I put my phone down for 30 days to solve screen addiction – it changed my life

I recently read that one of Dr. Langan Chatterjee’s top wellness tips is to not have a screen every week.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who was fascinated by this idea.

We always use the phone. At the time of preparing meals, before the bath, in bed and even in the bathroom (say nothing else). If you are not addicted to the screen, you can boldly say that you are crazy about it.

I am a serial switcher. I always follow Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to track and post current events. While waiting for something, it’s normal to crawl as if you can’t stand a minute without some visual stimulus. Swim while you wait for the pizza to microwave, swim while you wait for the cappuccino to be ordered, and swim while you wait for the cost of living to drop. The latter forced me to move for a while.

Dr. Langan believes that putting down the phone one day a week can improve mental health. I decided to go one step further and see what happened. Will 30 days make me happy without a cell phone?

I thought it would be easy and started showing from Sunday to Sunday. it was not

Rather than simply not moving around to test willpower, we decided that the best way to overcome addiction was to do it the old-fashioned way, cold turkey.

On the first Sunday morning, I hung up and put it in my bed drawer. I want to tell you that I collected calmly and calmly, but it is not like that.

Instead, he couldn’t stop thinking about the phone. Who would buy all the crap on Facebook Marketplace if I didn’t? Who intended to leave witty, provocative, slightly passive and offensive comments on my enemy’s Instagram posts? Of course, this is not me.

I needed something to get rid of the emptiness with which I had no phone. What did people do on the phone in the old days? I thought. Let me google this. Oh wait a minute. I can not do it. My phone is off and in the bed drawer I’m stuck on the couch in the moment of weakness.

I managed to manage this day, but I can’t wait to wake up on Monday morning to see what interesting things happened in the world and how many people messaged me.

There was no message (hit to my ego, but I live), but I’m crazy that Facebook is blocked and let me know all the celebrities I just faced. This gossip is more juicy than really juicy. A glass of the remaining pulp and orange juice.

If you haven’t called for 30 days, you realize you need a plan. I decided to use my computer again for emailing, but I didn’t log into social media, so dismantling the phone wasn’t a waste.

The first thing I did was tell my family and friends. At first, those closest to me were skeptical. My uncle once said that he would go 30 days without ice cream, but he remembered that it only lasted a week. To protect me, Ben & Jerry’s has launched a new flavor.

Maybe this distrust prompted me to continue, I was happy with this and the positive that I was not responding, for example, I need to return calls and messages from people I don’t like. To remind you of this, I’ve created a list of people titled “You don’t need to return a message.” Here my skeptical uncle is the first.

I learned that distraction is important when walking without a phone. I need to complete some mundane moments, it’s not my phone so I took a small sketchbook and started drawing instead of scrolling.

This is where the benefits of mental health come into play. This painting provides a sense of accomplishment that scrolling has never seen before. I also played the piano and started reading. At first it was to cure my longing for the phone, but soon we both enjoyed it.

It must have been many years since I read the entire book. Not because I didn’t like to read, but because I thought I didn’t have time. It’s amazing that I wasted time without being seen.

Within seven days of completing the challenge, I noticed a dramatic increase in productivity levels. I work as a freelance writer, sending incredible momentum from one field to another. The aftermath of a celebrity procedure, a scandal on Love Island, and the delicious aroma of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream curbed the momentum. That was the information he didn’t have. Ignorance was not blissful, but by the way I don’t know, but Buddha.

Two weeks after the challenge ended, I took action. My emotional state became much more positive just because I didn’t react to negative comments, violent news, or feelings of pressure to continue the latest TikTok craze.

Those who want to relax from social networks suffer from the acronym FOMO. Fear of being overlooked. This challenge has taught me the fear of knowing my existence. Or FOKME for short (you may need to work on this acronym).

The truth is that what I missed did not affect my daily life.
The third week was easy. This made me think that I didn’t have a phone for a long time. My mind seemed clearer because it wasn’t always inundated with new information.

From now on I will not let go of the phone, but I will use it in another way. I’m not ready to give up all the benefits I’ve seen in the absence of a screen.

I read two books in a 30-day trial, which would not have been possible if I had commented, liked or written about my life. I felt more relaxed. I was more focused.

Screen-free Sunday is part of my regular routine today. It sounds less appealing, but it’s better to start Tuesday without a screen (perhaps a reduced-tech Tuesday will work?).

If you take something from this story, it should be, even if you don’t have a short phone call, it can only make your life better. It helped me with my mental health, my emotional state and my level of productivity. You don’t have to be without a phone for 30 days. Maybe you just start with baby steps… same as not scrolling when you’re in the cockpit.

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