Hello everyone and welcome,
In December 2019 I made my daughter cry when I looked at my phone at her ballet recital. These days she finds it funny, but it was a real wake-up call for me.
In the years since, I tried everything to kick the phone habit. There were lots of rules and fixes that worked for a while - until I undid them and went back to square one.
I became fascinated by why. And what this thing was doing to my mind. I turned to meditation - really just watching my thoughts. It helped.
So I kept going, ultimately experiencing what I can only describe as a secular awakening.
Unfortunately, great as it was, it didn’t fix my phone use.
Now I devote my two hours of commuting time to doing absolutely nothing. No phone, no book, no music, no podcast. Just learning to be bored again. Seven years on, I still don’t trust myself - so I wear a high vis vest that says “Phone Free Commute” and “Please Don’t Let Me Look At My Phone” to guarantee I don’t pick the thing up. I started on 5th January 2026, and have logged over 250 hours of nothing.
In my day job, I’m a TV producer. I worked for fifteen years at the BBC, and now I’m the Head of Development at a documentary company.
This project is personal. It’s my diary of 1,000 hours across London with nothing to do. I’d like it to be a comfort to anyone embarrassed about their phone addiction.
My experiences make for an unusual perspective on the phone. In a thousand hours, I’d like to come up with a thousand reasons to put the thing down, and a thousand ways to understand its effects on all of us.
At the very least I hope it’s funny.
It’s an email newsletter (Substack is just the website that hosts it). A new post arrives every Tuesday at 6am - hit the button below to receive it. It’s all completely free, and easy to get out of.
Likes, shares and comments cheer me on more than they should.
Thanks for reading,
PFW
P.S. I still have a smartphone. The name is about the free will I’d like to have over it. Oh, and I’m called Will.
P.P.S. Some links to favourite posts below.
On phonefreewill.com my pieces are sorted for easy reading, ranging from the practical to the deeply humiliating.
The full story of the ballet recital is here.
This is my best effort at describing the benefits of taking two hours a day to do nothing.
This is my favourite piece, about how phones pour themselves into the gaps in family life.
And for those interested in understanding the meditating I did, and the odd life-changing moments it led to, the story of that is here.
If you know anyone who’s tired of their phone use (or if there’s anyone whose phone use you are tired of) please share the joy of Phone Free Will.