I like this journey of yours! I have to ask though… what made you want to make your commute phone free? Are you phone free at home with the kids? It seems to me, if phone free with the kids is the issue, you should 100% use your phone on your commute, and turn it off at home. Maybe I misread something.
Thanks so much for reading! And a brilliant question, and one that a lot of the following posts help to answer.
But to avoid being annoying… It feels entirely logical to get your scrolling in on the way home. But I believe a few downsides to that
Very directly, if you scroll like crazy, you give yourself a dopamine hangover, and as a result you will be more irritable and tired and glum when you get home.
Phone use begets phone use, in really interesting ways. The more you use it, the more you reinforce that mental wiring.
I believe that at home we can pick up the phone automatically, without ever having chose to do so. The best way of preventing this is by using a bit of spare time to train your mind both to recognise and resist the call to the phone. And the commute is a big chunk of free time.
Interesting. I’ve noticed I do feel exhausted after scrolling for a while. I’ve always thought it was strange to be tired when my body never moved. I’ll read more of your writing to get a better understanding of it all. Thank you for bringing this to light!
Okay I am FINALLY deep diving in on your posts since we added each other a few days ago. It is something I have very much been looking forward to.
Dude. I think what you are currently doing is one of the most important things anyone is currently doing. This is everything right now. The counter-culture to smart phone addiction and social media has to start somewhere and this is ground zero.
I admire your phone free life, we recently got an electronic medical record which is great but I’m always on my phone obsessively checking things even though it won’t change the outcome.
Really enjoying reading about your journey.
As someone who aims to have bear cubs of my own, I owe them my undivided attention!
Thank you so much for saying so! I really appreciate it.
That’s so interesting about your phone checking… Although a tonne is written about scrolling TikTok, my own experience is that it’s been checking/fixing really boring things that has pulled me to the phone repeatedly. And work seems to be in the dead centre of it - not actually doing work or anything to do with a colleague… Exactly as you describe, checking some weird work process that doesn’t need to be checked.
And yes, definitely worth giving it a bit of thought before the bear cubs come along! I don’t want to be overdramatic, but not getting to grips with this sooner (in all its fascinating complexity) is my number one regret when it comes to the first decade I spent with my kids.
Thank you for your wisdom, I’m going to follow after I finish my time at this hospital. I think your journey has confirmed that frequent phone checking to do work just means you spend less happiness with your family!
Hey! Thanks so much for getting in touch! Really hope you enjoy reading
Brick phone! Very jealous. Never felt able to do it. Maybe one day if my job changes. I'll bet would have saved me a lot of drama! How have you found it?
yeah i've found the brick phone great! i just use my laptop for functional stuff (whatsapp, banking, emails, etc) so i feel free with my brickphone. your recent post about Boethius - i relate to that
I like this journey of yours! I have to ask though… what made you want to make your commute phone free? Are you phone free at home with the kids? It seems to me, if phone free with the kids is the issue, you should 100% use your phone on your commute, and turn it off at home. Maybe I misread something.
Thanks so much for reading! And a brilliant question, and one that a lot of the following posts help to answer.
But to avoid being annoying… It feels entirely logical to get your scrolling in on the way home. But I believe a few downsides to that
Very directly, if you scroll like crazy, you give yourself a dopamine hangover, and as a result you will be more irritable and tired and glum when you get home.
Phone use begets phone use, in really interesting ways. The more you use it, the more you reinforce that mental wiring.
I believe that at home we can pick up the phone automatically, without ever having chose to do so. The best way of preventing this is by using a bit of spare time to train your mind both to recognise and resist the call to the phone. And the commute is a big chunk of free time.
There’s more, but hope that helps!
Interesting. I’ve noticed I do feel exhausted after scrolling for a while. I’ve always thought it was strange to be tired when my body never moved. I’ll read more of your writing to get a better understanding of it all. Thank you for bringing this to light!
Okay I am FINALLY deep diving in on your posts since we added each other a few days ago. It is something I have very much been looking forward to.
Dude. I think what you are currently doing is one of the most important things anyone is currently doing. This is everything right now. The counter-culture to smart phone addiction and social media has to start somewhere and this is ground zero.
This is such a beyond kind comment and I appreciate it a tonne. You have massively overestimated me, but even so.
Thank you so much for the comments. Wil come back to you on each in turn later today.
Being 60 helps! Despite 33 years in IT, I now find the phone more challenging to use and understand than a mainframe (the big computer the banks use)!
PS Loved the line "What if the tool I need… is looking like a tool?"
I admire your phone free life, we recently got an electronic medical record which is great but I’m always on my phone obsessively checking things even though it won’t change the outcome.
Really enjoying reading about your journey.
As someone who aims to have bear cubs of my own, I owe them my undivided attention!
Thank you so much for saying so! I really appreciate it.
That’s so interesting about your phone checking… Although a tonne is written about scrolling TikTok, my own experience is that it’s been checking/fixing really boring things that has pulled me to the phone repeatedly. And work seems to be in the dead centre of it - not actually doing work or anything to do with a colleague… Exactly as you describe, checking some weird work process that doesn’t need to be checked.
And yes, definitely worth giving it a bit of thought before the bear cubs come along! I don’t want to be overdramatic, but not getting to grips with this sooner (in all its fascinating complexity) is my number one regret when it comes to the first decade I spent with my kids.
Thank you for your wisdom, I’m going to follow after I finish my time at this hospital. I think your journey has confirmed that frequent phone checking to do work just means you spend less happiness with your family!
Keep up the good work!
I'm not sure about wisdom!
But yes… it sneaks up on you 😀
i saw you on the train yesterday wearing your high vis vest! prompted me to look it up, cool idea (from a big brick phone user)
Hey! Thanks so much for getting in touch! Really hope you enjoy reading
Brick phone! Very jealous. Never felt able to do it. Maybe one day if my job changes. I'll bet would have saved me a lot of drama! How have you found it?
yes there's a lot of interesting reading!
yeah i've found the brick phone great! i just use my laptop for functional stuff (whatsapp, banking, emails, etc) so i feel free with my brickphone. your recent post about Boethius - i relate to that