A couple of years ago, I learned about Cal Newport’s Twitter break in January and decided to join him. For the last two years, I added Instagram. (I gave up Facebook in 2019 for the most part. These days, I only use it (reluctantly) for online classes that use Facebook as a discussion board.)
I spend way too much time on my phone. So in January, inspired by Shaunta Grimes of Ninja Writers, I have been doing a 10×100 exercise and spending at least 10 minutes a day for 100 days on:
- Quilting or other art
- Studying French
- Learning
- Reading
- Writing
- Housework/Home improvement
I am also doing paper shredding. We were seriously behind on shredding, but luckily, we are not 100 days behind.
What’s your relationship with your phone?
Recent research by Asurion shows that Americans pick up their phones 96 times a day or once every 10 minutes. If you are curious about your screen time and phone habits, your phone has data for you. On an iPhone, go to Setting > Screen Time. Go to “all activity” under the graph for details. My numbers were a bit scary. One of the scariest data points is the list of apps that are first used after pickup. Gmail was number one but Instagram was number two! This is when I knew I needed an IG detox! I have to say that after 25 Instagram-free days, my life is better without it.
