The card phone is what it sounds like: It’s a $18 tiny phone with no social media, no internet browser, and no email. In fact, the card phone has no apps whatsoever. It has only the ability to make phone calls and send text messages.
The paradox of modern technology: we want tech to be easy to use and engaging, but when we get what we want, we blame the tech for giving it to us
Technology is built into the fabric of our lives and everyday habits-and as I learned in ditching my smartphone, that device might have its ills, but it also makes things easier and connects me to my friends and loved ones
- The first step to managing distractions on your phone is to remove the apps you no longer need
- Bowing to user gripes that unused apps were hogging too much memory, Apple’s iOS is issuing an “Offload App” feature to automatically remove rarely used apps while still keeping your data and settings intact
At the end of the day, there are many things we can do to put technology in its place and remove the unwanted triggers on our mobile devices
As powerful as the psychological hacks may be, they’re no competition to simply removing, replacing, rejiggering, and un-triggering the apps that don’t serve us.
Total time to remove rarely used apps: 7 minutes
Purging unused apps was easy.
- However, the next step in hacking a distraction-less phone is deciding what to do with the remaining apps I love but sometimes used when I didn’t intend to.
Make your home page a group of apps that you feel you are in charge of
Primary tools: the apps you want to spend your time on
- Aspirations: the things you would like to spend time doing
- If an app triggers mindless checking, move it to a different screen
Replace social media apps that pull you out of the present moment
Set aside an hour every night for social media refresh as much as you like
- A smartwatch makes checking your phone less important: a quick glance tells you what you need to know and no more
- Uninstalled apps that don’t align with your values
Total time to clear only essential apps from home screen: 5 minutes
There are three kinds of notification permissions you can allow an app: sound, sight, and visual
- An audible notification is the most interruptive and should only be granted to the kind of apps who should be able to break your concentration even when you need to be most focused.
- A visual notification should be only allowed in the form of those red “meat balls” on the corner of the app
- The rest of the apps on my phone can kiss notification privileges goodbye. I open them when I need them.
Delete all games from your phone
The only person who should make moral judgments about how you spend your time with tech is you.
- Schedule social media time at desktop instead of phone (5 minutes), delete apps that don’t align with values (10 minutes of contemplation, 1 minute to actually do it)
What would you look like if you dressed the way you kept your phone’s home screen?
Nothing on the home screen should be able to take you off course from what you came to do on your phone
- No social media, no games, no news apps, or anything else you may turn to in weakness
