Since the pandemic, I've been working from home, and as such, taking a break to "check my phone" became a growing habit that turned into an unconscious addition.. I found myself spending about 4 hours of the day - "unproductively" browsing Instagram and Facebook.
I knew I had to break this silly habit, so I started off with using an app called Stay Focussed which would tell me how much time I'm actually spending in each app, and my usage patterns..
I observed that there were a few "peaks" where I would spend time as a distraction like
- In the morning, before getting out of bed
- During work
- After work
I found that, during work, I needed the 2 factor code thingy so I kinda needed my phone near me, which was one of the reasons why I couldn't just "put it away", on second thought, I could have just turned off data.. Also, whenever I was working on something, and my code took time to compile, or I was waiting for something to load - it gave me an excuse to "check my phone"
After realising the pattern, I decided to put that aforementioned app to use - limiting my time in each app, to just 10minutes per hour. In some way, it worked. The app made it difficult to "work around" or "turn off" the restriction, although I did find myself turning off said restrictions, say, when the app was temporarily blocked and someone messaged me on Instagram - the urge to "know what they said" at that very moment seemed compulsive?
So, after all this, I made a decision to switch to a Flip Phone, but then I was faced with some concerns - What would I do if I need to navigate somewhere? What if I needed to use those banking apps?
I compromised with - using a phone that would be "dumb" but also give me the ability to make a WiFi hotspot, such that if I really need to use my smartphone, then I'd have to go through the extra trouble of sharing a data connection between my smartphone and the 'dumb' phone. I would still check social media, and messaging apps on my smart phone, at home over WiFi - a few times in a day, say during my lunch break, or after work..
Finally, I went with the Nokia 2720 Flip, initially it had a bit of a learning curve, I remember my first phone was a Nokia 5130 ; my new phone now had less features than what I had before, but, in saying that, it still had the WiFi thing which met my requirements!
The annoying aspects of this phone:
- Its slow; painfully slow
- Not a whole lot of customisability
- Potato camera
- Small capacity battery
The great aspects of this phone:
- Super satisfying to close the phone - on ending a call
- Conversation starter - the comments I get are sometimes hilarious
- It has google assistant - kind of!
- Snake & Tetris
- The best part - NOT DISTRACTING !!
So, is there an end game to this? Will I eventually switch back to just using a smart phone? - maybe, but for now, I'm super stoked to be in control of being notified when i want and not when someone messages me on social media, because, if it were urgent, then just call me :)
Update 2022:
I have switched to using two phones, phased out my classic flip phone, because the wifi module died :(
It was great when I could set up the hotspot on the nokia, and use my smartphone when needed. I might try to get it working again by trying to update the firmware...
Currently, I use an iPhone 13 Mini, as my primary phone, and an Android OnePlus 5. I've set a timer on my Android phone such that it allows me to use social apps for just 5mins per hour, and its been working really well so far in curbing my social media habit.
Observations - very impractical when meeting new people - most people are on facebook/instagram and it was really difficult to connect, again, a solution here is to try to install the apps or use the web version, something I might give a try~