If you're anything like me, your day moves from the work monitor to the living room TV, and somehow ends with your phone six inches from your face while you're half asleep.

Screen time isn't just that passive-aggressive Sunday morning report anymore. It's basically the medium through which we live and experience life.

On the work side, being always-on has its obvious perks. I can approve a deck from the bleachers at a Saturday practice. I can respond to a client before I take the first sip of my morning coffee.

That’s great. It’s efficient, but there’s a tradeoff. There’s always a tradeoff.

And that is that we've become incredibly efficient at being distracted.

Our focus is easily swayed by chat pings, notifications, and the phantom buzz in our pocket.

By the time I sit down to do actual work, I'm already mentally depleted.

Home isn’t much different.

How many times have you tried to sit down and watch a show only to grab for your phone before the intro even ended?

The more I think about it, the more I realize the fix isn’t complicated.

It doesn’t require you to swear off your phone. But it does require you to pick a time window and protect it.

This could be the first hour of your day or a family dinner. Whatever you choose (could be more than one). Put your phone face down and turn Do Not Disturb on.

It’s like you’re putting your phone in timeout and allowing yourself to tag in to your life, distraction-free.