Swapping My Screen Time for Reading

Hello friends!

Like many young adults, I spend a large amount of time on my phone. How much?

Um, that much…

It’s not great. I’m aware. Keep in mind that it’s currently summertime and I don’t have school to eat away my time. But one week, I decided to do something about it. I completed a challenge that I’ve seen before on BookTube, where readers swap screen time for reading time.

So, the point of this challenge is to reduce some of my screen time and increase my reading time. The idea is that if I have enough time to be on my phone for 4 hours a day, I have enough time to read for 4 hours a day. It is summer, so I don’t have a lot of responsibilities preventing me from reading. Still…I don’t exactly think this challenge is going to be easy. I will give it my best and keep you updated on how successful I am and on what books I’m reading. I’ll also let you know if this experiment has reduced my screen time.

The way I’ve seen BookTubers complete this challenge is by taking their screen time from the past week and setting a timer for that amount of time to read. I’ll be doing the same thing.

Throughout this post, I’ll chronicle my experience each day including completing that day’s reading time and the books I read on that day. Now, this post is quite long, so if you’re just curious about my results, you can check those out here. But, I’d love it if you stick with me as I attempt to complete this challenge. Think I can do it?

Last Sunday, I was on my phone for 5 hours and 18 minutes. That’s one of the longer days, but it isn’t the longest. I’m glad I don’t have too many responsibilities today, so hopefully I can manage to read for over 5 hours.

Sunday, May 19th, – 5 hours and 18 minutes…starting now!

The book I’m going to start with is Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim. I really like Elizabeth Lim’s books, and this one is no different. I’m about 40% into the book, and I’m very intrigued to continue.

Okay, so I’m currently almost an hour into today’s challenge. I have 4 hours and 23 minutes left. I’ve read about a hundred pages, so it’s going well. I’m enjoying this story so far, and I’m excited to continue my reading today. That said, I’ve already read for about an hour, and I’m not sure how almost four and a half more hours will go. This challenge is definitely going to test my reading stamina, and I’m learning that it takes more energy to read a book than to play a game or scroll Instagram. I’m going to take a short break now, to attempt to prevent burnout.

I finished my first book! Her Radiant Curse was really good. It’s definitely up to par with the rest of Elizabeth Lim’s books. I don’t think it was quite 5 stars for me, but I enjoyed it. I have…I believe 2 hours and 49 minutes left, but I sort of closed my timer app. Oops. I’m like 90% sure it’s about 2 hours and 49 minutes because I know I have less than three hours left, but I also am less than halfway into the challenge. I might be off by a few minutes, but more or less, I have 2 hours and 49 minutes left. I don’t actually know what book I’m going to read next, so I guess I’d better decide. I’ll probably listen to an audiobook today because I’m starting to get tired of physically moving my eyes across the paper. I feel like I’ve been more conscious of using my phone today, so perhaps that part of the experiment will be a success?

Okay, I believe I’ve settled on reading On the Fence by Kasie West for now. I purchased it recently. I might spend some time with my family before they go to bed, but I’m hoping to get some of my nearly 3 hours left taken care of now so that I’ll have less time to read after they go to bed.

So, I only got about five minutes of reading in before dinner. xD. It’s currently 9:15, meaning I have exactly 2 hours and 45 minutes before midnight. For the purposes of this challenge though, I’m only holding myself accountable to finish my reading hours before I go to sleep. I don’t want to feel the pressure of racing the clock to read before midnight, so as long as I finish my hours before I go to sleep, I’ll consider this a win. That being said, I’m going to restart my timer and read now!

Okay, so I have now finished On the Fence by Kasie West. I usually don’t love YA contemporary novels, but I’ve honestly enjoyed all of the Kasie West books I’ve read so far. I thought this book was cute. But even though I finished the book, I haven’t finished the challenge yet! I still have about 30 minutes left, so I’m going to pick out an audiobook and listen to that.

(It’s the next morning, xD) I completed my time for May 19th! I read for 5 hours and 18 minutes. Well, actually I read for a while longer than that because I got invested in my audiobook. The audiobook in question is Simulated by Nova McBee and it’s gripping my attention.

I actually listened to my audiobook for like an hour and forty minutes…

So day one of this challenge was a success!

Monday, May 20th, – 3 hours and 42 minutes

Today is one of the lower days. I only have to read for almost 4 hours. I read for like 7 hours yesterday, so this should be pretty easy, right?

