25 | Build Healthy Screen Habits This Summer With One Simple Reset.

It’s mid-summer here in Canada, which means the weather is beautiful and the pace feels different. Some of my summer favourites include watermelon salad with fresh mint and feta, good hamburgers on the barbecue, iced coffee or iced tea and of course, as many fresh berries as I can get my hands on.

Whatever summer looks like for you, maybe you’re taking vacation days and sleeping past 7 AM, or perhaps it’s slow afternoons by the pool, there’s probably been a moment where you’ve noticed yourself reaching for screens a little too often. Scrolling during family dinners, opening your laptop “just to check one thing” and losing an hour, or binge-watching Netflix when you meant to step outside.

The good news? It’s the perfect season to develop healthy screen habits.

Summer naturally gives us pause points and permission to do things differently. Instead of overwhelming yourself with a complete digital overhaul, what if you focused on just one simple screen habit reset this summer?

Why Summer Is Perfect for Developing Healthy Screen Habits

Summer has this unique way of creating natural opportunities for change. Maybe your mornings have a little more space, you’re taking walks you don’t usually take, or there’s actually time to sit on the porch with your coffee and listen to the birds instead of turning on the morning news.

These moments aren’t just downtime, they’re opportunities to notice what’s actually happening in your life. To hear your own thoughts. To remember what you enjoy when you’re not constantly staring at a screen.

But here’s what often happens: we fill the silence with scrolling, streaming, or “quickly checking” something on our devices. We turn stillness into stimulus. Every quiet moment becomes a chance to open an app, check email, or zone out in front of a screen.

When we do this, we miss the opportunity to become aware of our deeper desires that often surface in silence, and we miss the chance to break the habit loop that could restore the peace we’re actually craving.

Building healthy screen habits is about returning. Returning to being more fully present, to actually living your life instead of watching it through various screens, and to the person you are when you’re not constantly plugged in.

3 Questions to Identify Your One Screen Habit to Reset

As a certified habit coach, I always tell my clients that the questions you ask determine the direction of your life. If you’re ready to develop healthier screen habits but aren’t sure where to start, these three questions will help you get clear, motivated, and certain about what you want to be different.

You might want to write these down in a journal so you can spend time with them.

Question 1: When Do I Feel Most Drained by My Screens?

Is it the morning scroll on your phone that sets a chaotic tone for your day? The way you open your laptop “for five minutes” and lose an hour? Netflix binges that leave you feeling empty? iPad scrolling that eats up your lunch break? Or perhaps it’s the jealousy and comparison that social media scrolling leaves you with?

Identifying when screens drain you most is crucial for building healthy screen habits that actually serve your wellbeing.

Question 2: What Screen Behaviour Feels Most Out of Sync With Who I Want to Be?

Maybe you want to be present with your kids, but phone notifications constantly pull you away. Perhaps you want calmer mornings, but you immediately reach for your devices. Maybe you want better sleep, but late-night TV keeps you wired.

This question helps you identify the gap between your values and your current screen habits.

Question 3: Where Is the Holy Spirit Nudging Me to Be More Present?

This is the deeper question, not just what feels draining, but what feels like a missed opportunity for connection with God, with others, or with your own soul. Chances are, you’ve had this little nudge for a while and haven’t acted on it. That could be the gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to your answers carefully. Then pick the one thing that feels most doable and most impactful.

Screen Free Summer Activities and Healthy Habit Ideas

Here are some practical ways to develop healthy screen habits this summer:

Grayscale Your Phone – Remove the colour and watch how much less appealing scrolling becomes. I promise this works! I use my phone so much less when it’s on grayscale. Challenge yourself to try it for a full day or more.

TV-Free Evenings – Choose a few nights a week to keep the family room screen dark and rediscover conversation, outdoor time, or books.

Laptop Boundaries – Set specific work hours and actually close it when you’re done.

