Present Over Pixels is a free 5-day challenge that shows parents exactly how much of their life their phone is taking — and what it feels like to start getting it back.
No credit card. No commitment. Day 1 takes 5 minutes.
It's 7:30pm. Dinner's done. Your six-year-old is building something out of couch cushions and asking you to watch. You say "one sec" — and open your phone. Not for anything important. Just… a reflex.
Twenty minutes later, the cushion fort is done. You missed it. She's moved on. And the thing is — you were sitting right there.
This isn't about being a bad parent. You love your kids more than anything. But your phone has trained your brain to reach for it in every gap — before breakfast, during bath time, after bedtime. It's not a character flaw. It's a pattern. And the pattern is winning.
You've tried putting it in a drawer. That lasted a day. You've tried screen time apps. They became another notification to ignore. You've told yourself "starting Monday" more times than you can count. None of it stuck because none of it replaced the thing your brain was actually reaching for.
Your phone was engineered by thousands of the smartest people alive to keep you scrolling. Here's how well it's working:
The average American spends over five hours daily on their phone alone — and the number keeps climbing every year.
Harmony Healthcare IT, 2025
Most of those pickups happen on autopilot. Your hand moves before your brain even votes on whether to look.
Asurion, 2019
More than half say they want to spend less time on their phone. And 49% of all Americans say they feel addicted to their devices.
Harmony Healthcare IT, 2025
Almost half of parents rely on handing kids a screen every single day just to manage parenting responsibilities.
Lurie Children's Hospital, 2025
Drag the slider to your daily screen time. Let the number sink in.
Your daily phone screen time
32.2 hours per week
Your Annual Cost
That's over 2 months — not working, not sleeping. Scrolling through things you won't remember, while your family is in the next room.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12No credit card. Day 1 takes 5 minutes.
Jose is a father of four and a follower of Jesus Christ. A few years ago, he was averaging over six hours of daily screen time. He didn't notice it — or rather, he noticed it the way you notice a slow leak. By the time it was obvious, the damage was already done.
The moment that broke it for him was at the kitchen table. His youngest asked him a question — something small, something about school — and he answered without looking up from his phone. His wife said, quietly: “She was talking to you.”
That night, after the kids were in bed, he opened his screen time settings. The number was 6 hours and 41 minutes. He did the math: that was 102 full days per year. Over three months of his life, every year, handed to a screen while his four kids were growing up in the next room.
He tried everything. App blockers. Digital detoxes. Grayscale mode. Cold turkey. Every method either lasted two days or treated the symptom without touching the cause.
So he built his own system — led by faith and grounded in how the brain actually works. Not based on restriction, but on replacement. He mapped his triggers, built structured alternatives for each one, and tracked his progress every week. Within 12 weeks, his screen time was under two hours a day. More importantly, his wife said their kids started running to the door when he got home again.
That system became Present Over Pixels. And building it cost Jose more than most people will ever know.
“I didn't need less screen time. I needed something in the way — between the trigger and the scroll.”
— Jose, founder of Present Over Pixels
Jose poured countless hours, days, and months into building this system. Late nights after his four kids were in bed. Weekends spent researching when he could have been resting. He sacrificed family time to build something that gives family time back — and he did it knowing this season of sacrifice was temporary, but the impact could be permanent.
He did it because of what he was seeing around him. Not just distracted parents — but marriages quietly falling apart, one scroll at a time. Spouses discovering affairs that started in a DM. Kids developing depression and anxiety tied directly to the screens in their hands. Teenagers with suicidal thoughts fed by comparison and isolation on the very platforms designed to keep them hooked. Families being destroyed by something that fits in a pocket.
Here's what most people don't know: when Jose first built Present Over Pixels, he wanted to give the entire thing away for free. Every module. Every tool. Free to anyone who needed it. That was his heart — and honestly, it still is.
But the research told him something he didn't want to hear. When people get something for free, they don't do the work. Time and again, he saw the same pattern: when there's no investment — no skin in the game — completion rates collapse. People sign up, skim Day 1, and never come back. The same information that could transform their family sits unopened in their inbox.
That's the only reason there's a price on the full protocol. Not because Jose cares about the money — because he cares whether you actually finish. The 5-Day Challenge is free because it's designed to show you the problem. After the challenge, your first two weeks of the protocol are also free — earned by showing up and submitting proof. Week 3 is the first paid week, because the protocol only works if you show up every week.
