I Turned Off My Phone

Image courtesy of Wired UK

The title just about says it all. On one Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago, after a particularly disappointing review of my work habits, I realized that my phone use was hindering my ability to do deep work. Even when I wasn’t actively using my phone, it felt like an itch at the back of my brain. Maybe I should check my email again. Did that person text me back? I’ll take a really quick look at my recommended feed. I found myself struggling to settle into what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced cheek-sent-me-high) calls a state of flow: driven, unbroken productivity. 

But I decided that’d be my goal.

Instead of setting screen time limits or some other reasonable approach, I decided on that very afternoon to drag out a single charge of around 80% for as long as I could. The following day, I kept my phone shut off until around 8 PM before using it for a total of 10 minutes to quickly respond to messages and set my alarm. On Tuesday, I used my phone for 6 minutes. My screen time was 12 minutes each on Wednesday and on Thursday, and it was 7 minutes on Friday, making my total phone use for that school week 47 minutes, which was well under my previous daily average. I had to charge my phone on Saturday. My phone doesn’t have a particularly strong battery, but I suspect that if I hadn’t left it on overnight – so that it could wake me up in the morning – this pseudo-experiment could’ve lasted quite a bit longer.

I think I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed keeping my phone powered off. Without having my phone constantly within reach, I discovered free time I didn’t know I had: I gallivanted around the most exotic corners of campus, finished my homework before dinner, and slept like a 70-year-old (babies don’t sleep well). As the week went on, I became increasingly reluctant to turn my phone back on in the evening, annoyed when notifications poured in, and annoyed when they didn’t. I’d like to think I was experiencing some semblance of life before cell phones, but I had access to my laptop, through which I could periodically check for emails and Schoology updates (though not iMessage). Still, I enjoyed feeling a touch disconnected – far more than I had expected.

Obviously, living without a phone is largely impractical. Phones are useful tools that connect us to our friends and to the school; they make our lives more convenient, and they’re here to stay. Think about it: when was the last time you left the house/dorm without your phone? But, following my mini-experiment, I’ve come to realize that I can afford to ease back substantially. Increasingly, my over-reliance on my phone has served as a source of distraction and a black hole of wasted time. Since the conclusion of my largely phone-free week, I’ve continued to keep my phone shut off and out of sight for the majority of the school day. I recommend giving it a try – it’s been liberating.