Screen-Free Start – Keep your first hour of the day screen-free and scroll free, whether that’s phone, TV, or computer. If you haven’t listened to podcast Episode 4 yet, I talk all about the power of your first hour and why it’s such a game-changer.

Notification Detox – Turn off non-essential alerts across all your devices and reclaim your focus and attention.

Weekend Streaming Limits – Instead of binge-watching, choose one show or movie and then engage in screen-free summer activities.

Pick one suggestion that makes you think, “Yeah, that would feel so good.”

Choosing Life: The Biblical Foundation for Healthy Screen Habits

Let’s bring our faith into this conversation. After all, I have a podcast called Overcome Digital Distraction, the podcast where faith and digital wellness meet.

In Deuteronomy 30, God speaks about the choice between life and death, blessings and curses. Several years ago, God used this exact chapter to bring me to a point of decision for a big lifestyle change toward health and wellness, with digital wellness being part of that.

In Deuteronomy 30, Scripture says: “I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. And that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life.”

Choose life.

Every time we choose to look up instead of down, turn off instead of turn on, we’re choosing life. Picture this: You’re at a summer barbecue, and instead of taking photos for social media, you’re actually enjoying the moment, tasting the corn on the cob, laughing at terrible dad jokes, playing catch with someone’s kid.

Or it’s those early morning moments when, instead of reaching for your phone, you reach for your Bible. Instead of filling your mind with the world’s noise, you’re listening for God’s voice. Instead of starting your day anxious about everything you need to do, you’re starting it anchored in who you are and Whose you are.

That’s what healthy screen habits look like, and it’s available to you right now.

How to Make Your Healthy Screen Habits Stick

Good intentions don’t change habits, good routines and systems do. Here’s how to make your new healthy screen habits actually stick:

For Screen-Free Start: Charge your phone outside your bedroom and keep the TV remote in a drawer. Put a book or journal where you’d normally reach for a device. Make the good choice easier and the old pattern harder.

For Grayscale Your Phone: Don’t just guess how to do it. I’ve created a downloadable guide with easy-to-follow pictures for iPhone and Android.

For Laptop Boundaries: Create a physical ritual around closing your work day. I close each tab on my computer as it signals to my mind and soul that work is done. You might put your laptop in a specific spot or light a candle when work is finished.

For TV-Free Evenings: Plan what you’ll do instead. Have books ready, games set out, or a walking route planned for screen-free summer activities.

The truth is, willpower is overrated. What really works is designing your environment so the better choice becomes the easier choice. You’re not fighting against your screen habits, you’re redirecting them by changing the cue that launches them into autopilot.

Give yourself two weeks to test it out. That’s long enough to see if it’s working, but short enough that it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

My Personal Reset

I’m doing this summer reset right along with you. For accountability, the habit I’ve chosen to reset is Screen-Free Saturday mornings until noon. I’m keeping all screens off until noon on Saturdays, no phone, no laptop, no TV.

My plan: Friday night, all devices find their home in my office, not my bedroom. My analog alarm clock gets set, and Saturday mornings become about coffee, reading, slow conversations with family, and working on decluttering projects instead of hanging out on screens. I want to remember what weekend mornings felt like before everything had a screen.

Your Summer Screen Reset Starts Now

Summer won’t last forever, but what if this became the season where something shifted? Where one small screen habit reset helped you feel more like yourself again? Where you walked into September with a little more peace and a lot more presence?

Here’s my invitation: go sit outside for a minute. Let yourself just be. Then ask yourself, “What’s the one screen habit I can reset this summer to feel more present in my own life?”

If grayscale feels like your starting point, which honestly, it’s one of the most powerful shifts you can make, grab my free Guide to Grayscale. It walks you through how to set it up with easy-to-follow pictures, and more importantly, it explains why it works. You can also listen to podcast Episode 5 for more inspiration.

Building healthy screen habits doesn’t require perfection, it requires one small, consistent choice that aligns with who you want to become. Your summer screen reset is waiting.