No Phone Before Noon
I feel like I've been calmer and more productive without the anxious 'busyness' that phones promote, the flicking around, the checking of messages, the fire-fighting of email.
Happy Friday!
As I write, I'm about to jump into a car on our way to snowy Scotland. Four nights of bothying if we're brave, hostelling if we're feeling more homely. I could write about the kinetic energy of the pre-adventure, but instead here's a short report of a positive constraint I've been following for a few weeks.
No Phone Before Noon
The best positive constraints are easily explicable and as simple to follow. Before bed, I put my phone on airplane mode and hide it away in a drawer. Then I don't touch it until after noon the next day. (Unless there is some pressing human need; but that's only happened twice in the last three weeks.)
I feel like I've been calmer and more productive without the anxious 'busyness' that phones promote, the flicking around, the checking of messages, the fire-fighting of email. As Tim Ferriss puts it: don't start the day in reactive mode. I can start the day on my terms: with a pot of tea and my diary, or a slow run and some press ups, or straight into an important deadline.
It makes me sound like one of those nauseating 'My Day' arseholes from the Weekend pages of the newspaper, but it works.
At the same time, I installed a phone use monitoring app called Space (it's for Android, but similar exist for iPhones). Space suggested that I spend less than 100 minutes on my phone, and unlock it less than 30 times per day. It turns out this is actually still loads, but just setting a target encourages me to be more thoughtful about how and when I get my phone out.
The average smartphone owner uses their device for 145 minutes per day, over 76 sessions. But, for a modern twist on the old memento mori: On your deathbed, will you wish you'd spent more time on your phone?
>> INPUT
Five things that have inspired me this week. Thanks for sharing yours - keep them coming!
RE-CYCLING: Your old inner tubes turned into dope wallets.
CAPITALISM: The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial. One of the funniest, most insightful skewers of modern life I've read in a while. A long read.
PHONES: Your Smartphone is Making You Stupid from The Globe and Mail. "They have impaired our ability to remember. They make it more difficult to daydream and think creatively. They make us more vulnerable to anxiety. They make parents ignore their children. And they are addictive, if not in the contested clinical sense then for all intents and purposes." Via Documentally.
DRUGS: Everyone You Love Did Drugs. Yes they did. A video. Via the irrepressible Documentally.
RUNNING: Are You Sabotaging Your Long Run by Running the Wrong Pace? Runners Connect. Via @PaddyWarburton.
OUTPUT >>
As you may have noticed, this mailing list is the engine room of my writing. I really appreciate all you do to make me want to be a more thoughtful human. Here's some you might have missed:
Unfinished Animals: A Novel (January)
Your 5 Things (January)
2017: No News is Good News (January)
After the Christmas, the Crisis (January)
Dave's Books of the Year 2017 (December)
...COMING UP...
More Scotland! With Ben Queenborough. Follow him for photographic evidence.
Also the Stanfords Destinations Show, featuring star travel writers including my friend Anna Hughes. Next weekend in London.
Now: road trip!
What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? — it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.
Jack Kerouac, On The Road
Be crazy,
- dc
p.s. You know there's always a pretty picture if you scroll to very, very end, don't you?
SALESY BLAH
I (try to) make a living by writing. If you could use my writing services, or know anyone who could, please get in touch. Stone the crows! I'd be thrilled if you fancy...
buying a book: I'm told Life To The Lees: Cycling Around Britain is good
supporting this mailing list by sending me a tip on PayPal
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