No Phone For a Day - What Happens
Sunday - March 8 2026
The Day:
I woke up super early this morning, and didn't really know what to do. Usually I would go downstairs, make brekkie and watch YouTube, but I couldn’t do that. So, I picked a new book and started reading. “A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” is a great book, and I cannot recommend it enough (I read the whole book today and am now on the restaurant one, whatever it’s called). But this isn’t a book analysis, so I’ll save that for another time. I read for a while, then decided it was time to get out of bed. I checked the surf yesterday, and it said there might be a chance of something, and I didn’t have anything else to do, so I broke the one rule and checked my phone, but only the surf. It looked average, but I wanted to get out of the house, so I woke up my dad, and we got going. Long story short, it was bad pretty much everywhere, and the one decent spot had a shark hanging around, so we ended up just driving around for a while before heading back home, a bit dejected. This is when something rather key happened: I left my phone in the car. I wasn’t bothered to go get it, so I just left it there and did some more reading, attempted to build a Lego crusader helmet (round things are hard to build out of square bricks) and tried to fix a problem with my monitor. Without my phone. I will admit that this is the point where I went looking for my phone. I had started a podcast yesterday and wanted to finish it (Darknet Diaries, highly recommend). But I couldnt find it, I then remembered it was in the car. Dad had left the car to pick up something a very long way away. So I went back to reading. Eventually, I finished Hitchhiker's Guide and was looking around for something else to do. Chores, normally boring, but now without the phone, I felt like I was escaping the boredom of doing nothing; it felt gratifying, and I was actually getting stuff done. Dad got back, and I did go grab my phone, I know, sacriligeous. At this point, I was very bored, and probably getting dopamine withdrawals or something. I just wanted a podcast while doing laundry. Admittedly, I watched a bit of YouTube, but not too much and not doom scrolling (it was mostly educational stuff anyway). This brings me to now, writing this. I put my phone downstairs. I’m not listening to a podcast, or music, or watching a video, or doomscrolling. I’m writing an article. A really crappy one the probably very few people will ever read, but hey, it’s something.
The Effects:
Motivation
Initially, I felt a total lack of anything; I had no idea what to do, but once I got going on something, I kept going. I didn’t get distracted, I didn’t go slower because my full attention wasn’t on the task at hand. I was actually reasonably productive. Another thing I noticed is that school doesn't seem that bad. I actually am kinda excited to go back tomorrow, compared to a day doing chores, reading, mostly alone. It was nice, it was a good rest from a busy week, but seeing my friends, socialising and playing sport seems far more appealing than it normally would on a dreary Sunday afternoon.
Withdrawal?
I genuinely felt like I was getting some kind of dopamine withdrawal. I have absolutely nothing to back this up with, just vibes. Extreme tiredness, lack of any motivation. But eventually that went away when my brain realised it couldn’t escape into the endless void of my phone.
Conclusion:
Overall, I feel far better having done this, and I’ll probably make it a weekly thing. If you’re planning on doing this yourself, here are some tips:
- Do it on a day when you don't have anything on, not a busy one. This forces you to be bored and also means you have no excuses to use your phone, no, “but I need to text this person”, or “but what if I miss that message”
- Physically place your phone somewhere else. For me, it was an accident, but it could be quite difficult if you don’t actually have a physical restriction