Smartphones are so embedded into our daily lives, here’s what it’s really like to go without one for a week. How do you think you would get on?

The last week has been one of the most stressful I’ve experienced in quite a while; my working and personal life were massively impacted by one particular incident.

Impacted to the point that I found myself chewing my fingernails (something I haven’t done since I was a kid) and being short tempered with all those around me.

And what was the incident that caused all this Stress?

A loss of a loved one? A dating screw-up? A difficult conversation? A business problem? (I mean running a business is quite stressful right now)

Structured serendipity going wrong? Failed sales? A tough team workshop?

My attempts at community building getting stuck? A missed job promotion? Receiving negative feedback, (either business or personal)? A social media faux pas? (I mean, I am very emotional about my LinkedIn and who really knows why we get a like)

A bad response to a voice note? A particularly heavy silence? Another soul-sapping LinkedIn challenge? A failed experiment? A backfired attempt to be vulnerable? Another TEDx talk that failed to record properly? A pricing negotiation gone wrong? More minor disagreements with contractors? Another house move?

The wrong choice of outfit? A bad night at the opera? Being ill? Losing the never-ending weight struggle? Palestinian Grief? Expensive coffees? Running out of genies? A relationship reaching past its half-life? Emails going unanswered? Pissing off a powerful person?

Falling out with a buddy? A new relationship not taking off? Difficult travels? Being back in the classroom? A dodgy set of guests at one of my dinners? Getting beaten up doing my new hobby? A heavy night on the phones? A bad game of golf? Breaking up with another insurance company?

Nope, it was none of these…

It was much worse…

My phone went kaput!

2 months ago I dropped it in the middle of facilitating 30 global leaders at a client workshop I was running; at that point it only had a slight crack but crucially it still worked and we had 2 days more of the workshop. So, being a stubborn b*stard, I’d skipped fixing it immediately (I’ll not be doing that again).

From that point it continued to work with the odd flicker here and there. That was, until I woke up one morning to find that it had died completely on me.

I immediately took it to the nearest Samsung store thinking that this would be the quickest and least painful way to get it back (perhaps I’d watched too many episodes of The Pitt recently to think they could just shock it back to life immediately).

It was only once there did I discover that it could take up to a week to repair.

I nodded when I was told the information, but clearly my brain chose to believe that it would be a quick job.

How wrong I was to be! It took the full week before I would get it back but the real problem was the disconnect between my expectation and reality.

Because I was expecting only a max 2-day lack of phone, I only put in a temporary solution.

In this case, because I didn’t have a spare phone and didn’t think it was worth buying one, I channelled my growing ability to ask for help, and sent an SOS out to my neighbours.

One neighbour leant me an old phone and that allowed me to put in my sim card to receive the text message that gave me access back into my emails (that had been locked out in my desperate attempts to back up the phone data).

Because the phone she leant me was that old, it’s battery didn’t last more than 20 minutes and it wouldn’t download most of the apps I needed so I made the bold decision to just tough out a few days without a phone…

The effects of going without a phone for a week

Like an addict going cold turkey, 2 days without a phone was tough but 7 days without one was downright cruel.

I had flashbacks to the time I had no internet for a week and the pain I went through when my fridge died on me.

Now this wasn’t the first time I’ve broken my phone but it certainly was the longest period and most devastating. Because phones are so invariably intertwined into our daily lives, there were so many knock on effects that I hadn’t even considered; here are the main ones:

1. Work became much less mobile — I had to resort to having to carry my laptop around to access work stuff
2. No last minute changes when meeting others — If I agreed to meet someone at a certain time I had no choice but to be there when I said I would
3. Going old school with phone numbers — I had to memorise (or at least write them down) more people’s numbers so I could contact them when out or about
4. Going old school with directions — If I was going somewhere new I had to write down (or print) the directions; no instant maps for me and more having to, dangerously, look at pieces of paper when driving
5. Proving I was me got a lot harder — No access to instant multifactor authentication or confirmation texts
6. More sitting with dead time — No more filler surfing and scrolling
7. Being dumber — No more having instant access to news, AI or google answers
8. Being less Travel efficient — No more real time traffic updates
9. Going back to analogue Money — No access to digital payments out and about so needing to carry cash, bank cards and no instant checking of my bank accounts
10. Capturing less memories — No phone meant no camera meant no daily photos and videos
11. Resurrecting the old fashioned alarm clock — No using the alarm on my phone
12. Trusting my own senses on the weather — No weather updates for me
13. Feeling less close to friends – Without being able to text, phone or check friends’ social media it certainly felt like I was one step removed
14. Less flirting — Without access to the Dating apps that I have been a slave to I couldn’t match, chat or arrange dates
15. Less music and audiobooks — This one particularly hit me hard in the gym
16. Less voice notes — Both sending and receiving; those who know me know what a big thing that is for me
17. No Ubers/Bolts or other virtual taxi services — I took a lot more Night Buses as a result
18. No QR scanning — These codes are surprisingly ingrained into modern life when it comes to menus, websites, etc but these all were off limits without a phone
19. Gaming problems — I like an occasional bit of gaming on my phone (particularly the daily LinkedIn games) but I had to curtail this and when I used alternate devices I noticeably had worse performance
20. Less instant inspiration — It became much harder to turn to AI for ideas when cooking, writing, brainstorming, etc

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though because there were definite upside consequences too across the week; I experienced:

1. More reading books
2. Earlier bedtimes
3. More using my own little grey cells (aka my brain) for thinking
4. More creativity and being comfortable with my own thoughts
5. Realising not as many things needed instant answers
6. Being more punctual
7. Prioritising more
8. Less procrastination
9. Less fixation on spurious data (e.g. steps, Sleep time, etc)
10. No need to constantly carry around chargers/battery packs
11. No constant on/being worried by notifications and news alerts
12. Saving money as a result of less instant purchases
13. No bulge in trousers…from carrying around a large phone (before you think of anything else)

One of my major takeaways was being really conscious of everyone on their phones all the time; not that I was unaware of this previously but it becomes even more abundantly clear when you are one of the few without them.

People chatting loudly on the bus, people on the tube scrolling, people walking down the road texting, people watching tv whilst playing games, people eating meals whilst watching YouTube,…

No wonder loneliness is on the increase.

How will my behaviour change now that I have my phone back?

Let’s be real: I’m not about to stop using a smartphone but certainly my week without one has really brought home the good and bad elements of having a black mirror in my pocket non-stop.

It’s a tool that feels like your friend, your solace from the cruelties and risks of the outside world, your thinking partner.

But ultimately it’s also just a tool and one that creates divisions, stress and paranoia.

The single greatest thing I can do now that I have it back is to try and be more intentional with my usage. After all, I often help clients be more effective by banning their phones during key sessions so I should be able to do it too.

Let’s see how I get on; anyone else going to do the same?

As ever, at your disposal if I can be of help 🙂

Faris

Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here

Success = IQ x EQ x FQ

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Originally Published on https://farisaranki.medium.com/

Faris Aranki Strategy & Emotional Intelligence

Having spent over 20 years delivering strategic change for the corporate and non-corporate worlds, Faris has experienced first-hand the fine differences between strategic success and failure.
His work has spanned numerous companies (from global behemoths to small start-ups), in numerous countries, across a range of sectors, supporting them all to unlock strategic success.

He came to realize that often what hinders institutions from achieving their goals goes beyond the quality of their strategy; it is their ability to engage effectively with others at all levels and remove barriers in their way. This has led to his passion for improving strategic effectiveness within all businesses and individuals and the foundation of Shiageto Consulting.

Over time, Faris has worked to distill his knowledge of how to solve complex problems in a structured manner combined with his skill on engaging effectively with others and his ability to quickly determine the barriers to a strategy's success. This knowledge has formed the foundation of Shiageto’s workshops, courses and methodologies. Faris believes that any firm or team can adopt these improvements; all it requires is a little of the right support -something Shiageto provides!

On top of leading our business, Faris is now an accomplished speaker and contributor for a variety of outlets.