What’s the problem?

I use my phone to much. This is likely the modern refrain. If it’s not phones then it was TV before it and before that, heck, it was newspapers.

For as long as we have been exploiting technology there has been a fear that perhaps, just maybe, that technology might be exploiting us.

I feel this way about my phone. I spend way to much time daily on a device that I fear gives me little to no value for the investment put into it. So what to do? Well, below is my thinking and how I’m trying to resolve these issues, with the hope that I can reclaim some of that lost time.

Since the birth of our first child last year the concept of hours in a day has been completely turned on its head. Before, evenings seem to stretch on, all the time in the world for personal or work projects. “Can you stay a little later at work?”, “Not a problem!”.

However my evenings are no longer mine. They are my daughters. Nursery pick up, family time, dinner, bath and bed. Followed by the clean up and boom, it’s 21:00. Maybe an hour before I start thinking about bed. If I spend this time unwisely, it might literally be the only hour I have to myself that day - it is to precious to waste on short form YouTube Content or doom scrolling on LinkedIn.

Dumb phone, Dummy!

The answer, surely, is a dumb phone. They promise that you can be disconnected from distraction and be happier for it. The problem is also the cause of this journey - the birth of our daughter.

I take a silly number of videos and photos of our little one. Every time she does something, anything, it is likely that we take a snap. The value of these photos, to me, is immeasurable.

The camera on my Pixel smartphone is fast to load, synced with the cloud and, of most import, takes great photos. It would be a true loss if I were to remove this functionality and so moving to a dumb phone would be out the question.

I also own this phone, so purchasing another device seems wasteful - can I do anything with my current set-up to improve my focus?

BYOD - and make it dumb.

So how can I keep the convenience of a modern smart phone while stopping the distractions it brings? Well, bring your own device (BYOD) and make it dumb.

There are, from my reading, three main ways to do this on Android ¹.

1. Digital Well-being
2. Nova Launcher
3. Minimalist phone

Digital Well-being

This is likely on your phone already, it’s Google’s attempt and putting in some controls that can help you both see and restrict app usage. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, for a firm that wants you on your phone for the most amount of time possible, it’s not very good.

You can set app timers, great, but they can easily be overridden. And the ability to completely block or remove apps is not always there. For example if I want to uninstall YouTube, it is not possible.

Focus mode is also baked in which can set timers for apps that you do not want to be using during work or focus hours. Again, however, the barrier to switch these off is very low.

It also keeps the phone looking the same. Your home screen still has all the colourful apps on it. Notifications, while offering granular control, are a pain to manage.

This is great if you have strong will power but not if you like giving yourself little breaks.

Nova Launcher

Nova Launcher is a app that lets you change the appearance of you Android launcher. This has a massive benefit towards making the phone less appealing. The free tier does everything you need and, in combination with focus mode, we might be on to a winner.

I ran this for about two weeks. While I was able to start getting close to what I wanted I would need to spend a considerable amount of time getting this to a place I would be happy with it. ²

You can make the lock and home screens very boring, with just black background and white font. But I could not find a way to remove icons and the issue of fully blocking apps is still there.

After two weeks my app usage had crawled back up - I needed something more drastic.

Minimalist Phone

Minimalist Phone, you have likely seen the ads for, is a paid for app that does lots a great things. It does, out the box, a stellar job at the basics. A black home screen with no app icons, app list has no icons and just a black and white. Adding favourites to the home screen is a nice addition, meaning that you only have fast access to the apps you need the most.

And the killer feature? Full-on app blocks. You can hide apps from the list of apps or you can set full blocks. If we take YouTube as an example I’m able to hide the app, block its use and it will even stop me accessing it via the web.

I’m not happy with the fee however, 4.99 GBP a month, 18.99 GBP a year or 28.00 GBP for a life time is more than free. There is a free trial which I used and determined that buying an additional month would be of value to me. I suspect I will reevaluate at the end of that month and determine if the full, life time fee, is the right next step.

The fact there is a life-time option should be applauded too.

They also claim to not sell your data but I do have the nagging doubt at the back of my mind that perhaps, giving so much of my personal device to them is questionable.

Conclusion

So there you are, I’m using the Minimalist Phone app at the moment after trying a range of options. I’ll update here with any further learning. I hope I can continue to minimise the distractions while leading a more mindful life.