The past week I decided to forfeit my phone for a week and honestly, it was kind of hard. I found my life filled with others’ aesthetic instagram feeds and lively Snapchat stories, and I was obsessed. I was seriously so addicted to my phone. Like…seriously.
Courtesy tumblr.com
Eventually I started to get annoyed with myself and how unproductive I was becoming. I didn’t want to study Organic Chemistry or review Chinese, all I wanted to do was twiddle my thumbs over the 5.8 inch screen of my IPhone X. So basically I got fed up and turned off my phone last, last Sunday (Nov. 4, 2018) and wow. Oh-my-goodness I was so productive! For reference, the weekly orgo prelab/postlab that I usually finish somewhere between 3-5AM, I finished at 5pm!
Courtesy slodive.com
Although the first few days of the ‘no-phone-life’ was indeed very productive, it eventually became difficult. First of all, I use my phone as an alarm clock so I had to turn it on every night. So it was pretty difficult to see that I had gotten texts from friends but not be able to text them back. Or even worse, it was major sadboi hours when I’d see that I got LITERALLY no texts or messages during the entire day! Second of all, there were times during the week I needed to get contacted for things so I had to turn on my phone which kind of sucked. Thirdly, Duo Push is a thing! Fourthly, I voted on Tuesday but even as a second year, I forgot where Slaughter is. So I had to turn on my phone and use maps for that…but hey I voted so it was worth it.
Courtesy CDN store-factory.com
This picture has nothing to do with the article (except for it being slightly related to Duo Push) but it made me laugh.
All in all, the whole week without a phone thing was definitely worth all the trouble. I was super productive and because I had more time, I was able to focus on more important things, like reading my Bible and reviewing for the next orgo lecture. But right as I turned my phone back on, I reverted back to my old ways. So this week I bought an alarm clock and I’m doing it again.
I’m hoping that I start to rely less on my phone and spend my time and effort on more important things, like building relationships with people and learning in school. If you feel like you might be addicted to your phone, I encourage you to try giving it up for a while like I did! If you’re up for the challenge, of course.