One Month into Digital Detox. How’s it Going?
In an effort to be accountable, here's my January Accountability Report
I’m one month into my yearly theme on Digital Detox and something I want to do is monthly accountability reports. I mainly want to answer these 4 questions:
What’s going well?
Where can I improve?
What do I resolve to do in the next month to further my goals?
What’s one big problem I should try to solve related to digital detox?
Let’s get to it!
What’s Going Well?
As a reminder, the main tenets of my yearly theme are:
Using devices less
Leave phone in car more
Rely on GPS less
Read older books. More philosophy and biographical
Read books about doing things in the real world. How coffee is made, cigars, other crafts
Turn off symptoms radar/don’t let Oura Ring dictate how I feel
I would say I’m doing a few of these really well. I’m definitely relying on GPS less...only using it when I’m going someplace new, or someplace I don’t regularly drive myself to.
I’m also reading older books and interesting history. I just finished The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, about Teddy Roosevelt’s darkest/toughest journey. It was fascinating.
I’m currently reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and intend to read some more classics next: Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, then another book by Ryan Holiday. Most of what I’m reading are also physical books.
I turned off Symptoms Radar on my Oura Ring, and picked up my first eInk note-taking device: the reMarkable Paper Pro Move. I’m a huge fan of it so far.
Finally, I remain off social media, for the most part, and I went to (and spoke at) an in-person event. It’s really amazing what connecting in-person does for me.
As you might surmise, that means a few of these things I don’t feel I did great with.
Where Can I Improve?
The first is using devices less — namely my phone. It’s been kind of a tough month between work and current events, and a lot has been weighing on me. Usually when that happens, I retreat into my phone or iPad and watch an older TV show1.
Beyond that though, my brain is pretty much mush by the end of the day. That means even when I’m not feeling heavy, I’m watching TV I don’t have to think about. I fall asleep when I try to read, and my mind wanders too much if I’m watching something new; I just want to shut off.
Even worse than that, though, is I put some email/chat/social accounts back on my phone. I logged in to LinkedIn and Bluesky to “check something.” LinkedIn, super annoyingly, doesn’t let you fully log out of your account when you do this unless you clear all of your browser data.
I have removed all of those accounts from my phone, but the bigger problem is how do I stop myself from logging in at all?
The same thing goes with Symptoms Radar. While I have turned it off, I will sometimes go in and turn it on just to see what it says. This really cuts against the idea that I’m not letting my phone dictate (or in some cases, reinforce) how I feel.
I need to figure out a way to stop doing this.
Finally, while I spent some time Friday at a school event with no phone (just my watch), I haven’t left my phone in the car/at home as much as I would have liked. I definitely want to be better at this.
What Do I Resolve to Do in the Next Month to Further My Goals?
The other part of my Yearly Theme note in Bear Notes is a running list of ideas to implement. They include things like, “no phones in the bedroom” and “get a real alarm clock.” Based on January’s performance, I have a few specific tasks I’d like to perform in February:
Remove distracting apps and accounts from my phone (check)
Start Bricking my phone more often. This should help me not log-in to distracting accounts .
Leave my phone at home at least two times. Ideally, once per week.
Watch a documentary or read a book on a subject I know nothing about.
For that last point, something else I didn’t do a good job on this past month is learning more about how stuff is made in the real world. Yes, I read all about the transatlantic telegraph cable, but I want to get into the details of how something like coffee is made, or how cigars are rolled.
Which brings me to the big problem to solve.
What’s One Big Problem I Should Try to Solve Related to Digital Detox?
For February, my big problem will be:
How do I manage my energy so that my brain isn’t mush after the kids go to bed?
This is prime time for me to do something for myself, or with my wife. We could start a new show, or read together. Or if she’s doing grad school work, I can read whatever I’m reading.
Right now, I basically just watch the same 5 TV shows2 and go to bed. I’d like to make better use of this time, and will think about how I can best do that this month.
First it was Brooklyn 99. Now I’m on Friends.
Unless the Yankees are on.