Switching to a dumb phone for 30 days was such an insightful experience. 2020 had me mentally bogged down and running in technological circles. It was needless to say, we all eventually need a break.
I switched to a Nokia for a month to do something about it. This helped me break a lot of bad habits and added information to my mental model of the world. Here are three things I learned from this experience.
Disconnect to Connect 📵
This tip got me caught in the past, and I learned some valuable lessons. If you have ever caught yourself itching for your phone or mindlessly scrolling while talking to someone dear to you, this is something you need to hear. Put it down.
It all depends on your intentions and goals. However, if you are genuinely searching to connect with more people and create meaningful relationships, then having a device to entertain you while talking to someone is not the move. When you’re chatting with your friends, and one of them grabs their phone, it’s a communication breaker. The person is likely mentally disconnecting, and the flow of conversation is lost.
By not having all the features of a smartphone (i.e., the internet), I was able to establish stronger and more meaningful relationships with my friends — interestingly enough, at a time when we couldn’t meet up in person. Something we can all use is that it’s ok not to look up right away and not knowing the minutiae is ok.
Increase your attention span ⏰
Time is our most important resource. We never get it back, and we should be spending it intentionally. In order to do this, we need to be careful not to waste our time consuming instead of producing. When we are constantly scrolling through infinite pools of content, we are taking away from our limited time for things that will produce instant gratification instead of long-term benefits. Finding ways to increase the time span after constant consumption can help us pay attention to things that actually matter to us. This is one of the most valuable lessons I gained from this experiment. Be intentional. Finding out that instant gratification is a scam and an obstacle to uncovering limitless potential definitely helped me put my phone down and get to work.
Gain New Hobbies ✨
When you decide to cut off from limitless knowledge and entertainment, things start to get… boring. This is because we go from a norm of being constantly entertained to one that lacks this excess stimulus. During this experiment, I was in dire search of this stimulus again. The good news is that the feeling goes away, and you can produce a similar response with new habits. Considering I didn’t want to waste my time with meaningless pursuits, I opted to find ways to spend my time actively building purposeful habits.
For starters,
- Practicing more guitar
- Running more + Working out
- Reading anything AND everything
- Optimizing systems
- Spending more time outside
- Practicing French
If any of the items on the list interest you in the slightest, I urge you to take the plunge and spend your time how you want to spend it.
Until next time,
Karla