Living without my smartphone…and thriving

I’ve always been addicted to rectangles of all sorts. What began in my school years with TV continued when I began to work, via computers which went on and on and got worse with the Internet.  Even when I was a full time employee, I have to sheepishly confess that a large part of my day was spent on mindlessly surfing the internet and playing games.

Then came the era of smartphones and now finally with my lap top and tablet, the cycle of this addiction seemed to never come to an end. At every juncture of my life, I have been pre-occupied with some addiction of this sort or another. Till finally one day, it dawned upon me that I was getting older and apparently nowhere near the writer I wanted to ever be.  

About a couple of weeks or so ago, I came across a really nice article which you guys can read here. It was about how you could actually lead a life away from your phone.

Letting go of my iPhone was easier than I could have thought possible. Out came my good old qwerty phone with no internet access, no games and a robust battery life.

I wrote important numbers on a small pocket diary which is now a permanent accessory as is a small note pad on which I write my to-do lists. No more on the phone. And trust me, writing things down actually makes it a lot more definite. Somehow when I wrote my lists on the phone, I could never get the jobs done because on my way to the notes app, I would meander via whatsapp, imessages, facebook, twitter, mail, candy crush and eventually by the time I reached notes, there would be no time left for the jobs at hand.

I transferred twitter, whatsapp and other important apps to my tablet so that I don’t have multiple entry points to any social networking sites. I cannot completely do away with these social networking apps because I get important news and updates, with regards to Kiara’s school etc. on it. It’s a necessary evil in these times but some evils I have to live with.

I haven’t felt more free in such a long time. I make very good use of my time now instead of pouring over unnecessary jokes and forwards. Also, getting back to my old phone actually made me realize that I am not as important as I think. I get no more than three to four phone calls in the day and I make even far lesser. So where I used to handle the phone for various reasons for more than a three to four hours, now I don’t use the phone for more than fifteen minutes and that too on calls which are really necessary.

I have designated timings to access Whatssap and emails on my tablet so I do not have the urge to check into my email every fifteen minutes. For those of you who, like me, have become a prey of this tiny little thing which has taken over your life, try this de-tox therapy. Like me, you’ll actually begin to listen to the songs of the birds outside your window than the constant ringtones and tweets message reminders.