Leighton Meister put a "time limit" on Adam Brody's Twitter use.

Adam Brody and Leighton Meester

Adam Brody and Leighton Meester

The former 'O.C.' actor admitted his life "has changed" since his wife told him to only use the social media platform for 30 minutes a day because he's stopped getting so annoyed by things he didn't need to be so immersed in.

He said: "I was on Twitter so much up until the election and I enjoy it, I really do, but it’s very addicting.

“I found myself, as most people, just so p***** off for most of this year and was really happy for about 48 hours after the election and then 48 hours after [that], I was so p***** again. So my wife put a 30-minute time limit on Twitter and my life has changed.

"I don’t know if I could have concentrated on anything else pre-election anyway, but post-election, I was like, I don’t f****** need to know what Ted Cruz just said. I can’t let that infuriate me 24 hours a day.

"[So] I’m back to reading books and I felt my blood pressure lower instantly—I feel a new sense of calm and accomplishment.”

The 41-year-old actor and his wife - who have five-year-old daughter Arlo and a three-month-old son together - have found surfing a great way to release stress over the last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Asked how he gets back on course for the rest of the week when he has a bad Monday, he told WSJ. magazine: "Ideally attack the problem, but it just depends on what the problem is. That said, a big part of our quarantine life is that my wife and I have been surfing our brains out.

“My wife will come down with our son half an hour, 45 minutes after I’m up and join the party and we will check the surf on our phones. I’ve been off and on a lifetime surfer. My wife’s relatively new to it but is very dedicated. She is going surfing right now.”

And the couple have also kept busy keeping their daughter entertained.

Adam said: "'Go Fish' was big for a while. We’ve stepped it up to 'Monopoly Junior'. A little piano, a little karaoke.

"[Our daughter] has flirted with wanting to learn to ride a bike without training wheels and then kind of backs away when it gets real. And then a lot of walks through the neighbourhood. And a lot of role-playing, me in particular with my daughter. The books we read change too, and that’s fun.

"Other new hobbies? Honestly, we’re just beach bums.”