Thread by @jorgesancha

I am one of those trying to break free from their phones and their infinite pools of dopamine.

I thought I'd share in this thread my experience after ~60 days with (and the reasons for) an iPhone that looks like this (click to expand image):

If you are in full control of the time you spend using your phone, good for you! I admire you and this thread is not for you. That clearly was not my case. In my case, I felt it was totally out of control.

I had been taking gradual steps towards getting rid of what I thought was the problem: stopped using Facebook a long time ago, removed Twitter and Instagram apps, the NYTimes app, removed notifications. But it's not the apps, it's the phone, you see...

That shiny glass screen is way too attractive for me not to pick it up when it is close by. Not that I feel guilty either: we seek novelty all the time, and that thing has loads. I was using Safari to browse to all those sites I didn't have apps for.

It didn't help that I wasn't in a great place personally during the second half of last year. Turning to my phone every single free moment (I realise now) was a way to delay facing some of those problems. This is how I felt back then (dramatization):

To top it all up, I was starting to freak out at the false belief that I was losing my ability to concentrate. My work involves a lot of context switching and turning to my phone every other moment was compounding that sensation.

On the other hand, I had noticed that I didn't miss my phone all that much a couple of times that I had forgotten it at home. How could I not miss something I was so hooked on? 🤔 Right about the same time I read this blog post: medium.com/s/story/six-ye…

This guy had been living with a limited phone for years and look at him! Writing books and everything. The things he suggested doing didn't feel that crazy anymore. Read that blog post instead of this thread: unlike me, he has being doing this shit for years.

So over my christmas vacations I decided to experiment with a far simpler phone. I removed Email, Slack and many other things. I reorganised the remaining apps such that the first ones I'd see are the ones that make my life better

Kindle and Audible (because I like reading), WhatsApp (I still want to be a part of this universe), Messages (my kids use it to send me stuff some times), Calm (I wanted to try meditation) and the Camera because:

In the dock I left the practical stuff: phone, Google Maps and Wallet

On the 2nd screen I have a number of apps I use often but that don't need to be front and center: Calendar, Hangouts, Dropbox, 1Password, Taxi apps, Strava and other health/sports related apps.

And the next screens have all the rest of the stuff I sometimes use but that has no pull on my attention whatsoever, which includes things like travel apps (AirBnB, Citymapper and others), shopping apps, some utilities, my kids' games, etc.

But the most important thing I did was removing the browser. In iOS you can do that through Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps

All of this takes some getting used to: at the beginning I felt a bit like a twat when people WhatsApped me links I couldn't open (no browser!), I sometimes feel the pang of "will that last email I sent have an answer?" and I won't be able to check it, etc.

But the reality is that I spend my working day in front of a computer with a browser, email and slack. And, after work, I'm rarely more than 15-20' away from a computer where I can look things up, answer emails or check twitter if I need or want to.

Also, let's face it: I'm not that important! There is rarely an out-of-working-hours email or slack message that cannot wait 15 or 20 minutes. And if there is, people know where to find me: "WhatsApp or call me if you need me" I say all the time.

This doesn't have to be a prison sentence either: if I need email or the browser, I enable it. For instance, I've had my browser on while on vacations because I needed to look stuff up on the go. Or email while travelling for work. I disable/delete them off once done.

The result of all of this has been positive. I haven't written any books yet unfortunately 😅, but breaking the habit of constantly looking at my phone has given me time in return and enabled me to create a set of really good new habits, like: 👇

1⃣When I get home I leave my phone charging and I don't think of it again until the next morning. I can be with the family, read or do something else, because there is nothing in the phone for me.

2⃣When I put the kids to bed, I go to bed and read. So I'm reading significantly more (I've read 7 books since the beginning of the year) and I go to sleep earlier (~10:30), which means I wake up earlier and I can do some stuff before I go to work.

3⃣I've been using that pre-work 60-90 minutes to read up on and try some technologies and I have a nice habit stack every morning.
jamesclear.com/habit-stacking

4⃣In my commute, I read or listen to an Audiobook, because again, there is nothing else in the phone for me. And at work I'm more present at meetings and 1 to 1s because I don't need to have that shiny screen lying around.

The best thing I've gotten out of this is that a lot of things I do now lead to deep focus: reading and listening to Audiobooks, studying/side project, my routine every morning. Result: I feel more like myself again.

On the downside, I'm always the last human being to find out about breaking news or twitter dramas... But I often already feel like an idiot for many other reasons, so I guess I can live with that 👌😂

And that's it, really... Again, this kind of exercise makes sense IF you feel the phone is taking precious time away from you. If you don't feel that, this probably sounded alien: more power to you! 🙌