Houston, we’ve got a dumb phone

Let’s do more living this April.

On March 21st, I deleted every app on my phone except for those I deemed essential: WHOOP, Headspace, Garmin Connect, Strava, and my credit card’s app. The rest are default apps - most of which I don’t use much (except Messages and Clock for the good ol’ daily alarm). Oh, and I turned on grayscale so there is no color to lure me in. The goal was to make my smartphone resemble a dumb phone in function and appearance as much as possible. Every major source of wasted time has been removed from my phone. But why?

Before deleting the distracting apps

Deleted the distracting apps last Tuesday night. Note the change!

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month - a time to be extra intentional about our use of technology and especially our use of phones both inside and out of the car. It’s also a great time to focus on things we love and care about. fortunately, these things can easily go hand in hand.

I have fantasized about throwing my phone away on numerous occasions and, for now, have come to the conclusion that there are enough benefits and purely helpful functions on smartphones to warrant keeping mine around. Those benefits don’t erase the negative habits I have formed on my phone that make me frustrated and waste time. I believe there is the possibility for a healthy balance and aim to find that balance during this month of intention on technology. To do so, I had to identify those negative habits and what specifically on my phone enabled and helped perpetuate those habits.

It didn’t take long to realize that my bad habits on my phone that cause frustration involve wasted time and negative emotions or emotional response cycles - all from content I consume. I had an idea of which apps were the culprits and a closer look at my screen time is quite telling. For the past few months, I have been averaging ~4 hours of screen time on my phone each day. This is way more than I want it to be - 28 hours of each week JUST spent on my phone? It’s wild how quickly the 4 minute YouTube videos and quick glances at Instagram throughout the day add up.

Some of the content I consume on my phone I could argue as a positive contributor or at least a lesser negative. For example, I love watching Saturday Night Live clips while brushing my teeth - they’re funny and a great escape from whatever has been on my mind that day. But often these spillover to longer videos about bikes or nonsense that result in a later bedtime, worse sleep because of the screen exposure, and starts a repetitive and negative cycle. Again, it’s about balance.

New home screen. Grayscale. Not much going on, lots of awareness for how much time I am spending on my phone and how.

Certain apps are consistently a distraction and spark some of those negative emotions, like Instagram. On the one hand, this app and platform is a tool for me and for spreading #EyesUp and my love for Athletic Brewing non-alcoholic brews. On the other hand, it’s so accessible on my phone and because of its design, I lose focus quickly and start looking at content that’s really not helpful for me or the task at hand.

I also found that having access to email all the time was unhealthy - as I would check it with hopes of hearing from certain people or just checking for the sake of checking. What’s the point, really? I have never loved the idea of being constantly connected to work. It’s hard to have a balance if work can always spill into the other joys in life.

So, rather than buying a dumb phone, which was my original thought, I realized I can accomplish the same goal without having to spend a penny. Great! My phone now serves the most necessary roles for my life (it will look different for you or your friends): texts, calls, alarms, syncing my WHOOP and Garmin, and that’s about it.

Since deleting the other apps and reducing its role in my day-to-day life to a minimum, my phone has felt more novel and fun to use - because I am using it less. For one, the only notifications I get are from text messages and the phone calls. These are almost always a positive (versus the disruptive and not-actually-that-helpful notifications from New York Times, Strava, or YouTube). It feels fun now to be using my phone just to communicate with people I care about - and via text message only versus the countless other ways to be in touch with people (Instagram and Facebook messenger, Snapchat, etc.). I am thinking more intentionally about who I want to talk to and gaining back some much-needed clarity in my everyday life because I use my phone for a more narrow, focused purpose.

Virtually every function and associated task I removed from my phone by way of deleting apps can be accomplished on a computer. That was sort of the point and reason I was able to do this so readily and without second thoughts. My ability to function as a human trying to make a living and communicate with the outside world is completely in tact and I can use those functions to the extent I want - but just on the computer.

What’s changed and continues to change is my relationship to social media, email, and all non-essential communications (which is most communication, turns out) and media because of the shift in mechanism for interacting with these media. If I am away from my computer, I have to physically go out of my way to check Instagram, look at email, or watch YouTube. That simple barrier makes me much less likely to do all those things on the whole and therefore I am wasting much less time.

But aren’t you just living on YouTube and Instagram on your computer, Ben? So glad you asked, reader.

Usually, when I am sitting (or more recently, standing thanks to a great find on Facebook Marketplace for a standing desk - there ARE benefits to social media, let’s use them wisely) at my computer, I am working on a specific task. I am not there to waste time. I am self-employed and don’t play online checkers between projects because I am not getting paid for that. So, while I have access to all these potentially distracting things from the computer, I am heavily disincentivized to use those various platforms unless I am either working on a project that requires their use (e.g., posting about Eyes Up on Instagram) or if I am taking a break and rewarding myself with a quick video or checking in on how so and so is doing over in yonder state or country.

I will close with the acknowledgement that smartphones are incredibly useful for travel and this is an example of a time in life where the preceding text may be less relevant: maps, access to airline/flight info, car services. I might add that these are tools and I have a hard time believing that hours of my life could be spent wasted on the Uber or Waze app. So, for now, I am feeling pretty fired up about having cut my daily screen time down from ~4 hours a day to right around 1 hour a day. The shift and tangible difference in how I feel is fantastic.

What do you say, will you delete your apps with me? If you do, please let me know how it goes and what change you have noticed!

At the very least, please turn on Driving Focus - see directions at EyesUpRide.com/resources and share this article with a friend!

Thanks for reading and for living #EyesUp.

-Ben Grannis