It’s easy to blame kids for always being on their phones, but do you sometimes catch yourself endlessly scrolling on your smartphone or iPad, closing out of an app just to open it up again a short time later, or feeling uneasy when your inbox isn’t at zero?

Today’s social media and user interface platforms are designed intentionally to hold attention, but excessive smartphone and tablet use can lead to a host of troubles — eye strain, blurred vision, eye fatigue, and headaches, neck problems, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, and even relationship problems.

So how can you break the habit for better overall wellbeing?

1) Turn off alerts

It’s easier to ignore your phone if it’s not buzzing with every incoming social media notification. If you’re lucky enough to be able to let emails linger without needing immediate response, turn off email notifications as well. It’s not always easy to go completely offline outside of the office, so if you must be somewhat available through email, try setting specific “do not disturb” times during the day. Those times can include lunch, dinner, family time, and the time right before bed.

2) Reduce opportunity

It can be easy to scroll through your phone if it’s readily available during down time. When we’re sitting on the couch watching TV, we may find ourselves opening up some favorite apps to scroll through without even thinking about it. The solution is to find phone-free opportunities where you won’t miss having your phone on hand. A 20-minute nightly soak in your hot tub is a perfect screen-free opportunity. You can enjoy a warm water massage without distraction, plus these regular nightly soaks can help you fall asleep faster when you go to bed.

3) Create phone-free zones

Are there certain areas of your house where phones can be an interruption? It’s easy to pick a few areas in the home (the kitchen table, the play room, the back patio) where phones are off limits. Or you can make the phone-free rule apply to times of day instead of specific areas of the house. For example, meal times and the hour before bed could all be designated times when phones aren’t allowed.

4) Remove Apps (it’s only temporary!)

If you still find yourself scrolling more frequently than you’d like to be, you can try deleting all the “fun” apps. Making your phone just a phone again makes it one of the most boring pieces of tech out there. We rarely (never!) mindlessly play with our landline phones, and the same idea applies to a smartphone with no apps. After you find yourself hardly checking your phone, gradually add apps back one-by-one, with mindfulness of how often you’re checking them.

The trick to breaking a screen-time habit is to make the change sustainable and to be aware of the effects. Taking notice of your quality of sleep, stress levels, and even whether or not you’ve been getting headaches are easy ways to see if reducing screen time has improved your wellbeing.