Deep down, Jose would give this to every parent on earth if he could. But he'd rather charge a fraction of what it's worth and know that the people who start it actually change — than give it away and watch it collect dust.
“I didn't build this to make money. I built it because I watched a screen almost take my family — and I know I'm not the only one.”
— Jose
Willpower alone fails because it relies on the flesh — and the flesh is at war with the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). When you're tired, bored, or stressed, your brain doesn't "decide" to pick up the phone — it runs a script the flesh has written through years of repetition. Willpower interrupts the script once. A Spirit-empowered system rewrites it.
App blockers fail because they restrict without replacing. Block Instagram and your brain finds Twitter. Block Twitter and you're suddenly reading the news for 90 minutes. The urge doesn't go away — it finds a new outlet. The challenge gives you a pre-planned replacement and a Trigger Prayer so there's something to reach for — and Someone to call on — before the phone wins.
Digital detoxes fail because they're events, not systems. You go cold turkey for 48 hours, feel great, and slide back by Wednesday. There's no progression, no structure, no way to build capacity over time. The 5-Day Challenge is the first step of a system — not a weekend of white-knuckling.
Day 1 doesn't ask you to put your phone down. It asks you to look at the number. That's where everything starts.
Takes 5 minutes. No credit card.
Imagine a Tuesday night, five days from now. Dinner's cleared. Your phone is on the counter — and for the first time in months, you know exactly how much time it's been taking from you. Your kid is telling you something about a friend at school and you're actually listening. Not waiting for them to finish. Not half-somewhere-else. Just… there. That's what Day 5 feels like. And it starts with Day 1.
Five days. Five tasks. Each one takes minutes. Together, they show you exactly where the hours are going — and give you the tools to take them back.
Check your actual screen time. Calculate how many full days per year it's costing your family. Let that number land.
Get your 3 daily prayers ready — a Morning Surrender, a Trigger Prayer, and an Evening Thank. Your spiritual backbone for the week.
Use the Activity Lattice to pre-decide what you'll do instead of scrolling — for every trigger, every time of day. 36 replacements, ready to go.
Write your “Present Parent” statement — who you want to be when you put the phone down. Make it personal. Say it out loud.
Complete your Weekly Check-In, score how your week felt, and submit your proof to unlock your free Transformation Week.
Includes the free Activity Lattice — 36 trigger-replacement pairs organized by the moments your phone wins most.
Completely. No credit card, no trial that auto-charges. You get all 5 days plus the free Activity Lattice (36 replacement activities). After the challenge, your first two weeks of the full protocol are also free — you earn Week 2 by submitting your Week 1 proof. Week 3 is the first paid week. If it's not for you, close the emails. Everything you received is yours to keep.
Day 1 takes about 5 minutes — you check your screen time number and see what it's really costing you. Days 2 through 5 range from 5 to 15 minutes each. The longest is Day 3, where you fill out your Activity Lattice — 36 replacement ideas for every trigger moment. Most parents finish in about 15 minutes. If you have time to scroll tonight, you have time for this.
It's a free tool with 36 trigger-replacement pairs, organized by when the urge hits — morning, commute, work, evening, stress, and weekends. For each trigger, you pre-decide what you'll do instead. You'll build yours on Day 3 — and it works together with the Trigger Prayer you set up on Day 2. The prayer is your power. The Lattice is your plan. It's yours to keep whether you do anything else or not.
Yes. Jose built Present Over Pixels as a Christian father — the program is grounded in Scripture and the biblical framework of sanctification: putting off the old self, renewing the mind, and walking by the Spirit. On Day 2 you'll set up three daily prayers — a Morning Surrender, a Trigger Prayer, and an Evening Thank — that become the spiritual backbone of every week. The practical tools work because they align with how God designed us. You don't need a theology degree to follow the program, but the faith isn't decoration — it's the foundation.
No. Day 1 doesn't ask you to put your phone down at all. It asks you to look at your screen time number and write it down. That's it. This is not a digital detox — it's the start of something that actually lasts.
They'll remember whether you were there. Whether you looked up. Whether you heard them. The challenge is free. Day 1 takes five minutes. And the number it shows you might change everything.
Start Day 1 Free →“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time.”
Ephesians 5:15–16Day 1 takes 5 minutes. The challenge is free.
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