4 Days without Phone

Ted Talk by Chris Bailey on youtube

I changed my routine 4 days back after watching above ted talk. After a bad day of excessive noise, near to little productivity, I wanted to get out of the noise and feel better. So, I decided no more using mobile phone longer than 30 minutes in a day.

What changed in previous 4 days after shutting down my phone? Let’s discuss.

1. You get bigger blocks of time

2. Curiosity humbles you down

Time

Productive by Matt Ragland

As soon as you switch the phone off, you start getting bored, upset and down inside. You start realising you were addictive. You feel without using it, you won’t find anything worth your attention. Life is dull and tick tock of this wall clock in front of me, is irritating. Phones were only making noise in your head; the noise that you realise only after you turn your phone / tv / news off.

Time comes in abundance. I recently took 2 freelance gigs and an ample amount of time to work on them. I have already published one gig in nearly 5 hours after receiving it.

In 4 days, boredom is bringing me money and time. Where people say, time is money, honestly, it is wrong. Money is Money. If your saved time doesn’t earn you anything tangible / a sense of achievement, time is not worth it. Until you get meaningful gigs out of your saved time, you really haven’t saved much time. These gigs, that earn you money, pushes you far better than motivational lectures and costly books. I would say, Money is money.

Curiosity humbles you down

Curious by Markus Spiske

With phone switched off, a curiosity develops. Did my bid went through? Did I get any new customers? Did my social media post hit a heart? Did yesterday’s content go viral? Did anyone send me any donations?

The good thing is, you do not get an answer to these questions until you hook yourself back to the internet. Until you switch your phone back on, you do not get a hint of the outside world. This leads to more curiosity and curiosity transforms your day into more hope, expectations and cheerfulness.

The night, when you switch it back on for 30 minutes, you come across all the good news together. Some have sent donations. Some have acknowledged the gig. Some shared your blog post. Some showed some love. And it all together, makes you feel great, once again.

Earlier, you were getting all these tid bits in patches; distributed and un-organised. You were not feeling the blessing of one good donation underneath. But all the donations, tidings and encouragements together in 30 minutes, makes you want to jump with joy. Boosts your happiness levels and directly impacts your next day’s performance.

Conclusion

‘Do not’ by Markus Spiske

I say, do not talk, write and cheer. Do not work harder. Do not undergo a miserable routine. Do not fight what lowers you down. Do not put extra burden on your health, brain and life. Do not pass extra exams, extra assignments and earn out standing reports. Do not hurt yourself with unnecessary burden.

There is already ample noise, a-lot hatred, mess and traffic in your life. Do not put an extra door to welcome more noise your way. Turn off your phone, WhatsApp, twitter, facebook and TV; things with broken information. Reduce it to 30 minutes, if you must.

Get closer to morning walks, bird chirps, honest in-person gatherings and boredom. Live one day without your phone, and you will find, it was all green, quiet and beautiful. You will know; you were searching it all at all the wrong places. You will find, it was just outside the door, the trees, quietness and happiness.