How I turned my smartphone into a dumb phone
And how you can, too
First of all, an apology to all the “dumb” phones out there: you are not dumb; you are actually way smarter than “smart” phones. It’s a misnomer, kind of how Apple’s new Vision Pro ski goggles are being marketed as “augmented” reality when in fact, they diminish it, and seem likely to lead to a Wall-E-esque future where each person exists in their own virtual bubble, physically present but in all other ways completely detached from life.
But I digress.
Today, I wanted to share with you a few concrete things I’ve done to my own phone to transform it from a temptation to a tool.
First, and importantly, I started the entire process not by trying to restrict my phone use, but instead by asking myself, “What do I want to pay attention to?”
By proactively identifying what is important to me, I shifted my phone from a temptation that I try to resist, to an obstacle that (while enjoyable and in some ways essential) often gets in the way of how I want to be living my own life.
With that philosophical framework in place, here are some of the other changes I made:
The end result: a tool, not a temptation
These are all simple changes that have made a huge difference in how often I reach for my phone.
Is my relationship perfect? No! No relationship ever will be. But it’s a hell of a lot better than it was before, and makes it much easier for me to notice when my habits are slipping — and get back on track.
For now, here’s to scrolling less and living more,
PS: Below are some lock screen images you can use for your phone.
Life changing advice. Thank you!!
As someone who generally enjoys her phone use, part of it might be that I opt to get very few notifications! I generally turn them off and tune out a lot of the remaining ones (like Target or the grocery store ads). The only ones that make a sound if my phone isnt already on silent: phone, text, messenger. And I would rather use the browser than an app about 50% of the time, so that cuts down on clutter and options for seeing notifications there, too. This made me look at what is on my home screen and do a little reordering, so that I don't have to search for the apps I use the most, because I feel like I spend too much time searching for them! But I think this goes along with setting this up so it is a better tool for me, and sometimes we need the reminder to review that and see if it is still serving us well.