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A Notebook to Replace Doomscrolling

Using the Tricks of the Phone Against Itself

Adele Arbi
Curious Compass
3 min readDec 16, 2024

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Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

I think of myself a pretty balanced digital citizen.

I’m mindful of screen time, I prioritize real-world interactions, and I’m generally good at setting boundaries. But even with this awareness, there’s one time of day when my willpower seems to falter: nighttime.

As the day winds down and the quiet settles in, I find myself drawn to my phone. The allure of endless scrolling is powerful, and it’s easy to lose track of time as I drift from one app to the next.

Sometimes, I have legitimate reasons to use my phone at night, like reading the Quran in Arabic with a translation alongside because my Arabic is not good enough yet. However, even with good intentions, it’s easy to get distracted and end up scrolling through other apps.

It’s a habit I’ve been trying to break for years and have been successful many times. But just like an addict, I end up relapsing time after time. Because there’s no real abstinence from the phone, I have to use it at least a little.

Recently my relapse has been strong, and I ended up messing my sleep schedule quite significantly. That’s usually a wake-up call (pun intended) for me to take control of the situation.

“You don’t have to

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Adele Arbi
Adele Arbi

Written by Adele Arbi

A curious soul seeking knowledge and pondering life.

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