This is my post detailing my notes and experience of week one of my digital declutter experiment. It will be updated daily-ish with a final summary on Sunday March 22nd, 2020.

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Day 1 - March 16th, 2020

What went well today?

I did stay off social media as I planned. There were definitely periods where I felt a strong urge to check, however I was able to surf the urge and return to the task at hand. This happened most when I was waiting for some asynchonous operation to complete (such as waiting for a build to finish). I felt fairly present around my family without the temptation to pull out my phone and check things.

What could have gone better?

I still felt pretty distracted by Slack, as there was a lot of communication going on.

What am I going to do differently tomorrow?

• Use Do Not Disturb mode on Slack during focused work periods, alternating 25 minutes of focus with 5 minutes to check my notifications. My teammates can always break through DND if there’s an emergency.

Day 2 - March 17th, 2020

What went well today?

Despite getting sucked in to several social media channels (notable Discord and Twitter) I still was productive. I also had a virtual FaceTime lunch with my best friend, who is also self-quarantining. I want to make this a regular thing, especially during this period of self imposed isolation.

What could have gone better?

Lots to improve on. I need to find a way to limit Firefox on my phone as it’s an easy way to get pulled in, and I also need to do better at leaving my phone plugged in somewhere else. There was a lot of interesting conversations across several social media channels that I didn’t want to miss out on, which made staying off them very difficult. The time period between work ending and going to bed is especially difficult. And even though I’m not including it in time, I spent a lot of time in iMessage / texts, because that’s how my friends are communicating right now. Also, brutal honesty time: I need to stop taking my phone / device in the bathroom (yes, I went there).

What am I going to do differently tomorrow?

• I’ve added Screen Time restrictions on my phone for Firefox, as there’s really no need for me to use it (it’s there just to back up my settings).
• I need to monitor social media usage better, and if it’s still a problem, take more draconian steps (host file entry anyone?).
• I’m publicly committing to not taking my devices in the bathroom any more. It’s a gross habit and it’s one way I easily escape to the online world. If I break this then I’m giving my wife permission to post whatever she wants on my social media accounts.

Day 3 - March 18th, 2020

What went well today?

Much better use of social media, in that I kept to my defined times.

What could have gone better?

I got sucked into some rabbit holes on my iPad right after a long Zoom call with some friends. I had it in my hand and decided to check a few things, then before I knew it time had passed.

What am I going to do differently tomorrow?

• Keep the iPad in the drawer other than when I’m immediately using it. When I get the urge to use it, apply some mindfulness tricks to surf the urge.

End of Week Summary

Note: I skipped reporting details for several days because life got busy and I really did not want to eat into quality time with my family for the sake of updating this.

As of Sunday, my time usage on my devices was down considerably. By Saturday, I was down to under 2 hours total across both my iPad and iPhone. That’s huge.

Overall, I feel more calm, centered, and I’ve been more present with my family.

Things I still need to work on

• I need to reduce the time outside of phone and tablet on useless browsing. With the current crisis, there’s a ton of opportunity for endless browsing / consuming of information, most of which is totally not useful since there’s nothing in my direct control I can do about it.
  • ACTION: I’m not going to use the basic Twitter web site any longer. Instead I’ll use a client like Hootsuite to enable me to check specific, useful streams and have a more disciplined workflow.
  • ACTION: I’ve told my wife that if she sees me browsing stuff to ask a simple question: “Is what you’re looking at beneficial to your mental health?” I’m guessing in most cases the answer is no.
  • ACTION: I will make a list of activities that are not electronic or high value digital (like writing) and keep it handy so that, when I feel the pull of going to check on things, I can instead look at the list and do something more useful.