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Venture capitalist Sahil Bloom broke his phone addiction with three relatively simple, if disciplined, and at times painful steps:
- Using grayscale mode to make the screen less colourful
- Creating no-phone zones
- Adopting a few strategic rules that made it less easy to just reach for the mobile
The result was screen time reduced by about 70 per cent and the number of times he picked up the phone cut in half.
He figures in the first month that meant reclaiming about 134 hours of time that had been previously wasted. Over a year, that would mean 68 days of awake hours regained. “This was the single most powerful behaviour change I’ve ever made in terms of the tangible impact and ripple effects on my life,” he writes on his blog.
Only his wife knew about his experiment but within two weeks he had received multiple comments from family members – including his mother and in-laws – about his perceived presence, happiness and lower stress levels. They assumed something was going well in his work or life. He told them it was simpler: “I just didn’t have my phone on me!”
His wife appreciated how attentive he was with her. Time with his son felt more engaged and vibrant. His capacity for deep work expanded significantly. And he felt happier and less stressed, from the get-go.
He attributes that to two factors:
- Improved Compartmentalization: When he was on his phone, it was for a clear purpose that added value to his life. When he was off the phone, he was focused on the work or people in front of him.
- Less Exposure to Negativity: He was less exposed to social media negativity and depressing news.
All that from these three tactics that he encourages you to try:
- Grayscale mode: Put your phone on grayscale mode for the entire day. Removing the colours makes your phone immediately less appealing and addicting. Usually the mode can be accessed through the settings. “I kept my phone on grayscale at all times and only removed it for specific reasons (like posting something that required me to see the colour, looking at photos, etc.). It made me less interested in grabbing my phone for the random ‘just checks’ during the day,” he writes.
- No-Phone Zones: Set specific locations, times and events where you won’t have your phone on you. For him, the four no-phone zones were downstairs (kitchen, living room, basement, playroom); creative flow time (mornings from about 5-8 a.m.), family flow time (evenings from about 5-7 p.m.), and family gatherings. “Specifically listing out these No-Phone Zones had the benefit of making it a clear rule that I could cement in my mind,” he says.
- Strategic Friction: Even those two steps would not have been enough without some additional actions to prevent slippage. He put his phone in a lock box during his morning and evening flow periods. It was a timed lock he couldn’t open without emailing the company owning the mechanism. When working, he left the phone far away so he would have to walk to the other side of the house or down a few flights of stairs to get it. He put low screen time restrictions on social apps. “If I wanted to overuse them, I’d have to keep approving more time, which felt like letting myself down when I did it,” he says.
At the outset, a key strategy he intended was a “Digital Sabbath” – one day a week with no phone. But that became complicated to organize because often it would conflict with times he needed his phone, such as taking pictures at family outings. Travel days, with airport delays and time spent in Ubers, were also difficult to handle. His worst setbacks tended to occur when travelling.
He believes he was correct with his initial assumption that much of what he wanted to improve in his life involved cutting phone addiction. He urges you to start small and stick to it. Aim for a 10- to 20-per-cent screen time reduction week-over-week. Keep yourself accountable with a friend.
Quick hits
- Your distractions aren’t random, warns author Mark Manson. What you reach for when you get uncomfortable tells you what you are trying to not feel – what you want to escape.
- Slow cookers allow you to move a task from a crunch period of the day – dinner hour – to a time where you have more flexibility to prepare food for cooking. Productivity writer Laura Vanderkam advises you to embrace the “Crock-Pot principle” more generally, moving optional activities out of crunched times and putting them in less crunched times.
- Leadership coach Charlene Li says the wrong question is: Can AI replace me? The right question is: Who does AI force me to become?
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.