Two of the things that have brought me the most joy during lockdown have been the Twitter accounts Bookcase Credibility (‘What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you’) and Room Rater.

Partly inspired by Credibiilty Bookcase, and partly by a tweet I saw during the week, yesterday I re-ordered all of the apps on my phone into colour groupings.

My home screen looked great.

Then, having changed the entire layout I somehow got it into my head that the best time to try going greyscale would be after all of my apps had been put into sections entirely based on the colour of their icon.

Colours I could no longer see.

With apps in positions I’d only just moved them to.

This wasn’t a well-planned experiment, but it was a fascinating one.

I’d read quite a while ago that taking the colour away from your apps helps to lessen the time you end up spending on your phone.

The vibrant colour palette of your home screen is designed to suck you in and make you want more.

The effect was instantaneous.

Using my iPhone is quite honestly about 95% less fun now. It’s actually an almost depressing experience. And I certainly don’t feel the need to pick it up and put it down again constantly.

One of my aims for this year had been to reduce my screen time. I’d built out a plan for it in my Passion Planner and was making modest progress until lockdown hit. I’m sure tales of hour-long scrolls through corona news will sound familiar to most people. It’s been hard to find a way to switch myself out of a doubled usage time, but I think I might have found the cure.

I just wish it didn’t have to be so, so unsatisfying.

To get an idea of just how effective this trick is, try it for yourself.

There’s a reason Apple hide this option away so carefully.