[jaysonelliot]

Before installing all those apps the author listed, I'd recommend this exercise:

Let the battery die on your phone, and live one week without it. Cold turkey. Tell people in advance if you need to, give them an alternate way to reach you. Replace your phone for that week with a small notebook that fits in your pocket.

During that week, every time you want to do something that requires a smartphone, jot it down in your notebook. Then, fifteen minutes later or so, write down what you did instead.

After a week, you're ready to start using your smartphone again and turn it into a so-called "dumb phone." Read your notebook and think honestly about which things you really needed to do, and which ones weren't such a big deal after all.

[macNchz]

I find that regular wilderness backpacking trips in places without cell service accomplish this kind of reset in a fun, social (bring friends!) way that provides plenty of exercise and fresh air, with the added bonus of being a reasonably "normal" explanation/antidote to the social pressure of those "you're doing what??? I need to be able to reach you!"-type conversations.

There's the added bonus that being fully out of cell service effectively removes the ability to cheat altogether, though it seems inevitable at this point that satellite data will be invading the backcountry before long.

[jajko]

This is the way. I've spend few weeks back a wonderful time on remote islands in heart of Sulawesi, Indonesia. I even bought sim card for the operator that was supposed to have some coverage there (to stay connected a bit with kids back home). Suffice to say no phone signal for week and a half, I don't mean internet, not even sms.

Pretty amazing, one focuses on actual adventures, people, food, culture, coral marine life, diving and so on. It felt like spending 2 months there.

Then coming back to all this cheap pathetic crap was a proper 'bleh'.

[mtoner23]

yep, latest iphone has satellite texting that works almost everywhere. and soon t mobile is offering fully satellite data access :(

[dhon_]

I switched to a candy-bar style dumb phone for a month and did something similar. My list was pretty much the same as the one in the article with a few small changes.

The most jarring was probably maps - other things like email, messaging etc could be delayed until I could reach a computer but not knowing how to get somewhere right now was problematic and required planning in advance.

I usually kept my smart phone in my car and did a sim swap on the occasion that I really needed it.

[red-iron-pine]

same experience. switches to an old school dumb phone. my neighbor joked that I was a drug dealer, lol.

but man did I miss maps. need to go somewhere? get in the car, start the engine, look it up on some map app, and then I'm off.

text messaging and being able to send simple photos was also a loss. definitely missed being able to text the wife a photo of something on sale in the grocery store ("hey, 10% off X, wanna give that a try for dinner?"), and I missed how good some of the auto-fill was after a while.

to a much lesser degree, a phone was nice during some downtime. waiting in line for something, killing time in a doctor's office waiting room, etc. 20 years ago they had magazines, now they don't...

eventually after getting lost a couple of times I just tapped out and went back to the Pixel 4

[intrikate]

Out of curiosity, how often do you need to travel to somewhere that you don't know how to get to and haven't been to before?

[nancyminusone]

I just have all notifications turned off permanently.

"But what about..?"

Yes, even that.

[djhn]

Normalize checking notifications 1-3 times per day.

Once in the morning, once after work, once some time later in the evening if you feel like it.

During working hours there’s rarely any reason to touch or check your personal phone (and in many professions you simply aren’t able to).

During after-work hobbies and/or family time you are for obvious reasons unable to have your phone on your person (it’s in a locker room, or you’re playing with your kids) or unable to pick it up (any creative or performing arts, or you’re having family dinner).

[mrweasel]

I have reasons to believe that my sister works like this. We joke that she has "office hours". She will rarely answer messages or calls that she does not expect right away. Then at around eight in the evening, every other days or so, messages will start trickling in.

At first it was a bit annoying, but once you know that she works like that it perfectly fine. I'm starting to think that she's doing modern communication correct.

[inanutshellus]

Knowing there'll be a delay in response if you text also makes using your phone as a telephone have value again, too...

[dwedge]

I've had this for years but it makes me check my phone more often I think. At times I find myself cycling through apps to see if someone replied, whereas if I had a notification I'd know whether or not to bother

[stopachka]

Author here: this is exactly what had me turn on notifications for email. I first tried without it, but found myself "checking on important responses" way too much.

[karlgkk]

My phone is pretty permanently on silent and do not disturb. I have close friends on favorites so they break through.

I have about 10 third party apps installed on my phone

Chat, maps, ride share, music, study, and my car

Everything else i do is through the browser.

It’s great. If im on the bus and i want to watch slop, instagram web interface is fine lol.

[dijit]

I do this, but be aware that peoples expectations are that you reply quickly, especially the younger generation.

They will perceive your lack of response as you not prioritising them. This has cost me a relationship. (it was long distance to be fair).

[brailsafe]

> This has cost me a relationship. (it was long distance to be fair).

Tbh, (imho, having tried it) in normal circumstances it would be a miracle to make anything really work like that, but at present you're just fighting a losing, nearly irreconcilable battle, unless you're both wholly on the same page about infrequent synchronous communication.

