You pick up your phone to check the time. Forty minutes later, you’re still on it, and you can’t even remember what you meant to do. It happens to everyone. With ADHD, it happens far more often, and far more intensely.
Why screens are so hard to resist
The ADHD brain is constantly looking for stimulation. Modern apps are designed to provide it endlessly: one short video, then another, a notification, a new message. Every new thing delivers a small hit of reward, with no effort at all.
Next to a task that’s long, vague or boring, it’s a cruel comparison. The phone wins almost every time. It isn’t a lack of willpower, it’s an imbalance between an immediate reward and a distant one.
A regulator, not just a distraction
Often, the screen isn’t only there to distract you. It also helps you calm down, escape an unpleasant feeling, or let off steam after a hard day. Like other regulators (sugar, alcohol, cannabis, compulsive work), it soothes you in the moment, then costs you time, energy and sleep.
So understanding what your screen does for you is more useful than simply banning it.
Taking back control without banning everything
1. Add friction
Turn off notifications that don’t come from actual people. Put the most addictive apps in a folder, away from your home screen. Log out of social media after each use. Every extra step gives you time to choose.
2. Decide where your phone lives
Not on your desk while you work, not in your bedroom at night. A fixed spot, out of sight, changes far more than any good resolution.
3. Replace rather than remove
If your screen is how you unwind, plan something else that does the same job: a ten-minute walk, listening to music, calling someone, moving your body. Removing without replacing leaves a gap that your phone will quickly fill again.
4. Observe without judging
For one week, look at your screen time and note down how you were feeling before you picked up your phone. Boredom, stress, loneliness, tiredness. This information is invaluable for finding real alternatives.
What we work on in coaching
“What you use to switch off”, whether that’s screens, substances or compulsive work, is one of the six areas we measure at the beginning and at the end of my programme. We mainly work on it in Block 2, “Physical basics”, with no judgement and no bans, looking for what genuinely works for you.