Replace Scrolling With Microjournaling

Do you spend a lot of time on social media and other time-wasting apps on your phone? 

If you’re unhappy with your mindless scrolling habit, you’ve likely tried different tactics to break it, like deleting apps or using screentime features to set time limits.

While these Odysseian methods of restraint can help break the scroll habit, they’re not always effective.

According to researchers, if you want to break a bad habit, you often have to replace it with a better, healthier one.

In my interview with illustrator-filmmaker Campbell “Struthless” Walker about journaling, he offered a powerful substitute for mindless scrolling: microjournaling.

I’ve done microjournaling on and off for the past few years and found it helpful in breaking the scroll habit.

Here’s what it is and how to do it.

What Is Microjournaling?

Microjournaling is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of setting aside 15 minutes to write in your journal, you’re going to shrink that to a minute or two. A microjournaling session could even last under 60 seconds. It’s just enough time to dash off a thought or two.

What do you write about? Anything! Report what just happened in your day. Record your mood. Write down a thought that’s been continually popping up. Make a note of someone you’ve been thinking about and why. Jot down a worry. List something you’re grateful for. Repeatedly reiterate a goal. Whatever you want.

How to Set Up Microjournaling on Your Phone to Replace Mindless Scrolling

Because microjournaling only takes a minute, it’s the perfect behavior to substitute for mindlessly scrolling your phone. Whenever you have that itch to check Instagram or X, you’re going to microjournal on your phone instead.

Here’s how to set up your phone to make microjournaling your default habit:

Rearrange your homescreen. Put your notes app exactly where TikTok or your other troublesome apps used to live. Hide or delete the social apps.

Start a fresh note each morning. Title it with the date.

Whenever you feel the itch to check your phone, microjournal in your notes app. Throughout the day, dump one to five sentences whenever your thumb itches to check reels. Again, it can be about whatever you want. Random thoughts are fine. Don’t overthink it.

Keep it under two minutes. The moment you feel yourself polishing prose, stop. Microjournaling is about capture, not craft.

Weekly review. Go back through your notes on Sunday night and look for patterns: triggers for bad moods, small joys you’d forgotten, ideas worth developing.

Review with AI. You can use AI to enhance your weekly review and gain deeper insights. Copy and paste your week of notes into an LLM like ChatGPT, and then pose one or more of the following questions:

• What themes or patterns do you notice across these entries?
• Group these notes into categories based on mood, topic, or concern.
• What seemed to occupy my thoughts the most this week?
• Were there any recurring negative thoughts or triggers? Any recurring positive ones?
• Highlight any entries that reflect a moment of insight, clarity, or growth.
• Compare this week’s reflections with last week’s — what changed?
• Is there evidence of improvement in my mood, habits, or focus over the week?
• Are there any notes that can be used for a project I’m working on?
• What action can I take based on my notes that would improve my life?

Less Mindless Scrolling; More Life-Improving Insights

When your thumb gets twitchy tomorrow, open Notes instead of a feed. Write one line about what you ate, what your kid said, or that meeting that went south. Close it. Get on with life.

You’re not fighting the habit. You’re redirecting it. Like putting the veggies where the cookies used to be.

The scrolling itch won’t vanish overnight. But after a few weeks, your muscle memory might actually prefer capturing your own life instead of gawking at everyone else’s.

And unlike the blur of tweets and posts you consume that you’ll never care to remember, these fragments of your own experiences will create a treasury you’ll one day want to revisit. A record of a life — and a potential roadmap for how to improve it.

Listen to my full conversation with Campbell about some other journaling practices that could change your life:

This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness.