Issue 14: Let Your Life Take Space
I was flipping through some older journal entries and came across this note from about a year ago:
I used to think that my phone had become a collection of inboxes — one for each app that sent a push notification. Now, I've come to realize that my phone is an inbox.
Last week, I wrote about how I’ve moved away from wearing my Apple Watch all day. I still wear it to track my sleep and when I exercise (which I haven’t gotten back to post-COVID). But otherwise, I’m wearing a gears-and-cogs wristwatch all day.
The phone, though, is another story. I’ve no intention of going back to a dumb phone, but I am trying to be more intentional with my usage of the thing.
For the most part, when I’m working, it’s in another room. I turn off notifications with extreme prejudice, keeping only the ones that are important —i.e., they matter for making a decision— and even those are mostly deferred with scheduled delivery, three times a day.
(If we’ve ever spoken at length about mobile apps, you know that I have feelings about notifications.)
This helps some, but I think we've all had the experience of unlocking our phones and finding ourselves twenty minutes later doomscrolling without being quite sure how that happened. I'm testing an app called onesec to combat this, which intercepts an attempt to open a specific app, and then requires you to jump through some hoops before it'll allow access — or suggest other activities. Mindlessly launched Instagram? Take ten seconds to breathe, and maybe instead go capture your thoughts in Day One.
It helps, but not as much as just... not having your phone nearby.
Last week I suggested carrying around a notebook, as a way to capture your thoughts without going to your phone. Studies have shown that it's better for memory and learning, and I think there's a lot of value in slowing life down for a few minutes to ingest what's going on.
Also —and maybe this is just me— there's something really special about seeing stuff you've written or sketched taking space in the physical world. A notebook gets a little thicker and a little more worn with use; your iPhone always looks the same, regardless of how much data is available on it.
Your ideas, your thoughts, your questions, your life, should be allowed to take physical space like this. Write them down. Print your photos. Send a written letter.
Aside: There's another part to this, too: what happens when that data is no longer accessible? Accounts get suspended randomly. Catastrophic failures wipe data. Maybe I should go back to a paper planner (again), too.
Around The Web
- The internet is for bots: remember when the web was exciting, and made by people, for people? What happened? Today, AI-generated slop empowers clickbait content farms to get bots to click through on ads. James Ball's article, Is Anyone Out There?, digs deep into the phenomenon, how it's given rise to "churnalism", and how humanity has become irrelevant to the business model of the internet.
- Oliver Burkeman suggests you might want to stop planning how to become someone how does X, and instead, just focus on doing X a little bit, today. You can hear him read this chapter here.
And a personal link:
- I was interviewed by the folks at Montana Floss, makers of Shareshot, about being an indie developer. If you're interested, you can read it here.
Thought Of The Week
Speaking of the whole "indie developer" thing: that's a side business that I honestly don't invest enough time in. As I get more responsibilities in my day job, where I'm working towards becoming an engineering manager, I sometimes wonder if I should just shutter the whole thing.
The thing is, I really like the idea of running my own (very small) business. I want to eventually be doing that full-time. But as I mentioned in that interview, I tend to focus on the stuff that excites me, which means I often get distracted by shiny new things.
As I've been introspecting on this, I think that the issue is that I don't have a fully-developed vision for my life. You'd think that at my age, that wouldn't be a problem anymore. And yet, here we are.
What about you? Do you have a vision for your life? Hit reply and let me know.