On Missing Out, Revisited

If you’re curious, you can read the original here.

I’ve now had a new phone for a little over a week and, with the lessons learned from being phone-free, I’ve adapted some of the following habits & strategies:

1. No alert pop-ups, save for the sound of text messages coming in. Given my line of work, this is often the first line of communication.
2. Eliminated the first screen of apps, as discussed here on Infomagical. All of my apps are in 1 folder and I search from swipe-right, rather than digging through the folder.
3. No social media apps. They’re just not worth it.
4. I’ve disabled Safari. I had Sarah put a password restriction on it. Some people can handle all of man’s collected knowledge (and terrible awfulness) in their pocket, but I cannot.

As a result, my data usage is paltry. The things that are data intensive (podcasts & music) I pre-download to the phone over wifi. As a result, I’m going to go to a “Talk & Text” plan for cheap.

I now have more time for the things I’d rather be doing, like reading, meditating, watching my boys play, being bored & the creativity it brings, and connecting with Sarah. All because I turned my phone into something that approximates a Blackberry’s usability circa 2008.

This has inadvertently been an eye-opening experience. If you feel like you could benefit, you might want to check out the “More Social, Less Media” program from Dallas Hartwig. It’s like a Whole30 for your phone.