Table of Contents
How I stopped doomscrolling and got my life back
“I should stop.”

The wake-up call

- A friend’s holiday photos
- A stranger’s rant about oat milk
- A thread arguing about UX terminology
- Three breaking news stories about things I couldn’t control
The experiment
- No phone in the bedroom. I bought a cheap alarm clock (jk, it’s the MUJI retro one — love that thang) and charged my phone in the living room overnight. Mornings without an instant scroll felt strange, but freeing.
- No social media before breakfast. If I wanted to check messages, I could. But no feeds until after I’d eaten and moved my body.
- App timers. Instagram and X each got a 20-minute daily limit. When the time was up, the apps locked.
- Friction over convenience. I signed out of my accounts after each use. That extra login step made me think twice.

- I consumed media intentionally. Instead of grazing on whatever came up, I actively chose what to read or watch.
- My sleep improved. No more 3 a.m. “just one more scroll” spirals.
- I rediscovered boredom. And with boredom came ideas. I started sketching again.
- I had more mental space. Conversations felt richer because I wasn’t mentally half in another tab.
The anti-doomscrolling starter pack
Practical / Skill-building
- Audit your product’s accessibility with free online tools.
- Redesign a screen you hate from a random app or website.
- Run a quick 10-minute usability test with a friend or family member.
- Review one of your old projects and note 3 things you’d do differently today.
Creative (Design + Writing)
- Keep a “design observations” journal and sketch things you notice in public spaces.
- Take a “reference photo walk”; typography, signage, and patterns in your city.
- Write a letter to your future self about your current creative process.
- Scrapbook a theme from your week (colours, moods, ticket stubs).
- Create a zine with cutouts, doodles, and quick thoughts.
- Write a “how-to” guide for something you’re good at.
- Pick up the film cameras you bought and never used.
- Make a moodboard for your dream side project.
- Doodle the weirdest icon set you can imagine.
- Try drawing a wireframe in under 60 seconds.
- Write a micro-story or start a fanfic series.
- Design a poster for a fictional event.
- Redesign your to-do list on paper.
- Draw a mini comic strip.
- Design a new emoji.
Media to consume instead
- Start reading fiction.
- Listen to a design podcast
- Watch a talk from Figma Config or IxDA.
- Read a UX case study from a company you admire.
- Read a short story from an author you’ve never read.
- Read a non-design article from a field you rarely touch.
- Watch an architecture or interior design YouTube channel.
- Watch a design documentary (Helvetica, Objectified, Rams).
- Browse Behance for a niche category you’ve never explored.
- Read one chapter from a design or psychology book you’ve been putting off.
Other things that bring you joy
- Try a new coffee brewing method.
- Rearrange a corner of your home to make it cozier.
- Cook a dish from a cuisine you’ve never tried making.
- Open that bottle of wine you’ve been saving and taste it slowly.
- Bake something simple but comforting (banana bread, brownies, focaccia).