Going Smartphoneless day 0-1

Yesterday I turned off my smartphone and decided to try not to use it for at least 30 days, I also decided to block Twitter, Reddit, telegram and all chatting apps from my computer. I quit Facebook and Instagram 6 years ago so that was not a problem.

I still want to use the computer maybe 2-4 hours a day since I am a programmer and do some creative work on it (also writing this).

I haven’t notified anyone of this experiment besides a friend that sent me a message as I was about to turn all off, and my girlfriend that lives with me. I am sure when someone sees I don’t answer, they will just call/msg my gf and she will explain to them that I am doing this little experiment.

I will try to write a few lines every day of things I notice and learn, so far the most noticeable thing is that I feel lighter, hard to explain, I didn’t feel like I had anxiety before but now I feel less anxious.

I paid attention a few times today, usually when I stopped doing something specific, like eating, or after I took a shower, that I had an urge to ‘consume’ information: a feed, bitcoin price, emails, check the analytics on my sites, etc.

Since my phone is turned off and in a lock, it made me question if I really care about consuming all those things, had the first glance of how addicted we are to those little dopamine shots in order to escape from ourselves.

Instead, I did other things and I was more present while doing them:

– Read a book
– Helped my gf cook (even if it was for 1 minute )
– Spoke more personal stuff with my gf
– Observed nature in my hammock
– Played with my cat
– Slept a 1-hour siesta during the day
– Write this article.

I might write tomorrow if I pay attention to more stuff.