If a relationship relies on immediate responses to async, unpredictable, text-based communication, and what you want is a sane lifestyle, it's going to be a tough situation.

I just tell people that need my attention how to get it. Call me if it's important and/or time sensitive, otherwise I'll just check when I check based on the implied nature of the platform. Instagram is super casual unimportant brainrot usually, Messenger for coordinating plans with older millennials and Gen X family, Whatsapp for younger millennials sometimes, SMS or RCS is slightly more important and I'll get visual but not physical or audible notifications. I make it clear that if it's a group chat, I'll turn notifications off unless I'm specifically tagged, or maybe check in once a week if it's for a specific purpose, but otherwise I hate them. Signal for some things that aren't time sensitive, no notifications, no read receipts on any platform.

[nottorp]

Cost you or saved you from... ?

[efreak]

> They will perceive your lack of response as you not prioritising them.

And correctly so: you are prioritizing people that contact you in the normal way (via phone calls).

If I send you a text message, it's usually because I don't need an immediate reply; answering me tomorrow is good enough. If I do need a faster reply (if I'm texting an image or some such, or in a noisy place), I'll make a call afterwards, just long enough to set off your ringer so you hear it.

I also deal with notifications in a different manner: I have different ringtones and extensive notification filters set up. Most of my apps will not make any noise with a notification while the screen is off. Most notifications will not show up on the lockscreen. Most notifications will not show up in the status bar. My standard ringtone is an mp3 with a short quiet ring and a long pause before it ends, so while I do get call notifications they're easy to ignore; only important contacts (family) are allowed to bubble or pop on top, and they also get a different ringtone.

I dread migrating my phone, as none of this can be backed up. I changed phones last year and still find the occasional app that I forgot to blacklist notifications for and never noticed because things related to https://dontkillmyapp.com simply prevents it from running altogether when I haven't used it in the past couple days.

[vmurthy]

One aspect of no phone is how to deal with payments. Specifically UPI payments in India. These are QR code based payments and it is getting more difficult to pay by cash at many locations.

Right next to that is OTPs from financial institutions.

[esperent]

On the way towards the same issue in Vietnam. You can still pay with cash everywhere but it's becoming more and more normal to use QR codes. I guess in the next year or two I'll start to see places that only take QR. It's very convenient... unless you don't have a local bank account, or your phone runs out of battery, or, as happened to me 30 minutes ago, your bank's system goes down.

[yosito]

That would be a great idea if I were on vacation in a cabin in the woods. But realistically, I need my phone for just about everything I do on a daily basis, from payments, to navigation, to communicating with friends and family, and logging into accounts for work.

[esperent]

At least a few of these, like payments and basic communications, can be done from a watch.

Work accounts, camera, and maps are the big blockers for me. I know I can buy a camera but 90% of the times when I take a photo it's to instantly send it via a messaging app, mostly for work.

[peder]

> At least a few of these, like payments and basic communications, can be done from a watch.

Is that a distinction without a difference?

[GrzegorzWidla]

But I need my phone daily. I can’t log in to my client’s servers without 2FA, can’t make payments, can’t do many things that are super important.

I found Jomo app perfect instead. I blocked all apps and websites that are distracting or promote doom scrolling behavior in me. Once I went through a detox I’ve allowed them in the evenings for 15 minutes only when conditions are met (I’ve exercised and walked 10k steps etc.). I generally don’t have desire to use them then but I might have messages from my friends or I might want to publish something myself.

[madaxe_again]

There’s an even more straightforward exercise.

Step 1: delete your social media

There is no step 2.

[sombrero_john]

There are plenty of non-social-media time-wasters. Reddit, YouTube, and the site you're on right now are just some examples.

[marinesebastian]

Those are social media too

[cheema33]

I do use Reddit and YouTube to follow topics related to work. And to some degree Hacker News as well. Come to think of it, these are the apps that make up for most of the screen time usage for me.

[stopachka]

I'm curious, have you tried this? Would love to learn what you jotted down.

[wao0uuno]

Letting the battery die completely on an Apple device is a good recipe for an expensive repair. Just turn it off.

[apparent]

Really? How much damage (in terms of effect on battery capacity) does it do if you let the battery die once? Or once every few months?

[SwtCyber]

I bet most people would be surprised by how little they actually need their phones once they break the autopilot

[sombrero_john]

Way too much friction. I don't have the luxury of going "off the map" for a week.

[haswell]

I think a middle ground version of this is possible, e.g. instead of letting your battery die, reset the phone to defaults and don’t install anything with the exception of critical communication apps.

Run the rest of the experiment as described for other categories of use.

[ghiculescu]

Why not?

[nomel]

Some people have jobs that require phone contact.

Some people have family juggling/concerns that requires frequent contact (usually involving children being remote places).

There are many, many, not so strange reasons that someone might need to maintain contact. Thinking it's not possible suggests a very naive perspective.

[brainzap]

just turning it off and putting it not in the pocket is enough to create a distance. Two minutes help to cool down.