Problematic smartphone use is rising across the world and has been associated with reductions in concentration and well-being. Few interventions aiming to reduce smartphone use take a multi-faceted approach that balances feasibility and effectiveness. We developed such an intervention with ten simple guidelines that nudge users to reduce their screen time (e.g., disabling non-essential notifications). Two pre-registered studies tested the intervention. Study 1 (N = 51) found reductions in screen time, problematic smartphone use, and depressive symptoms after two weeks. Study 2 (N = 70) found that the intervention caused larger changes in screen time, problematic smartphone use, and sleep quality than a control group of screen time monitoring alone. Our brief intervention reduced screen time by one hour per day and returned problematic smartphone use scores to normal levels for at least six weeks. This intervention provides simple, scalable, and feasible behavioural guidelines to promote healthy technology use.

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