Only a couple days left of my experiment. Here are some of the things I learned:
- Getting rid of your smartphone is not a panacea for fixing focus and distractions. That stuff still takes work (you can still distract yourself with many other things)
- Being without internet in your pocket is really not that bad (especially with everyone else having smartphones)
- Building habits take time, and the initial time period is the one requiring the most force
- At the end of the day it is difficult to say what is “good” or “bad”. Some of the things that are important to ask are – What does it do for me? Am I improving because of this? Is it important to me?
- Most people simply won’t think that it is unusual when I use my smartphone.
- If I need to send a text while walking, I can still spend a lot of times looking down at my phone. The difference between then and now is that now I notice what I am doing – I consciously understand that right now I am entering a digital world, which is somewhat hindering my experience of the real world.
- The 30 day challenge is a pretty good way to dive into a specific habit or thing you’ve been trying to do – it’s long enough to develop somewhat of a habit and it’s long enough to see if you enjoy something, yet its not too long where you feel like the finish line is just too far away.
I will have a more comprehensive review of my experience on the final day!