Practical workshop

Recognising Your Digital Habits

A digital metacognition pathway for measuring screen time, mapping a day and understanding what habits do to attention, sleep and judgement.

Read before or after the workshop: Digital Metacognition. Extension: Dialogic Exploration.

This is not about judging oneself. It is about observing one's habits precisely enough to recover room for choice. Screen time does not explain everything, but it offers a first clue: what place does the digital environment take in a day, and what does it leave for sleeping, learning, speaking, creating and waiting?

No data is collected here

1. Measure

Find yesterday's screen time

Start with yesterday rather than a vague estimate. A real day is easier to discuss than an impression.

Android

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Look for Digital Wellbeing or Screen Time.
  3. Open the dashboard and note the total for the day.
  4. If possible, open the daily detail and write down yesterday's screen time.

iPhone

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Scroll to Screen Time.
  3. Tap See All App & Website Activity.
  4. Select Yesterday and note the total displayed.

2. Visualise

Map yesterday as a 24-hour day

Fill in the main blocks of the day. If you are unsure, choose an honest estimate. The aim is not perfect measurement, but making a distribution visible.

Block Hours Question to ask
Screen time From your phone settings Was it chosen, automatic, relational, useful, or mainly a reflex?
Sleep From bedtime to wake-up time Did screens accompany the last part of the evening?
Work or school away from screens Estimate Where did concentration last, and where did it break?
Physical activity Estimate Did the body have a real place in the day?
Family, friends, offline leisure, transport and meals Estimate Which moments were truly available, not only present?

3. Question

Digital metacognition questionnaire

Answer according to real habits, not according to what you would like to say. There are no good answers here: only clues for understanding oneself better.

  1. How much screen time did you have yesterday?
  2. Did you look at your phone as soon as you woke up?
  3. At what time did you first check it this morning?
  4. What most often triggers your use: a clear intention, boredom, habit, a notification, or social networks?
  5. After more than an hour on your phone, how do you usually feel?
  6. When a notification arrives during an important task, what happens to your attention?
  7. How long before sleeping did you stop using screens yesterday?
  8. How would you feel about spending one day without your phone?
  9. When you see surprising information online, do you verify it?
  10. Has heavy digital use changed your concentration?
  11. Have you ever tried a voluntary digital break?

4. Read a tendency

Five possible profiles

The profiles are not labels or diagnoses. They are reading hypotheses for discussing one's answers and choosing a small next step.

Explorer

Digital tools are mostly used for chosen goals. The next step is to name the methods that help you keep that distance.

Social

Digital use mainly supports connection. The next step is to protect moments of relationship without needing to be reachable.

Decompressor

Screens serve as rest and release. The next step is to prepare one precise offline alternative for tired moments.

Hyperconnected

The phone often interrupts attention. The next step can be small: one screen-free meal, one notification-free work slot, or thirty minutes before sleep.

Intensive

Use may be hard to interrupt. The next step is to speak with a trusted adult and set one simple, observable objective.

Further resource: Accompanying Dialogue with AI, the French guided method for using AI without delegating thought. See also Digital Metacognition and Dialogic Exploration.