I'm Ditching My Phone This Holiday Season—and You Should, Too.
Raise a hand if you’d like to be on your phone less this holiday season.
Now raise a second hand if you have no idea how you might go about doing this.
Believe me, I get it. Like the average American, up until last year, I spent about four hours a day on my phone—two full waking months out of every year, two full waking years over the course of a decade.
And with all that phone time I lost opportunities to get more sleep, lose weight, lower my blood pressure, increase focus, and be a better partner to my partner.
And so, in June of 2018 I quit. I haven’t been back since.
The lessons I learned about iQuitting are condensed in a short book out this holiday season called Goodbye Phone, Hello World: 60 Ways to Disconnect from Tech and Reconnect to Joy.
But since you’re probably reading this on a phone, I’ll condense even further and give you eight thoughts for putting down that damn thing you’re always holding.
For the other 52 ideas you’ll have to get from the actual book, or, ok, ok, the Kindle version. But here goes:
1. Don’t use your phone as your alarm clock.
Throw a few bucks at getting a simple alarm clock that wakes you up and doesn’t draw you over to Twitter, Facebook, political news, and all the other nonsense that disturbs what science tells us are often the most productive and creative hours of the day.
2. Make a family agreement about breakfast and other meal times.
That means no phones at the table—and certainly not at the holiday dinner table. Research shows that even a powered-down phone sitting on the table even is enough to make conversations shallower and more distracted.
3. Workout with a friend instead of an app.
Workout apps proliferate, but we’re no more fit as a result. Instead, try working out with a friend.
As The Governator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger put it, “a good training partner pushes you to handle more poundage and gives you incentive to grind out more reps per set ... Workouts are more fun with a partner as well as more competitive ... you challenge each other.”
4. Introduce interruptions at work.
Random digital distractions end up railroading your productivity—“speed bumps” as the digital detox expert Catherine Price puts it. Stow apps away inside folders; remove bookmarks from your browser. Schedule your Googling time instead of just looking up every known thing in the universe as it flits into your brain.
5. Make firm plans.
For holiday planning, even if Zoom is the only way you’re going to get together, set a day and time. Making firm plans and sticking to them helps you from getting caught up in a text chain.
6. Brush an extra minute.
Success means starting small. Steal an extra minute from your phone and dedicate it to actually brushing your teeth.
This will radically improve your dental health. Yes, you could look at your phone while you brush, but why?
7. Avoid looking at screens two hours before bed.
Blue light from screens disturbs the production of melatonin and can steal precious hours of peace from what should be good night’s sleep. And really who wants to be pacing the living room while Santa is trying to come down the chimney?
8. Don’t take your phone into the bedroom.
The New York-based couples therapist Katherine Stavrianopoulos believes that when spouses turn to devices, they do so as a way of “exiting the relationship”—that is, removing themselves from the emotional engagement that is the very basis of togetherness. As a first step toward fixing this have your last moments with your partner before sleep be a look in the eyes and an exchange of meaningful words.
The Bottom Line
Will all this make you reclaim all those lost hours from that greedy shard of metal and glass in the New Year? Well, it will be a start.
And c’mon, deep down you know you owe it to your loved ones to give them a little more of your face time. The most important thing to remember as you take up the struggle, is that no matter how much you love your phone it will never love you back.
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