Reduce your screen time

The global average is over 2 h 30 a day on social and video feeds alone — 18 h 36 a week (GWI, cited in DataReportal’s Digital 2026 Global Overview). Nobody decides to spend that time. Here is a four-setting method that doesn’t rely on your evening willpower.

1. Measure, before deciding anything

Open your phone’s report — Screen Time on iPhone, Digital Wellbeing on Android — and write down two numbers: the daily total, and the three apps taking most of it. The gap between what you assumed and what you read is the only motivation that doesn’t run out.

Those three apps are your list. Not ten: three. A block that covers everything is a block you switch off entirely at the first snag.

2. Understand why ordinary limits give way

Both systems can set a daily limit. And both attach a button to it: “Ignore limit” grants fifteen more minutes, or the whole day, in one tap. An Android timer is removed in one gesture. These tools ask politely, at the exact moment you’re least inclined to listen.

The problem isn’t a lack of discipline: it’s the asymmetry. On one side, a product tuned by thousands of people to hold your attention. On the other, your willpower at 11 pm. As long as the exit is free, the product wins.

3. Replace the ban with a price

Tempo’s idea fits in one sentence: screen time is no longer something you endure, it’s something you earn. The apps you pick stay shut; every real minute of activity — running, walking, the gym, cycling — credits screen minutes at the exchange rate you choose. While the balance is positive, your apps open. Using them spends it. At zero, everything shuts again.

What differs from a limit isn’t severity, it’s the nature of the exit. There is no “ignore” button any more: there is a pair of shoes. And the gesture that reopens the app is the one you wanted to make anyway.

4. Set four things, once

• The apps — your three, or a whole category (“Entertainment” covers YouTube, Netflix, Twitch in one gesture). The number is unlimited, free version included.
• The exchange rate — ×1 for strict parity, ×2 or ×3 if you’d rather start lenient. A rate that’s too harsh gets uninstalled in three days.
• The currency — workouts if you wear a watch, your steps otherwise: a thousand steps are worth about ten minutes of walking. Workouts entered by hand are left out.
• The daily cap — 60 screen minutes in the free version. Past it, what you earn waits for tomorrow, which stops one big workout from funding a whole evening.

What a month changes

Starting from 2 h 30 a day and aiming for 35 minutes of daily activity at ×1: around 57 fewer hours of scrolling over the month, and 17 more hours of activity. These aren’t hours lost on one side and gained on the other: it’s the same time, changed in kind. The simulator on the home page runs it with your own numbers.

And what it won’t do

Tempo is not parental control: you can uninstall it, and the block goes with it. It doesn’t see your TV or your laptop. It doesn’t replace a decision — it removes the part of the decision you had to make again every evening.

Frequently asked questions

How much daily screen time is “normal”?

The global average is over 2 h 30 a day on social and video feeds alone (GWI, cited in DataReportal’s Digital 2026 Global Overview). An average is not a target: the number that matters is yours, and the gap between what you assume and what your phone’s report shows.

Should I delete the apps?

It works for a week and costs a lot afterwards: you lose your messages and accounts, and reinstalling takes thirty seconds. An app that stays installed but shut, whose opening has a price, lasts longer than an app deleted by willpower.

How much exercise does it take?

Whatever you decide: the exchange rate is set at install, from one minute of activity per minute of screen up to one for three. Thirty-five minutes of activity a day at ×1 buys 35 minutes of screen a day.