I’m going to start out today with The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu. It seems pretty interesting. I’m also going to work on Simulated. I’m interested to see what happens next! I don’t want to be overconfident, but I feel like I can read for today’s length of time somewhat easily.

Okay, so I’ve read for a little over an hour, and I read 100 pages of The Kingdom of Back. It’s a pretty good book so far. I’m getting sort of sleepy though, so I think I’m going to switch to an audiobook for now.

I’ve made some pretty decent progress today! I have about an hour and twenty minutes left of today’s time, so I plan to listen to Simulated and finish up my reading time easily.

I finished my reading time for today! the time today wasn’t too difficult for me, and I want to continue with my audiobook for a bit. See you tomorrow with another day of reading my screen time!

Tuesday, May 21st – 4 hours and 51 minutes

Wow, so today’s time is quite long. I essentially have to read for 5 hours. I suppose I’d best get started then…

Before I get to reading, let me give you a quick update. I finished Simulated last night. I really enjoyed it, but now I’m going to have to start a new audiobook. xD. Today, I’m going to work on The Kingdom of Back and if I finish that one, I’ll pick out another book.

I’ve read for about 40 minutes and I’ve made some progress in The Kingdom of Back. I’m kind of itching to do something creative though, so I think I’m going to switch to an audiobook and paint. I’ll be continuing the Calculated series with Activated by Nova McBee.

I only have 18 minutes left of my reading time for today, but unfortunately, I have to stop for now…my headphones are dead.

After charging my headphones, it was actually pretty easy to finish my reading for the day. Activated was so gripping! Even though I completed my time, I think I’m going to complete this audiobook because I’m close to finishing it.

Wednesday, May 22nd – 4 hours and 24 minutes

So, I actually didn’t finish Activated last night…that’s okay though because I finished it this morning! I definitely enjoyed it and I can’t wait until the next book comes out. I have a shorter time today than yesterday, so hopefully it should be easier? I’m going to work on The Kingdom of Back for a while. I only had 15 minutes of Activated left this morning, so I have 4 hours and 9 minutes left of reading today.

I read The Kingdom of Back for about 5 minutes before getting interrupted….I think I’m going to switch to an audiobook again and I’m going to listen to Defiance by C.J. Redwine.

I’ve made some progress with Defiance! It’s pretty good so far. I mean, I feel like it feels sort of like a 2012 dystopian, but that’s what it is. It’s certainly not a bad book. I have a little over two hours left of my reading time, but I think I want to switch to a physical book for now.

I finished The Kingdom of Back! I honestly didn’t really vibe with the book for a while towards the end, and I was half tempted to DNF it. I’m glad I saw it out until the end, but I don’t really think the book clicked for me. Maybe it’s because I haven’t read much magical realism before or maybe because I’m uncomfortable with fictionalized stories about real people. I also felt like the main character’s way of thinking was somewhat modern given the time period. But anyway, I only have an hour and twenty minutes left on today’s timer.

Since I’m nearly halfway done with this challenge, I thought I’d give you guys a bit of an update as to what I think of it so far. Firstly, I am apparently on my phone a lot, if the amount of books I’ve read thus far is any indication of that. It is rather appalling to realize that I could read 5 books in the amount of time I’m usually on my phone in 4 days. This challenge is somewhat effective at reducing my screen time and I am becoming more aware of my phone habits. Admittedly though, I’m not as excited to complete my reading hours as the challenge progresses. I’m definitely not looking forward to my 7-hour day coming up…*shudders*

I finished my time! And following the trend of this week’s challenge, I wanted to continue listening to Defiance because it’s so good. Day four has been a success!

Thursday, May 23rd – 1 hour and 47 minutes

I’m honestly so excited today because I have less than 2 hours to read! I’m really surprised that I was on my phone for less than two hours last Thursday. I’m glad to have a bit of a break today because Friday and Saturday are going to involve a lot of reading. I think today’s reading will be really easy.

The books I’m going to work on today are Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie, Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne, and continuing with Defiance by C.J. Redwine. My summer TBR post is now live so I feel like I can read some of those books! I’m in the mood for either a mystery or sci-fi, so both of these books are drawing my attention. I’ll keep you updated!

I read the first short story in Poirot Investigates and finished Defiance. Ironically, I stopped with 31 minutes left, but it’s still Thursday so I still have time. I plan to start Brightly Burning for the last thirty minutes today!

I finished my reading time for Thursday! I read about 50 pages of Brightly Burning.

