The Results of My 28-Day Digital Detox
It didn't go to plan
4 weeks ago, I wrote to you about my addiction to my phone (read that here if you missed it), and as a result, I decided to start a 28-day digital detox to regain control of my time.
A reminder of the digital detox rules…
Deactivating all notifications except Whatsapp, Phone and Ring.
Deleting all social media apps.
No phone between 8pm and 9am.
Reading on my kindle, not my phone.
No phone on Sundays.
Let’s just say that the results are … interesting.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
4 weeks ago, I was averaging 150 notifications per day which meant I was picking up my phone 113 times per day on average. By disabling my notifications, I could reduce the number of times I picked up my phone.
This week I averaged 68 notifications per day, down almost 60%. I also picked up my phone 85 times per day on average, down 25% from the start of the detox.
It’s obvious that reducing notification alerts stops me from reaching for my phone so often, but the effect isn’t as great as I had hoped. Don’t get me wrong, picking up my phone 25% less than usual is great, but I was hoping for something a bit more drastic. Clearly, I’m still reaching for my phone many times each day.
Here’s where it gets interesting…
4 weeks ago, I was spending on average 6 hours a day on my phone. 4 weeks on, my daily average screen time is … 5 hours and 32 minutes.
WHAT.
Plus, if I’m being totally honest and transparent that 5 hours 32 minutes is down from the week before by 9%. So last week, I spent on average 6 hours a day on my phone.
I’ve had seemingly no positive impact on my screen time usage…at all.
The numbers don’t lie people. I’m not a guy who is going to tell you all that the digital detox went great and bla bla bla to make me out to be some kind of self-improvement god.
It truly didn’t go to plan. HOWEVER…
‘How’ I used my phone did change.
My Screen Usage Now
From the original post, you will see that I spent 16 hours each week on TikTok. That was the most depressing statistic.
I deleted TikTok along with every other social media and I can tell you that I’m never downloading TikTok again. I haven’t missed it and clearly, it was just a time drainer.
But my screen time average is basically the same… how does that work?
Well, I played chess. A lot of chess. 12 hours last week I spent playing random people across the globe at 10-minute games of chess. I basically replaced my TikTok usage with games of online chess.
I’m taking that as a positive (even though nearly 2 hours a day is still too much). If I had replaced TikTok by using a brain training app then I’d see that as a useful way of using my phone.
But the truth is I still spent all that time on my phone and my goal was to reduce my overall screen time.
I also used my phone for work email, Google Maps and searching for things I needed to know using Safari. I’m not quite sure how I can cut usage of those things if I’m honest.
I also completely disregarded the rule of no phone on Sundays. Truth be told I forgot about this rule in week one (thanks to loyal NMS reader and good friend of mine Sam for calling me out on this…).
I was constantly drawn back to filling in the silence and downtime by using my phone and Sunday is usually the most leisurely day of the week.
A Spade is a Spade
I failed. I failed at reducing my screen time over a 4 week period. Yes, I used my phone in a different way and cut back on social media, which is a positive, but I was still glued to my phone for an average of 5-6 hours a day.
One thing I will say is that once you realise that you don’t need social media, there’s no going back. I’ll never download TikTok and Instagram again, I don’t use FB and only check Twitter for fantasy football alerts at the weekend.
Social media is touted as a must-have to keep up and connect with friends. That’s nonsense. You chat with your real friends in real life or by Whatsapp/text. You don’t need Twitter to stay connected to anybody. It’s a distraction.
So, I failed. Am I upset with that? Not really.
I’ve learnt that self-improvement is the journey, not the destination. It’s about self-awareness i.e. recognising you have a problem with screen usage, and then taking strides to try and positively impact your life. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed, but we never stop trying to better ourselves.
If you were sitting on the fence about doing a digital detox and now you see my results and think it’s not worth doing, I’d encourage you to try it.
It may work for you or it may not, but let me tell you, you will learn about yourself.
The Journey Never Ends
Clearly, I wasn’t able to cut my screen time in 28 days but I am still on a mission to regain control of my time from the digital device overlords.
I’ll either buy a phone safe that unlocks after so many hours, or I’ll buy a dumb pay-as-you-go phone for talking to friends and family and replace my iPhone for another month.
As always when the time is right, I’ll give this another shot and share my experiences with you.
The digital devices and the thousands of engineers working to make them as addictive as possible win. For now.
The dumb phone thing does work! I try to use mine on some weekends and it basically puts screen time to zero. However, not having things like podcasts, phone payments, google maps etc can get pretty bloody annoying. Keep going man, the intention is there and that's the first step.