Behavior Logged: Mindlessly Reaching for my iPhone
Tracking Period: Monday 15.01.2024 – Tuesday 16.01.2024
Frequency of Data Logged: Every Time I Grabbed My Phone (dozens of time a day), I asked myself: Was this necessary, did I grab my phone being mindful – i.e. a) did I grab it for a good reason (not mindless), and b) is that what I ended up doing on my phone?
Motivation/Background: I got off social media once and for all over half a year ago and feel like my life is slowly getting back on track. But I still feel like there is a habit of growing my phone every time I hit some minor mental resistance. As such, I wanted to track this behavior and see how to reduce it further.
Models:
Learnings/Insights:
I wasn’t even trying to limit mindless phone usage yet, but simply tried to log it. I quickly learned that I was ridiculously bad at even just logging it. But before delving into this further, here’s a quick overview of the hard data from Apple’s Screentime Feature:
- Pickups Monday: 59 | First Used after Pickup: 1. Messages, 2. Telegram, 3. Spark, 4. Photos
- Pickups Tuesday: 94 | First Used after Pickup: 1. Messages, 2. Safari, 3. Oura, 4. Telegram
My Learnings:
- At the end of Monday, I’d have written down roughly 30 notes of whether I a) did grab my iPhone for a good reason (not mindless), and – if so – whether that b) was what I ended up doing on my phone. In other words: I forgot to log half of the time!
- When I did log, I picked up my phone in a mindful manner less than 10 times (i.e. pulling out my phone to check a route on Google Maps, pay someone on Venmo, check the dining hall opening hours), otherwise I was reacting:
- either to a notification (at least those were mostly human notifications; no social media or shopping apps installed anymore!)
- or to an internal impulse/urge to be distracted/waste time (read: sit down on the toilet and automatically reading the news)
- On Tuesday, I thus made a change: I first switched my phone to black and white and then turned it off altogether, so that I wouldn’t forget logging due to the added friction. Yet I have written down again only 38 notes of whether I a) did grab my iPhone for a good reason (not mindless), and – if so – whether that b) was what I ended up doing on my phone.
- In other words: I still forgot to log half of the time! Reason: I turned my phone back on multiple times and forgot to turn it off, or couldn’t turn it off since I was expecting a call/had to join a group call, etc.
- I picked it up in a mindful manner just 21 times: I picked it up to track a run, to check flight prices, to send someone a picture, to check an upcoming flight, to join a conference call, and call some friends.
- Over the course of both days, triggers to pick it up mindlessly were:
- location-based: my sofa-chair, toilet
- time-based: when waking up, when waiting for lunch
- boredom-based: when waiting to talk to my advisor, when avoiding a task (like finishing this write-up…. I just checked my Miles account… not the done thing at 2am, I should finish this asap and get to bed).
Do Differently?
I would add a stash of post its to the back of my phone. Alternatively, one could put the phone in a little box with a lid (like a tupperware) along with post it notes and a pen. That would increase friction, but it would also serve as a visual reminder to take a note on why I pulled out my phone, and to make a note of why I used my phone with little friction.
Other than that, I think it could be interesting to give your phone to another person: a buddy system would make it much easier to do logging and keep each other accountable on doing the logging: only hand over the phone after the person said why they need it. Of course, the problem with that is that it impact the data: the fact it’s public and high friction means we’d grab the phone less in the meantime.
