolling pages while keeping the post pages allowed (for when you Google something that leads to a useful Reddit post). You do not want to waste time disabling your entire blocking system just to see one useful Reddit post. Because then you'll get annoyed at the blocking system and get rid of it.
reddit.com +reddit.com/r/
This requires trial and error. The system won't be finished on day 1. Keep noticing screens where you're wasting your time and keep updating the system incrementally. You can start small. Don't strive for perfection. Don't block more than you can handle. You can gradually ramp up as you get used to lower consumptive screen times.
YouTube has a web browser extension called "Unhook" that allows you to remove all shorts and recommendations from all YouTube screens and redirects you to your subscribed videos only. If you subscribe judiciously to high quality YouTube channels you will realize quickly enough that it is hard to waste time on YouTube with this system because interesting uploads are quite sparse even if you have dozens of subscriptions. If an extension does not exist for removing the addictive elements from your specific website, ask AI to write a tampermonkey script for it.
Speaking of which, do not use AI for long drawn tasks at work. Use it in a way that can help you maintain a constant state of flow in your work. Else distraction will ensue. Same for any other autonomous tasks like querying, compiling, etc. Maintain a flow state instead of waiting for these kinds of tasks to finish.
TV → for me what worked was not having any subscriptions. *(More details needed)?
If you find yourself craving screens, realize that that's the system working. DO NOT succumb to temptation. Use that energy/agitation. First, calm yourself by sitting and doing nothing for a bit and then transmute that energy into propelling yourself into doing something productive.
But what if you don't have anything productive to work on at the moment? Just sit and do nothing or read books. Do anything tranquil that is not consumptive. As I often say, eradicating consumptive screen time is perhaps better than even mindfulness meditation. As long as you follow it consistently.
In the end, also have a daily habit tracker and put a tick on it whenever you are able to go through the day without breaking your anti consumptive screen time system. Remember, feedback is paramount, not just ticking. If you find yourself not being able to tick several days in a row, make the system easier until you can. You can always tune it back up a bit more once you are consistently beating the "easier" levels.