Announcing the February Phone Breakup Challenge and the NEW edition of How to Break Up With Your Phone!

Plus: Become a paid subscriber now and get access to a private support group chat

Friends:

Do you feel like you’re spending too much time on the news or social media?

Are you sick of staring at your phone?

Is “doomscrolling” quickly becoming your top pastime of 2025?

If so, I have two announcements that might help you.

1. Announcing the Updated and Revised Edition of How to Break Up With Your Phone!

“If you’re a human being and you own a smartphone, you need this book.” —Jonathan Haidt, #1 NYT Bestselling Author of The Anxious Generation

The original edition of How to Break Up With Your Phone, which came out in 2018, was my attempt to solve a personal problem: I wanted to spend less time on my phone, but could not find a book that would show me how to do so.

So I decided to write that book. How to Break Up With Your Phone combines an exploration of why our smartphones and apps are so compelling (and what our screen time is doing to us) with a 30-day plan to take back control. The goal of “breaking up” with your phone isn’t to dump your smartphone completely (unless you want to). It’s to create a healthier relationship that feels good.

In the seven years that have passed since the first edition of How to Break Up With Your Phone was published, I’ve only become more concerned about how our relationships with technology are threatening the experience of being human. And it turns out that I’m not alone: the book was the subject of a viral New York Times article, I’ve had the chance to have conversations about screen time with everyone from Sanjay Gupta to the Surgeon General, and I’ve heard from thousands of people around the world, from teenagers up to septuagenarians, who have told me that “breaking up” with their phones has helped them regain control—not just of their screen time, but of their lives.

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Technology itself has also changed a lot since 2018, and so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to fully revise and update the original edition of the book and am even more thrilled to announce that the fully updated version of How to Break Up With Your Phone is coming out February 4th.

It’s packed with new resources, revisions to the 30-day plan, and a new section on what to do about kids and phones. I’m really excited about it and cannot wait for you to check it out.

Me, with one of my announcements.

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2. Announcing the February Phone Breakup Challenge!

I’ve decided to run a special Phone Breakup Challenge in February, as a way to celebrate the book’s relaunch and to help everyone (myself included) stay sane during a topsy-turvy time.

The February Phone Breakup Challenge is your opportunity to do the four-week plan in How to Break Up With Your Phone with other people. Over the course of the month, I’ll be sending out weekly newsletters featuring advice and suggestions based on that week of the plan. (For the full experience, I recommend getting a copy of the book.) The challenge will culminate in an invitation to join the “How to Feel Alive” community in participating in the Global Day of Unplugging, which is March 7-8.

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Get Access to Our Private Phone-Breakup Support Group:

I also have a special bonus planned for my paid subscribers.

A lot of people have told me that they’d like to have a way to interact with other people and get support as they make their way through their 30-day phone “breakups.”

Well, I finally have a way to make that happen! For the month of February, paid subscribers will get access to a private “Phone Breakup Support Group” chat via Substack, where we’ll be walking through the book’s four week plan together. You can interact with me and other participants, share stories and experiences, and ask for advice.

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I don’t know about you all, but I personally feel like my own need for better boundaries with technology has never been stronger. So LET’S CREATE SOME BOUNDARIES.

This challenge will be a lot more fun if you do it with other people, so invite a friend, consider upgrading your subscription, and I’ll see you in February.

Here’s to scrolling less and living more,

Catherine Price

“I no longer feel phantom buzzes in my pocket or have dreams about checking my Twitter replies. I look people in the eye and listen when they talk. I ride the elevator empty-handed. And when I get sucked into my phone, I notice and self-correct. . . . [F]or the first time in a long time, I’m starting to feel like a human again.”

—Kevin Roose, The New York Times