I have found vast improvements on my mood and focus by not bringing my phone with me to classes and work. Not checking it in the mornings (analog alarm clock!) or during the day has significantly improved my focus and how deep I go while working. And I just feel better. Not being bogged down by whatever is going on in the digital world while I am trying to churn as many good thoughts out of my brain is really quite freeing.

I recently tried to put my phone into black & white mode via iPhone accessibility shortcut (triple click on power button)

This did not seem to work for me. I would forget about it and after a while just left it on color.

Now I use a shortcut on the action button. By default my iPhone is black and white, pressing the action button gives me color for two minutes.

The crucial step is that after this time it is automatically switching back to black and white. Even when the phone is locked.

This now seems to actually help. And as a side effect I also enjoy looking at a few things in black and white. A new experience.

All these great ideas for how to prevent you from doing something, they all need to allow me to bypass it when I want to, but they also need to automatically switch back to the “locked” mode.

This needs to be seamless so that the “yes I am sure I want to read this” bypass does not become a new, meaningless habit.

What is also interesting is that apparently, for me, a hard lock-out, a hard disable, is not good enough. Instead, reducing the joy (black & white filter) seems to work much better and does not motivate me to work around the restriction.

I doubt I would be happy with a dumb phone either. So this is a good middle ground.

One other thing I’ve always hoped to see is a kind of scheduled check in with me, where I am asked / reminded to get out of my Netflix / Reddit / YouTube tunnel vision.

Hardware and software to do that is tricky. iOS locked down too much.

But there are today quite capable and cheap Esp32 based smart watches (~$25) and I am trying to figure out how to integrate one of these into my life purely for tunnelvision-interrupting “are you really sure you want to do this right now?” notifications.

I feel privileged to have had a childhood before smartphones. At least I can remember how we used to be.

All of these measures are not because of how it is today but because I am afraid of where we will be a few years from now. Endlessly engaging generated AI content.

Better try to build some boundaries while I still can.

I am still trying to turn the clock and read books (on paper), at least before bed. Decrement the screen. I must be lazy. Going back to the screen to do nothing is so much easier.

Great article, I'm a cofounder of Clearspace and think about this a lot.

> I'm an adult, I know how to circumvent these limits, and I will if motivation is low.

It's impossible to build systems that perfectly prevent you from doing this, but it is possible to build systems that can perfectly deter you from doing it. You could set up one - for example - that texts your spouse if you delete it. Or charges your bank account. Or whatever other doomsday device you want to rig up.

> Time limits don't affect the underlying addiction. You don't quit smoking by only smoking certain hours of the day.

Yeah but if you could encode cigarettes to ween you off of them by force, that'd be a big help. Also cigarettes don't have any real utility, so cold turkey is a reasonable strategy. Unfortunately the social media platforms have real utility, so a guardrail strategy makes more sense.

> The companies that build these apps have tens of thousands of really smart people (and billions of dollars) trying to get me hooked and keep me engaged. The only way to win this game isn't by trying to beat them (I certainly can't), but by not playing.

When it's all said and done, someone is going to build the right set of digital environment modification tooling that does beat them. It has to be possible, the internet is intrinsically customizable

> I'm an adult, I know how to circumvent these limits, and I will if motivation is low.

That point can be easily fixed as there are various online timelock services where you can put in your security code or password that will not reveal it to you within a certain timeframe [0][1].

[0]: https://lockmeout.online/ [1]: https://password-locker.com/

https://untrap.app/ for YouTube customisation has been a lifesaver for me. It can even be added to Safari as an extension, for £2.99.

Also UBlock Origin for blocking specific elements on the screen is a lifesaver for reading articles or tutorials.

Related but if you want a less algorithmic YouTube experience, I'd recommend the Play app on Apple platforms. It uses each channels RSS feed to rebuild YouTube in a much nicer and less distracting native app.

Unlike a lot of people on this site I really enjoy the YouTube algorithm to discovery new topics/videos, but it can definitely become a rabbit hole.

> If we assume people sleep roughly 8 hours per day

I'd strongly question that assumption. Based on what I've heard from friends (and also personal experience), I think there is quite a large number if people who spend too much time on the phone, but also still want to do activities/work on projects, etc - all in addition to work, family life and chores.

The result is that the time is taken from the activity that appears most "compressible" at first glance, which is sleep.

In the 5 years since giving up a smartphone I started a new generation Linux Distro from 0, started a security consulting company, made hires, traveled the world, and learned several completely new skills, while having a fairly active family and social life.

Having so much more time to do actually useful things means I am present when relaxing, and focused when working, and get a lot more out of both portions of my life.

Anyone telling you that you need a smartphone to survive in the modern world is an apologist gaslighting you. Use cash, and offline tablet or nothing at all, and be digitally invisible and 100% present in the real world.