Practices
Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.
Narrowed down
6 practicesHow long you have
Who it is written for
Where you are right now
On your own, or with someone · Involves someone else
Theme · Screens and attention
Approach · CBT
Ask everybody, at the start, what they use and how it goes for them there. Not only the ones who arrive with an obvious phone problem.
Two questions do most of the work: which platforms are you on, and what is it like for you on them. Asked early, without any warning tone, it makes…
A young person on the sofa with their phone looks like nothing is happening. From the inside it is often the first hour all day that has asked nothing of them.
Both readings are true, and the argument is usually about which one gets said out loud. Naming the second one to a parent takes a surprising amount…
Before a phone gets taken away, it is worth asking what else goes with it. For a lot of young people the group chat is where their friendships actually live, and losing it leaves them alone at the moment they most need someone.
This is not an argument against limits. It is an argument for knowing what you are cutting. If the same device carries the friendships, the homework…
Nobody gets far taking the drink away without asking what the drinking was for. It is the same here. Find out what the scrolling is doing for someone before you start subtracting hours.
It is doing something, or it would not have lasted this long. Company at one in the morning. A way to stop thinking. Somewhere they are good at…
An alarm that marks the end of a session rather than the start. A written list of what these apps give you and what they cost. The phone's own usage figures. An agreement that an hour of scrolling gets matched with an hour of something else. Pick whichever you would actually do.
The choosing is part of why any of it works. A limit handed down gets tested and beaten, while one somebody picked themselves tends to survive a bad…
If you want a way back in with a teenager who has gone quiet, ask them to show you the game. Not to assess it. Just to be shown something they are good at.
It works because it asks almost nothing of them. No eye contact, no explaining how they feel, no returning to whatever the last argument was about.…
Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.