Dumbing Down my Smart Phone for the Summer
What is a “Dumb Phone Summer” & Why Do It?
Well, it’s kind of like a Hot Girl Summer except for the fact that it’s completely unrelated. 🙃 Still has that nice ring to it though, right?
So really, what is it?
I’m doing a little experiment this summer. During the months of June & July, I will be intentionally “dumbing down” my phone to see what impact it might have on my life to not be so constantly connected, stimulated, entertained, & so forth. I’m curious to know how my life might change if for 2 whole months, I eliminate some of my most used apps from my phone. My goal is peace, presence, clarity, productivity, focus, & joy. I’m interested to see how it might impact both my personal & professional life.
I’ve completely given up social media for long periods of time before, but I’ve never done something quite like this. In this challenge, I’m not completely removing anything from my life, I’m just removing it from my phone, aka my back pocket. I’ll have to set aside intentional time at my computer to do the things I do so casually on & off all day with my smart phone.
And while I know that this is going to be so freaking hard for my little convenience-loving, efficiency-craving self, I’m also weirdly very excited about it. 😈
My Dumb Phone Summer Guidelines
I’ve edited this blog a bit since its original draft because as I’ve continued to reflect on what I want to get out of this detox, things have come more into focus for me AND some of my plans have been foiled by the iPhone. (Like how it won’t actually let me remove iMessage or Safari completely from my phone. 🤪)
🌞 Make a distinction between utility & distraction
Though I can tend to be an all-or-nothing type of person, I’m trying to think intentionally about which apps are useful for my life and which are distracting me from it, so I can keep the ones that are helpful & ditch the ones that aren’t. A helpful way for me to think through which apps to keep on my phone for my “Dumb Phone Summer” are to think through which ones serve a utility purpose for me - meaning, the apps that serve as tools in my life. These are also apps I don’t get sucked into. For example, I use GPS to get me where I want to go, it’s not distracting me from what I’m doing or who I’m with. I use an airline app to check in for my flight, I’m not going to be tempted to mindlessly scroll through it. You get the picture.
🌞 Remove my most-used apps from my phone
I looked at my Screen Time report to confirm what I already knew about which apps I spend the most time on. Based off of my goals, the most important apps I’m choosing to eliminate from my phone this summer are Instagram & Email.
I originally intended to remove iMessage and Safari from my phone too, but soon realized that the iPhone won’t allow me to do that. So I am removing them from my Home Screen so they’re more out of sight to make them a little less convenient to use.
🌞 Remove other unnecessary apps
There are other apps that I don’t spend a lot of time on necessarily, but are frankly just a distraction, complete waste of time, or could be used more efficiently on my computer anyways. Some of these other apps that I’ll be removing are: Facebook, Messenger, Pinterest, Unfold, & Canva. These are all apps I can use on my computer when necessary, that won’t be missed much anyways!
I’m also taking this opportunity to purge apps that I no longer use at all. Like cleaning out the closet - feels so good.
🌞 Reorganize the “Utility” Apps that Remain
With the apps that remain, I am reorganizing things so that my main home screen is completely blank, the second page of my home screen has my utility “essentials”, and the third page has apps that are helpful, but that I don’t use on a regular basis.
These are some of the “essential” apps on my second home screen page that I am choosing to keep around: Maps, Music, Notes, Camera, Photos, & Podcasts.
Here are some examples of other utilitarian apps I’m keeping on the third page of my home screen: bank, airline, calculator, etc.
What apps would you deem utility vs. distraction? We might have different opinions on this based on how we use our phones & that’s okay!
🌞 Make daily/weekly habits for checking in on work at my computer
Work-related tasks for me these days include: responding to emails, managing photography studio rentals, sending contracts, collecting payments, book-keeping, blogging, posting occasionally on social media, etc.
These are the things I need to do to keep my business up & running, but I don’t have to do all of these things on my phone. I’m sure this will be a MAJOR adjustment for me, but I hope it will help me set some better work boundaries for the summer while I’m home with my kids.
How I’m Preparing
Here’s a few ways I am prepping before starting this dumb phone summer challenge. Kindly let me know if I’m forgetting something important, would ya? 😅
✨ Updating the homies on my summer challenge
Aka letting my close friends & family who I am in regular communication with know about what I’m doing for both accountability and better expectations. 🙂
✨ Using a Google Voice Number for Work Communication
I own & manage a local studio photography here in town and I want for people to be able to contact me quickly if they encounter any issues while renting the studio when I’m not on site. I will be using a Google phone number so that all of these work-related calls & messages can be more clearly defined and organized in one place on my phone.
A Google Voice phone number is basically a forwarding number that you can share with people for work-related items so that you have a phone number separate from your own personal number. It’s a free app and an awesome resource for helping draw a boundary between work and personal phone calls/text messages.
It filters phone calls & text messages through its own app which means I can check on these things without having to open my iMessage app & getting urgent matters mixed in with personal texts.
✨ Carrying around pen & paper
I guarantee I am going to have a long list of items that come to mind that I would usually just look up on the internet or send a quick text question about that I won’t want to forget to circle back to later. I’ll need to write these things down so that I don’t forget to act on them later when I’m at my computer.
I may even use the Notes app on my phone for this because I am planning to keep that app available for use. But if the goal is to have my phone in my hand less overall, pen & paper would probably be more ideal…
Some of my Honest Worries
💫 Getting into the habit
I’m a bit worried about how long it might take me to adjust my habits to these guidelines. I don’t want relationships or work-related items to fall through the cracks. So I know it will take a diligent system to make sure I don’t forget to complete important tasks & connect with my people!
💫 Inconvenience
I’m sure I don’t even know the halfff of how often I do a quick Google search when I have a question about something or shoot a friend a text last minute about getting together. I’m going to have to develop some more thoughtfulness, patience, & forethought for sure.
💫 Inefficiency
I thrive off of efficiency. It’s like my underlying life goal. (Not saying this is a good thing.) And I’m a bit worried about how hard I think it’s going to be to not be able to fill every moment of down time with a productive work task. This is going to stretch me!!!
Want to join me?
I think this challenge can totally be customized to your goals. I shared my plans & guidelines above, but you can choose your own boundaries based on how you currently use your phone & what you want to get out of this.
Guidelines for Joining:
Decipher which of your apps are for utility & which are time-suckers
Choose which of your most-used distracting apps you’ll be deleting from your phone
Delete the apps & plan times where you can check in on necessary items via your computer
I’m planning to send out weekly emails throughout the challenge to encourage you, share what I’m learning, & hopefully hear back from you on what you’re gleaning from the experience, too!
If you dare to join me, hop on this email list to hear from me weekly throughout June & July.
Can’t wait! Hope to connect with you over this soon!
xo, Suzy
