PawBreakA gentle 7-day digital detox (without deleting your apps)
One small change a day. By the end of the week your phone works for you, not the other way round.
Most digital detox plans ask you to delete everything or lock the phone in a drawer. That works for a weekend and falls apart on Monday. This plan keeps your apps and changes how you use them, one small step per day.
Day 1: Look at the numbers
Open Settings › Screen Time › See All App & Website Activity. Note your daily average, your most-used apps and how many times you pick up the phone. Don't judge it; this is your starting point.
Day 2: Clean up notifications
Go through Settings › Notifications and switch off everything that isn't from a real person or genuinely urgent. Use Scheduled Summary to bundle the rest into one or two deliveries a day.
Day 3: Rearrange your Home Screen
Keep only tools on the first page: camera, maps, calendar, notes. Move feed apps to the App Library. Every app you have to search for is an app you open less on autopilot.
Day 4: Put a rhythm on your top two apps
Pick the two apps you scroll most and give them a rhythm, such as 20 minutes of use followed by a 5 minute break. You can do this with Screen Time App Limits or with PawBreak, which pauses each app separately and shows a calm cat with a countdown.
Day 5: Create phone-free moments
Choose two moments that are always phone-free: the first 30 minutes after waking and meals, for example. Set up a Sleep or custom Focus so the phone helps you keep them.
Day 6: Plan your breaks
Write down three things you can do in five minutes without a screen: stretch, make tea, step outside, water a plant. When a break starts, pick one. Breaks with a plan feel like a reward.
Day 7: Review and keep what worked
Compare this week's Screen Time report with Day 1. Keep the changes that felt easy and drop the ones that didn't. A detox you can keep is better than a perfect one you abandon.
After the week
The trick is to make the new habits automatic. Leave the per-app rhythms running, so the pause happens without you having to remember it. If you find yourself scrolling more again, go back to Day 1 and look at the numbers.
What a detox is not
A digital detox isn't about using your phone as little as possible. Calling family, navigating a new city and reading the news are all good uses. The goal is to stop the scrolling you didn't choose, so there's more time for the things you did.