I've been trying out Cal Newport's "phone foyer" method
For the last couple of days, I've been trying a piece of advice by super nerd and productivity expert Cal Newport to stop wasting hours staring slack-jawed at some stupid algorithm on my damn phone.
The idea is pretty simple, as Cal writes on his blog
When you get home after work, you put your phone on a table in your foyer near your front door. Then — and this is the important part — you leave it there until you next leave the house.
If you need to look something up, you go to your foyer and look it up there.
If you need to send a text message, you go to the foyer. If you’re holding a back-and-forth conversation, then you need to stand there while you do it.
If you’re expecting an important call, put on your ringer.
If you feel the urge to check in on social media, it’s waiting for you in the foyer.
And so on.
This hearkens back to the days where the phone or computer was in one location in the house, and you had to physically go to it, rather than having it as a constant companion clamouring for your attention everywhere you go.
(Hashtag Elder Millenial Vibes, Hashtag Nostalgia, Hashtag "it's giving 90s")
I've been trying this out for a couple of days and I absolutely LOVE it. It didn't take long for me to completely forget about my phone and to really relax into being alone with my thoughts, writing in my journal, updating my Bearblog for the first time in ages, picking up a book, or just being more present in the moment.
I feel more calm, happier and less scattered. I've been getting more reading done, and I've also been noticing a wellspring of interesting ideas start to bubble up in my mind.
The phone doesn't have to be in the foyer for this to work, of course. For me, I've been keeping my phone on a charging stand in my kitchen. This works well, because I use my calorie tracking app when preparing meals, and I also listen to podcasts while washing dishes. Other than that, there's really not much reason for the phone to be with me anywhere else in the house.
I got an old-fashioned alarm clock for the bedroom, so I don't need to have my phone in there to wake me up. This has been really successful, and I no longer spend 45 minutes scrolling while procrastinating getting out of bed.
This is exactly the kind of positive change I want to make this year, so I'm really happy about it!
Where do you keep your phone when you're at home? Let me know in the guestbook.
P.S. I can't help it, I totally have a crush on Cal Newport. When he starts talking about "long thinking" and hiking into the woods with a notebook to deeply ponder complex ideas and reach a nuanced and original understanding of the world around him I'm like...
