As much as we might try to spend as little time as possible on our phones and iPads, screen time is inevitable. It’s part of today’s world, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
We’re all for taking up analogue hobbies and going outside to touch grass. But for those times when you want to cozy up inside and enjoy your devices without feeling guilty, here’s a list of apps that give you something more satisfying to do than scroll.
Apple Podcasts
The beauty of podcasts is that you can listen to them while doing the most mundane things from cleaning your home to going for a walk or coloring on your iPad. If a podcast keeps you company along the way, we’d call that time well spent.
Merlin Bird ID
Two members of the Lake team recommended this app to the rest of us, and they can now identify birds just by their unique chirps. Honestly, once you start listening and discovering which bird is cheerfully singing, you’ll find a newfound appreciation for the birds around you.
one sec
One way to avoid doomscrolling is to add a little pause before opening the apps you spend the most time on and yes, those are usually social media apps. One sec is easy to use and set up, though at first you might get irritated by the pop-up that appears every time you try to open an app you’ve selected to block. But once you notice how often you decide you don’t actually need to open that app, you’ll thank your past self for installing it.
DailyArt
Think of this as a tiny daily visit to an art museum, wherever you happen to be. DailyArt introduces you to one artwork each day and the story behind it, so you can spend a few minutes looking at something beautiful and learning a little along the way.
Lake Coloring
Speaking of art, why not make some of your own? Lake Coloring is filled with drawings by real artists, all human-made with something for every mood and ready for your choice of colors and a little imagination. Pick a drawing, put on a podcast, and settle into some creative time for yourself.
NYT Games
If you’re going to reach for your phone, you might as well give yourself a little puzzle to solve. From guessing the daily Wordle to figuring out what four seemingly unrelated words have in common in Connections, NYT Games gives you something to think about beyond what to scroll past next.
Sometimes, enjoying your screen time more starts with choosing something you actually want to spend time on.
