How to be Phone-Free – Blog of Jake

It’s funny. I have spent many years making intentional changes to how I use my phone — going greyscale, minimizing notifications, designing, and re-designing, and re-re-designing my apps and screens — and now, for the first time, I have gone a week practically phone-free, and it sort of just happened by accident. Here’s what happened. I woke up last Saturday and hesitated for an instance on my initial impulse to check my phone as a part of my morning bathroom routine. The fact that I check my phone during that time was itself a result of many iterations. I used to keep my phone on my bedside table, like most people. I checked it first thing in the morning after shutting off the alarm clock app. I later decided to keep it out of arm’s reach of my bed, and eventually out of the bedroom entirely. For a while, I tried not checking it until after a certain time, at least an hour or two after waking up. But eventually, I decided a quick morning check and put away was not a bad way to start m

It’s funny. I have spent many years making intentional changes to how I use my phone — going greyscale, minimizing notifications, designing, and re-designing, and re-re-designing my apps and screens — and now, for the first time, I have gone a week practically phone-free, and it sort of just happened by accident. Here’s what happened. I woke up last Saturday and hesitated for an instance on my initial impulse to check my phone as a part of my morning bathroom routine. The fact that I check my phone during that time was itself a result of many iterations. I used to keep my phone on my bedside t