Earlier this year, I did a rudimentary digital detox. I’ve since done a full digital declutter and dopamine detox (which I wrote about here together with Matt Gwyther)
Here are a few things that worked well orginally:
- No TV in the house. Only used a projector for worthwhile films. The projector has sufficient hassle to set up ensuring that only worthwhile stuff is watched.
- Phone housed / charged in the kitchen.
- Keeping the phone out of reach or sight especially when working.
- Not using the phone after 9pm. After a while it became 10pm, and then whatever.
- Not taking the phone or laptop to the bedroom. Main reason I took the phone was to use the alarm. So I replaced the phone with an analogue alarm clock.
- Turning off all app notifications and sounds on the phone.
- Created separate email for close and important people (and never used for account registrations).
- No social media accounts apart from Linkedin for work. Twitter was just reduced following fifteen people so that there is never too much novelty.
- Timer plug for the wi-fi so that it automatically turns off at 11 pm – 8 am.
- No news outlets. Anything important, I’ll find out soon enough!
- As a note: I don’t own a games console or have any games on my phone.
Essentially the things that worked can be summarized as:
- Devices out of sight.
- Creating friction for any usage.
- Replacing with analogue technology.
- Stop worrying about messages. If someone urgently needs to contact you, they will find a way.
- Downtime related to natural course of the day
As with any abstention, there’s some discipline involved but the friction is there for when willpower is low, which is inevitable. Cutting the wi-fi was the best example. I remember lying in bed watching a film (clearly counter to my own promise of no devices in the bedroom) and the internet cut at 11pm causing me much dismay. Getting out of bed and waiting 5 minutes for the wi-fi box to load up was simply not worth the effort. I put the laptop aside and fell asleep. What was more important – watching the film or some restorative sleep?
Netflix apparently even admitted that sleep is now one of their competitors. After a while, hearing the clunk of the wi-fi turning off brought me some satisfaction.
A few things that I tried but didn’t have much impact
- Using older browsers: Didn’t work because ultimately I needed new browsers for some important needs.
- Screen time app on the iPhone. I could unlock it so quickly, the friction didn’t suffice.
- Looking for a ‘low tech phone’. I spent hours looking for a suitable one but couldn’t commit – the technological power of an iPhone is so incredible it seemed pointless going ‘backwards’.
- Installing apps to block certain sites. Seemed pointless – a mere palliative (for a price too!).
- Tried doing creative work by hand but that meant I did less writing. I write more fluently on the laptop and enjoy editing photos too. Resorted to the laptop.
- Tried hiding the Whatsapp app, and only using Signal – didn’t work, others persisted using Whatsapp come what may.
The main reason these things didn’t work is probably because the technology was often quite useful and so there was no point making the technology worse, instead I just needed to change my habits and start living the a rich and engaging life whereby I almost forget about these digital needs.