Friday, May 24 – 7 hours

I’m a bit scared of today’s reading time. 7 hours is by far the longest amount of time I’ve had to read. I’m going to rely on audiobooks to get me through! I’m going to start the next book in the Defiance series, which is Deception by C.J. Redwine. I’ll keep you guys updated throughout the day…wish me luck!

I’m about an hour into today’s reading time, but I’m taking a break to get today’s blog post up…why did I wait until my 7-hour reading day to write this? xD. Luckily, I already took the photos.

Bad news – I forgot to set my timer and lost track of how many hours I’d completed. Good news – I was listening to an audiobook so I can easily calculate the time. So, I completed Deception by C.J. Redwine, and since it was 13 hours and I was listening on 2x speed, I can assume I’m 6.5 hours into today’s time. That means I only have 30 minutes left, which makes me feel like I can finish today’s reading time. I’ve also been working on a paint-by-number while listening to my audiobooks, so I’ll have to share that at the end of this post :).

I think I liked Deception even more than Defiance. This series is so good so far and I’m eager to complete it.

I’m also shocked that I’ve managed to complete this challenge so far. I only have a little bit of today and tomorrow left! The week has kind of blurred together with all the reading, so I won’t be disappointed when I have a break from this challenge, but I’m proud of myself for making it this far. I’ve also managed to stay off my phone more and I’ve read a ton of books!

I finished my reading time for the day! I read about 60 pages of Brightly Burning. I honestly was struggling to read a bit because I didn’t really want to read, but I also didn’t want to come so close to completing today’s reading and then fail. However, Brightly Burning grabbed my attention and made it easier to finish my time. I’m definitely getting Jane Eyre vibes from the book and I can’t wait to see where the author takes this story. A part of me even wants to re-read Jane Eyre, but I have too many books on my TBR right now to do that. Anyway, I’ve successfully completed 6 days of this challenge, and I’m excited to finish up tomorrow!

Saturday, May 25 – 6 hours, 30 minutes

If it weren’t for this challenge, I honestly wouldn’t read for over 6 hours today. But, I am motivated to finish this challenge, and I can work on my paint-by-number while listening to Deliverance, the last audiobook in the Defiance Trilogy, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ll also probably read a bit more of Brightly Burning. Let’s finish this challenge strong!

Not even going to lie, my motivation is slipping for sure. I’m so close to finishing this challenge though! I have about 2 hours and 10 minutes left of today’s reading and about the same amount of time left in the Deliverance audiobook. I listened to most of it today while working on my paint-by-number, which I finished today. I’m really enjoying the book, and I like the idea of listening to an audiobook for the rest of my reading time today. Even though I’d hoped to read some more of Brightly Burning during this challenge, I just don’t feel motivated enough to read a physical book right now. I want to finish this challenge, so I’m going to finish up Deliverance.

I finished Deliverance! I’m honestly a bit surprised I completed this challenge!

Recap/Results

So, I completed my challenge of reading my screen time for the week! I read for over 33 hours this week. I got a lot accomplished within this challenge, so let’s take a look at what happened.

Books read:

1. 60% of Her Radiant Curse by Elizabeth Lim
2. On the Fence by Kasie West
3. Simulated by Nova McBee
4. The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
5. Activated by Nova McBee
6. Defiance by C.J. Redwine
7. Deception by C.J. Redwine
8. Deliverance by C.J. Redwine
9. 12% of Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
10. 30% of Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne

Painting:

I painted this entire paint-by-number, which was a good way to pass audiobook listening time.

Impact on screen time:

I also reduced my screen time by 43%!

What I gained:

• I became more aware of the amount of time I spend on my phone
• I read a bunch of books
• I also painted a cool paint-by-number
• I learned ways to occupy myself without using my phone

Ultimately, I’m grateful I completed this challenge. It was difficult, but I’m proud of myself that I completed it. I don’t anticipate doing something like this again, but I would like to be more aware of my screen time habits. 30 hours is a lot of time in a week and I’d much rather spend that time doing something productive such as reading versus endlessly scrolling Instagram. However, I also don’t view all of the time spent on my phone as unproductive. I’m not going to completely cut out using my phone.

Knowing that I could switch my phone time for reading time and read essentially 9 books in a week is shocking. I’ll have to try to change my habits a bit in the future.

If you’re thinking about doing this challenge, go for it! It’s interesting to learn more about your screen time habits.

Were you surprised I was able to complete this challenge? I was. Would you ever try this challenge? What’s your average screen time?