Have you ever lost your phone? Well, recently I did lose mine and just couldn’t track it. I was a bit low as it was gifted by my husband for my birthday. Nevertheless, I applied for a duplicate sim but it took forever to actually get it to work. While waiting for a new phone and a sim I was without a phone for few days.
Before this productivity experiment, my smartphone was like a leech, so interwoven into my life that I couldn’t dream of living without it. While cell phones are one of the best inventions, I’ve grabbed something different, amazing and interesting for you about my experience without a phone.
10 things I learnt living without a cell phone:
1. Time
Most often I am busy and often complain about not having enough time to do anything. A few minutes of playing a game and a few minutes checking the weather, news, social media or email adds up to several hours a week. Not having my phone gave me so much of time to tick off from my to-do list. You won’t believe how productive you could be at work too!
2. Self-control
Not having my phone made me realise that I don’t have to take a picture of every damn thing and upload on social media. I began to think that there should be some kind of limit or self-control from the social media addiction that I have especially from just swiping those zillion pictures on Instagram, Facebook or from my own gallery.
3. Peace
Generally I get so disturbed when I see some images and read some sad news on social media. It would make me so depressed and stressed. Not having my phone gave me so much of peace that I was indeed less stressed than I normally am.
4. Respect people
Not having a phone made me realise how disrespectful and ignorant it is to fiddle with your phone in company of people. When I noticed that while talking to some and they were fiddling with their phones, sadly I realised I have done that many times too.
5. Missed nothing
It's actually weird but I have to admit that I didn’t miss anything. The people who needed to reach me found a way. I don’t need to be available all the time on whats-app or emails. If I am offline on social media, the world wont come crashing down. After all I realised that I’m not that important :)
6. Relief
I used to worry about losing my expensive smartphone all the time. So I’d often check my pocket to see if it was still there. Now it wasn’t. Every time I acknowledged that, I felt a sense of freedom and relief. Definitely, one thing less to worry about.
7. Contentment
Sometimes it seems like people(not everyone) tend to show off a bit on social media. If someone has got something better than what I have and they upload a picture on social media. I see it and I tend to long for it and dream about it and eventually end up being discontent with what I have. Not being on social media made me content by not desiring things that I don't have.
8. Happy
It might sound weird that I was actually happy not to have a phone. It’s something like a big heavy weight had been taken off from me. I was definitely not worried at all about anything. The news, the media, the mails – nothing to worry about!
9. First things
First thing in the morning I tend to do after I wake up is to check my phone and the last thing I do before going to bed was the same. When I didn’t have my phone, I picked up the Bible as the first thing when I woke up. Phones can be a huge distraction while reading the Bible.
10. Sleep
Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, I tend to fiddle my phone and loose out on sleep. It used to give me a headache the next morning. To be honest, without my phone I was able to sleep better.
Conclusion:
No no no, I’m not saying everyone to stop using your phone but I invite you to conduct your own experiment. Hide your phone for a day and see what happens. The goal is not to get rid of your phone forever, but to see what you learn from not having one for a while.
