One Simple Trick To Stop Doomscrolling - Catherine Price

Price developed this mindfulness-based exercise to combat the automatic habit of phone checking. Most people reach for their phone on autopilot, having been conditioned to associate it with a reward—usually the alleviation of boredom or anxiety. The physical prompt (rubber band/hair tie) creates a split-second of awareness. The three questions then decode the trigger: the 'what for' surfaces whether there's a real task; 'why now' digs into the emotional state (bored, lonely, overwhelmed); 'what else' opens alternatives—calling a friend instead of scrolling for connection, taking a walk instead of a distraction break, doing nothing to let the brain decompress, or consciously choosing phone time. This process respects autonomy while building metacognition. Price emphasizes that if you end up on the phone after asking, you've succeeded because the whole point is intentionality. Over time, this practice rewires the habit loop and reduces overall screen time without willpower alone.

Price first tried this with her husband; they locked away their phones at 5 p.m. on a Friday. Initially their brains screamed with demands to check, but they tolerated the distress. By morning they felt calmer, and by 11 a.m. they were stunned at how slowly time had passed—normally it would have been 3 p.m. because of hours lost to screens. David Greenfield, an addiction specialist, explains that screen time induces a dissociative state that accelerates subjective time, so removing the screen reverses that. The 24-hour break serves as both a diagnostic (seeing how much time you reclaim) and a therapeutic reset. Many participants in her programs report a similar expansion of time and a newfound appreciation for offline life. It’s also a cornerstone of her book’s breakup plan.

Price calls this the single most effective life hack. The blue light from screens mimics daylight, telling the brain it’s daytime and delaying sleep onset, essentially giving you self-inflicted jet lag. Sleep deprivation then elevates cortisol, leading to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Moreover, keeping the phone as an alarm forces you to touch it first thing in the morning, setting your entire day’s emotional tone based on whatever you see. By putting a book where the phone used to be, you also address attention span: reading a book is a concentration workout, and even a few minutes before bed and upon waking can rapidly improve your ability to focus. She notes that many people who can’t get through a magazine article see quick improvement after adopting this habit.

Price argues that smartphones are slot machines in our pockets because apps are packed with variable rewards. By stripping the phone down to boring utilities, you eliminate the candy-store effect. She personally removed email and news because those were her time sinks. It’s a zero-willpower approach: when the phone offers nothing interesting, the autopilot urge fizzles. This fits with the principle of environment design over discipline.

Price emphasizes that our brains’ natural state is distractibility. Concentration requires effort. Meditation trains the very skill phones erode: sustaining attention on one thing and ignoring distractions. She mentions mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a framework she has used. Combined with the WWW check-in, meditation creates a meta-awareness that makes it easier to catch the impulse to pick up the phone. It’s not a quick fix but a foundational practice.

Price noticed she was brushing her teeth while making the bed, neither done well. She recommends intentionally doing one thing at a time as a way to retrain the brain’s tolerance for lower stimulation and to improve the quality of experience. It’s a micro-practice that complements larger breaks.

Price discovered this the hard way. After writing 'How to Break Up with Your Phone', she suddenly had hours of reclaimed time but fell into existential depression because she hadn’t defined what she wanted to pay attention to. This led her to write 'The Power of Fun'. True fun, as she defines it, is a mix of playfulness, connection, and flow. It’s distinct from fake fun (like scrolling) that provides quick dopamine but leaves you hollow. When people cultivate real fun, screen time naturally drops because the phone can’t compete. This shifts the focus from ‘what to avoid’ to ‘what to live for’. She sees it as the ultimate what-else answer.

Price explains three pathways phones impair memory: they prevent experiences themselves (if you’re looking at a screen, you’re not in the moment), they overwhelm working memory, and most alarmingly, they disrupt the consolidation of new memories. The formation of a long-term memory requires the brain to synthesize new proteins, a process easily derailed by distraction. Once interrupted, the memory is lost. She draws a direct line from this to creativity: insights require raw material (memories) to connect; without a stored mental pantry, we become less creative, less interesting, and collectively 'dumber'. On a train between DC and Philadelphia, she recognized the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Eric Kandel across the aisle—the very scientist who discovered that memory consolidation needs new proteins. She knelt down and asked if her hypothesis was plausible, and he confirmed it was. The takeaway: our screen habits aren’t just distracting us in the moment; they may be eroding the foundation of human thought.

Price and her husband tried a 24-hour phone break, starting on a Friday evening. They experienced intense anxiety as their brains demanded checking, then slept, woke calmer, and were astonished that by mid-morning only a few hours had passed—normally it would have been late afternoon. David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, explains that screen use causes dissociation from real life, accelerating subjective time. The break not only slows time but also breaks the automaticity of the habit, acting as a reset. Price recommends it as part of the breakup plan, noting that many report similar slowdown effects.

Price cites Tristan Harris’s recent work on the 'intimacy economy', where algorithms aim to make us feel in a relationship. AI chatbots like Replika or Character.AI already form deep attachments; teenagers have died by suicide linked to such interactions. She worries that as voice and video improve, people will increasingly choose flawless, affirming AI partners over unpredictable humans. Foreign adversaries could use this for mass manipulation. She notes that even her own interactions with ChatGPT provide overly affirming responses that never challenge her. She found the movie 'Her' from 2013 disturbingly prescient. While the host suggests men might be immune due to the need for prestige and being chosen, she remains unconvinced, pointing to loneliness and the ease of scams.

Price observes that the relentless algorithmic curation of fashion, culture, and thought has killed subcultures; everything blurs into one global monotone. The constant churn of TikTok aesthetics (e.g., 'hot girl summer' then 'feral girl summer' then 'brat summer') leaves no time for genuine identity formation. Within this context, opting out becomes a powerful statement. She mentions that she’s noticing a growing number of young people who make a public stance of not being on social media to preserve their uniqueness, which gives her some bedtime hope.

In her current Substack phone breakup challenge, participants report feeling more anxious after reducing screen time because they’ve lost their emotional crutch. Price likens phones to drugs used to avoid pain and seek pleasure. Removing the drug uncovers the underlying distress, which can lead to existential despair unless addressed. She experienced this herself after first breaking up with her phone—regaining hours but then feeling existentially depressed. The crucial insight: a successful breakup requires simultaneously figuring out what you want to pay attention to and deliberately adding real-life sources of reward, otherwise the void sends you back to the phone.