Possibly of Use: The Guardian's "Reclaim Your Brain"

[swan_tower]

Third in a series of random posts on things that might be of use to others, with the usual disclaimers that nothing works for everybody.

I don't remember where I got linked to this, but the Guardian has a ~5 installment series of weekly emails about how to "reclaim your brain," i.e. dial back the amount of time you're spending each day on your phone. The tilde is there because you get an introductory email at the outset and a week six bonus, so it's actually seven emails all told -- and they do sign you up for a couple of other things once that ends, which isn't entirely great, but on the other hand the stuff you get signed up for is e.g. "Well Actually," which is a fairly positive-oriented newsletter about health and wellness, so it could be worse. Still and all, you might have to unsubscribe from things after "Reclaim Your Brain" ends, if you're not interested in other emails.

In general, the series gives you instructions on how to figure out the average amount of time you use your phone each day and take a good look at how that time is being spent -- obviously there's a difference between three hours spent doom-scrolling social media and three hours spent immersed in a great ebook. Then they walk you through techniques to help you break the negative habits you have around usage. All of this more top-level advice is paired with personalized accounts from a guy who realized he'd become extremely unhealthy in his relationship with his phone and social media, so you get both the analytical and emotional sides of the tale.

I, uh. Still need to sit down and implement some of their advice? My issue with my phone isn't actually social media, it's games like solitaire, but it's still true that I'm not happy with how much time I wind up unthinkingly spending on things of that type, rather than something I would find more rewarding. Especially since I have a strong tendency to reach for them in any idle moment, e.g. standing in line at a store, and it's entirely possible that downtime of that sort is a vital component of my work: if I'm poking at a game on my phone, I'm more likely not noodling with a story in the back of my head. Over time, that's going to add up to a problem, since "let yourself be bored" is quite possibly a key element in creativity.

But even though I'm not yet a success story for the Guardian's series, I do recommend "Reclaim Your Brain" to anybody who would like to reduce their phone usage. You can always be like me and save the emails for later . . .

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/plKSE7)

Comments

[alexseanchai]

I would like to reduce my mobile device usage, but I suspect I am not the target audience for this newsletter sequence?

since the reason I'm on my tablet so much is I can't sit or stand very long without steadily worsening acute pain that sometimes permanently worsens my chronic pain and always results in less ability to do anything but lie flat the next day, and before that condition started accelerating, I stopped doing fiber arts because data-entry-caused repetitive stress injuries, in order to preserve my ability to type on a full-sized keyboard

so my non-mobile-device options are basically (1) TV (2) music, podcast, podfic, or audiobook while staring into space trying to pay attention to the words without having a text version in front of me (3) rerun imagining the story bits I am already frustrated about not having typed up yet (4) absolutely no distractions from the chronic pain

[swan_tower]

It's definitely true that people use them for different purposes! The idea here isn't "all mobile usage baaaaaad," but rather that if it's a detriment to your life rather than a benefit, there are ways to try and intervene on that. When it's helping you with health issues and the like, there's no need to change anything.

[sovay]

Over time, that's going to add up to a problem, since "let yourself be bored" is quite possibly a key element in creativity.

It's been proven over the years and as recently as this month that I don't write if I don't get significant chunks of uninterrupted downtime. I can think all I want about something, it doesn't turn into writing if there isn't quiet space in my brain. It's exhausting.

[swan_tower]

Whereas I can make myself write things, but I lose the thinking part -- and without that idle composting/fermenting/pick your metaphor time, I may run out of ideas, or write things that are much flatter because they haven't had time to develop depth.

[yhlee]

I signed up out of curiosity, although most of my fucked phone and/or Steam Deck and/or Switch habits have been driven by "too sick to sleep, too sick to work, staring at the wall means I'm in screaming pain for which no medication has proved effective, at least the shitty phone/etc. games distract me from the pain." But I absolutely do fall back into those habits even when I'm not in screaming levels of pain. :]

ETA: regardless, thank you for pointing to this, and sorry my manners are fucked tonight, we're having a storm from hell blow through but that's no reason to be rude.

[swan_tower]

No worries -- and like I said, this is honestly the kind of thing where you can get the emails now and save them for some future date when you have the bandwidth to try and change those habits. Not all mobile device usage is bad; sometimes it's serving an important purpose.

[mrissa]

One of the reasons we subscribe to paper magazines is so that "support journalism" and "scroll on phone" are not tied to each other quite so intimately. I read a lot of things on the computer, but I don't scroll on my phone when I'm eating lunch or going to the bathroom, to take two seemingly trivial examples...but the trivial examples add up. It means that my phone is not by default where I am except for extraordinary circumstances, it's only where I am when I decide to take it there on purpose. I am much happier this way. I don't imagine that my solutions are particularly universal, but I'm glad that some people are thinking through how to do this thing in general, because "is this how you want it to be" is a great question that in this case at least some people--from the comments here, obviously not all--are not asking enough.

[swan_tower]

See also why I still mostly read books on paper rather than a device: no notifications, no immediately accessible temptation to swipe over to a forum and see if there are any new posts, etc.

The one I'm wrestling with from the Guardian's advice is "get an alarm clock instead of using your phone" (I have one, so I can see what time it is from bed without having to pick up my phone) and then "leave your phone out of the bedroom." Short of paying to have a landline installed, that latter half would mean not being accessible to phone calls from family members whose numbers are set to go through even during Do Not Disturb hours. It might work for me to rearrange things so my phone's charging pad is across the room, to break the habit of reaching for it as soon as I wake up, but the outlets in this (1930s) house are inconveniently situated enough that the rearrangement would be a little annoying.

[mrissa]

Yeah, I have witnessed in other people how "I am turning off the alarm on my phone" and "I am looking at stuff on my phone" are very nearly the same action. It is SUPER hard to make them separate actions, from what I've seen. (I rarely wake up to an alarm, and I do have an alarm clock for when I need to, so my "wake up to a phone alarm" situations are the rare combination of circumstances when I'm traveling--not habit-forming. Which is luck for me, honestly.)

[swan_tower]

I set a backstop alarm in case I'm not up by X time, but yeah, most days I likewise just wake up naturally within a certain time frame. The habit I need to break is the tendency to reach immediately for the phone once I'm conscious because hey, has that person gotten back to me about thus-and-such or has Kyle sent cute cat pictures? :-P