I don’t need this fancy pants phone. Over the last few weeks, I’ve managed to ween myself down to  So much so that I’m going to buy a “dumb phone” this weekend.

It’s kind of freeing. What am I saying, it’s TOTALLY freeing! 😀

I just don’t know if I realized that without really thinking about it, I’ve wasted hours upon hours of time doing stuff that DOES NOT BRING ME JOY just because it was there. A friend reminded me that I was one of the early adopters, that I was on social platforms before they hit critical mass. Perhaps that’s why… I’m also now OVER IT.

So taking notes from the latest KonMari craze… thank you, next!

Maybe I’ll blog more. Probably not. I’m still keeping all of you on the inside posted, so there’s that. And I’m making art, and hanging out with my neighbors and friends. And having spontaneous lunch dates. And all of those things, BRING ME JOY!!!!

 

• Get outside, move around, take a walk.
• Get more happiness for your money. Buy experiences instead of things and spend your money on others.
• Carve out time to be happy, then give it away. Thirty minutes helping others is more rewarding and actually leaves us feeling empowered to tackle the next project, helping us feel more in control of our lives and even less pressed for time. This translates to higher levels of happiness and satisfaction.
• Delay the positive, dispatch the negative. Anticipation itself is pleasurable, and looking forward to an enjoyable experience can make it all that much sweeter.
• Enjoy the ride. People who focus more on process than outcome tend to remain motivated in the face of setbacks.
• Embrace failure. How we think about failure determines whether it makes us happy or sad.
• Sweet dreams. Get a full night’s sleep on a regular basis.
• Strengthen your willpower muscles. Exercising willpower muscles in small, everyday behaviors strengthens our ability to stay focused at work.
• Introduce variety into your day-to-day activities.
• Stop comparing yourself to others.
• Reach out and connect with someone.
• Limit time on social media.
• Use your phone in the way phones were originally intended.
• Practice gratitude.

The list above is from a story someone in my office sent me: Realistic Ways to Achieve Happiness: An Interview with Tim Bono

 

 

It’s snowy. St. Louis City has no snow plows. I’ve been taking the bus. I NEED Google Maps.

Because of last Friday’s fiasco, I decided to start using iMessage on my desktop. I’ve always balked at this because who really needs your text messages popping up on your screen… DURING PRESENTATIONS! But I must say, this was a game-changer. I can leave my phone in a drawer all day now!

So all that time I gave up on Instagram, I apparently made up on… Pinterest!!! lol

This is the most snow we’ve gotten in at least FIVE YEARS! So no soccer game today. I have a bonus day with no real reason to have a smart phone. I made a lot of art! Not all of it was pretty.

BTW, I’m going under the radar with that for the foreseeable future. I’ll be sharing my process privately with my email subscribers. Why? Here’s the scoop. (TLDR: It’s really freeing to take risks and learn new things when you don’t have to worry about it being part of your public digital footprint AND another symptom of my EMBODY word for the year). If you’re so very interested in what’s going on behind the scenes, sign up in the sidebar —->

I haven’t been checking the weather app as much either so I missed the whole Snowpocalypse warnings all week. Fortunately, there’s no reason for me to go anywhere. And what better reason to get off the screen than… SLEDDING!!! W00T!

OMG! I left my phone at home!!! Is this a sign that I’m really weaning myself from the device? I had a lunch date and was gonna confirm with Carolyn this morning but… I COULDN’T because I DON’T KNOW HER NUMBER!!! I pinged her of FB, by email, and in a last desperate move, I looked up her home phone ON THE INTERNET! I can’t believe it was actually right. Scary what info is out there. 😀

Fortunately, she checked email. And then informed me that the work VM I left via ALL THOSE CHANNELS was full.

I’m still annoyed at myself for tapping on that Instagram icon without thinking. And THEN, when I see I’m logged out, what do I do? I check my EMAIL? Whut?!?! Just stop!

All day, I left my phone in my office instead of bringing it to meetings. I used to say, I need it in case my kids need me for something but then I have it and end up scrolling around when I’m in a meeting and c’mon, we all hate that person who’s looking at her phone during a meeting. So far, no emergency calls from the nurse!

I forgot to post this on the 1/1/2019. My word for the year is EMBODY. Hence the less screen time, more “in the physical world time.” I felt it last weekend. An hour-long walk with my neighbor, a visit to the Kehinde Wiley exhibit at SLAM, a trip to the BOOKSTORE, two actually, a massage! On Sunday, I went to a bris to celebrate a new baby and then brunch with a dear friend and then my daughter’s recital. She was awesome.

My intention of embodiment is all about connection. Connecting, rooting. It’s gonna be a fabulous year, I can already tell.

My smartphone tells me my screen time is down 17% from the week before. I kinda love that about my phone. Boo. And hey, I’ve managed to turn this blog into old style micro blogging. I think it was called Twitter. #StillNotScrolling

Well, I failed. I used Google Maps. My son had soccer practice and I took him to the wrong location, which was of course on the opposite side of town from where he was supposed to be. So I panicked. Again, I probably could have made it without Google Maps but I wanted to know HOW late he was going to be. Like that mattered. #rationalizing #GoogleBlankie #StillNotScrolling

I bought a REAL camera! I love it. I did it because now I can’t use that as an excuse to be tied to my phone 24/7. I love it. Did I say that already?

Here’s the thing… it’s not like I don’t have stuff to do. I don’t sit around and watch TV. I’m pretty good about being “productive.” I find myself “scrolling” in the in-between’s – like waiting for a meeting to start or after I’ve completed a project and before I start the next one. So whatever found time I have is in increments of 5-10 minutes. What could I be doing with that time instead? Stretching? Meditation? A walk around the block?

I logged out of IG and guess what happened? I can’t tell you how many times I found myself tapping that damn icon just to land on THIS screen:

Yep, total mindless habit. And if I had NOT logged out, I surely would have spent at least five minutes scrolling through the feed. I deleted the Facebook app on my phone but somehow, can’t quite go cold turkey on Insta yet.

Yesterday, we got back from a 7-hour road trip. No smartphone, no Google maps. My 17yo daughter gasped out loud when I told her.

We’re gonna WHUT?!?!

She looked at me like I was dangerous.

I can understand that for someone who has no memory of traveling without the blue line, this probably feels dangerous.

Obviously we made it. I only missed ONE exit. 😀

Observations: 1) my kids don’t know how to read maps 2) I don’t really need any map at all to go somewhere I’ve been going for twenty-five years. I was just using Google as a blankie.

For the past 8 months or so… I’ve been feeling the tension between the pressure to be present on social media versus the desire to be present in my physical world. Serendipitously, I chanced upon Vitamin Water’s Scroll-free Year Challenge, which asks the question of what you would do without a smartphone for a year. It felt like the sign I was waiting for.

Even if I don’t HAVE TO give up my smartphone, what would my life look like without the endless scrolling? It would be an interesting experiment, at the very least. Perhaps I would just find some other mindless activity to replace the scrolling and it wouldn’t make any difference at all other than I’d have to run by an ATM occasionally.

I’m gonna at least try. And document how it goes.

Stay tuned!