I Turned My Phone Into a Learning Tool. Here’s How
Last year I checked my screen time and nearly dropped my phone. Six hours and twelve minutes a day, mostly TikTok, Instagram and WhatsApp statuses.
None of it was terrible. I just couldn’t name one thing I’d learned from all those hours.
I didn’t delete my apps. I swapped some of that scrolling for quiz episodes on GenusLab Academy, and changed how I prepare for them. I’m only a few weeks in, but I already know more about tech than I did after two years of saving posts “for later”.
1. I gave the scrolling a job
There are seven live episodes a day, from 7am to 9pm. I don’t play all of them. I play the ones that land in my dead time: one on the bus to work, one at lunch, sometimes one in the evening instead of opening TikTok.
Each quiz only takes five minutes, so it fits where the scrolling used to go.
2. I read up on the topic before each episode
Each episode has its own topic. Before I play, I spend ten or fifteen minutes on it: a Wikipedia page, a short YouTube video, sometimes just a long-ish article.
I’m not trying to guess the questions. I just don’t want to walk in knowing nothing. The first time I tried this, on an episode about computer files and storage, I went from guessing half the answers to actually knowing most of them.
3. During the quiz, it’s just me
No searching, no asking anyone. The rules don’t allow it anyway, and honestly, it would defeat the point. The quiz is how I find out what actually stuck.
4. Afterwards, I look up what I wasn’t sure of
This is where most of my learning happens.
After each episode I open my notes app and write a line or two, in my own words, about anything I hesitated on. Something like “the difference between saving and backing up” or “what a file extension actually tells the computer”. That evening, I look those up properly.
My notes app now has a page for every topic I’ve played. The long pages are the topics I struggled with, and they’re the ones I understand best now.
5. I have a goal for the end of the month
Every quiz earns XP, and XP moves you up the ranks. I’m on Fresh Mind, the first rank, and I’m aiming to reach Rising Star by the end of the month.
Ranking up isn’t just a new badge. Each rank unlocks a course level in the Academy, and I want to take each course as it opens. I keep a list pinned at the top of my notes:
Digital Creativity, hopefully this month
Graphic & Product Design Basics, the one I want most
Web Development
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, a long way off, but it’s on the list
Seeing the next course on that list is what gets me to play the lunchtime episode on days I’d rather not.
Fun fact: you can win while you learn
The top three in each episode win cash prizes. I didn’t start playing for the money, and I try not to think about it during a quiz, because I rush when I do. But it’s a nice thought that the same five minutes I used to spend on TikTok could now pay me back.
What didn’t work
Playing every episode
I tried all seven one Saturday and was sick of it by the afternoon. Two or three a day is plenty.
Preparing for everything at once
For a week I read up on five topics a night and remembered none of them. One topic, read properly before that episode, works better.
If you want to try it
Pick two episodes a day that fit your routine. Spend ten minutes on the topic before each one. Write down what you weren’t sure of, in your own words, and look it up that night. Make a list of the courses you want to unlock, and pick a rank to aim for by the end of the month.
That’s the whole system. It replaced about an hour of my scrolling, and I don’t miss it.
About GenusLab Academy
GenusLab Academy runs seven five-minute live quizzes a day, from 7am to 9pm. The top three in each episode win cash prizes. Every quiz earns XP to move you up the ranks, and each rank unlocks a new level of the Academy’s 20 course levels, from Digital Foundations to Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning.
With Premium (₦4,000 a month), you can take each course as you unlock it at no extra cost, and get a free certificate for every course you finish.