If your screen time is making you feel productive, soothed, calm or happy, then carry on. If it’s unnecessary and makes you feel bad, or if it helps in small doses but makes you feel worse if you binge, then cut down. The amount of screen time isn’t what matters; it’s how that screen time makes you feel.

Recognize the signs of “stress-scrolling.”

Stress-scrolling is the digital equivalent of stress-eating, and its origins are the same. When we’re stressed out, the part of our brain responsible for rational decision making (the prefrontal cortex) goes offline, and it becomes much harder to resist our impulses. It doesn’t matter if we objectively know that eating an entire bag of potato chips or spending an hour on Instagram is going to make us feel disgusted with ourselves. It’s easy, and it feels good in the moment, and so we do it.

The solution is to train yourself to recognize this behavior in real time, acknowledge what’s happening without beating yourself up for it, and have a list of alternative activities at the ready so that the list of available “quick fixes” available to your brain includes more than just numbing yourself with a screen. To make this easier…

Create a list of off-screen activities that make you feel good.

It’s possible, even in the midst of this pandemic, to do things that don’t require a device. The challenge is that we have our phones with us at all times, and this ease of access — coupled with our brains’ desire for quick fixes — results in us reaching for them by default.

To change this habit, make a list of off-screen activities that you enjoy, so that when you are faced with a pocket of free time, you’ll have ideas ready for how to spend it. For example: going for a walk, meditating or praying, taking a bath, playing an instrument, listening to music or a podcast, cooking or reading a book.

To make this even easier, take out any necessary equipment and leave it in sight — for example, keep your guitar out of its case, or leave a book next to the bathtub. Also recognize that sometimes a little extra effort is worth it — for example, it’s easier to scroll through social media than it is to go for a walk, but the latter is likely to have a much better effect on your mental health.

Try not to start and end your day with screens.

There are exceptions, but most things you do on screens are likely to be emotionally or intellectually stimulating, whether it’s scrolling through news headlines, answering email, or reading a family member’s Facebook posts. Turning to screens first thing in the morning is likely to get your day off to a distracted and probably stressful start. Staring at them at night exposes you to bright light (and stimulating content) just at the moment when you should be winding down for sleep.