scale back

“Scaling back” means reducing the activity in your life, so it can be more manageable.

After this is over, I promise that I'll scale back and spend more time with you and the kids.

You can also say “scale back (something)” to talk about specific activities:

They plan to scale back their one-on-one counseling.

This means to reduce how much you do an activity, or a group of activities. If you "scale something back", you do it less. People can scale back their activities, a company can scale back a program, etc.

This phrase appears in these lessons: