Stop Digital Detoxes - Try Digital Dieting

I think I use my phone too much. This January, according to my usage stats I was on my phone 3hr 20mins a day. 

That is definitely too much, right?

If I spent that amount of time on anything else, it would be classified as an addiction. I needed to figure out a way to be less hooked to my phone.

If you’ve been browsing pretty much anywhere online lately, from Linkedin to mindfulness blogs, you may have seen someone posting about how the best way to get over our phone addiction is to go on digital detox. People really seem to be taking this advice onboard. There are digital detox vacation packages and people are even paying $570 for their mobile phones taken away (if you are thinking of doing this, I will gladly take anyone’s phone away for $400).

The problem is - digital detoxes don’t work

Last November, I went on a week long ‘digital detox’. My girlfriend and I went on vacation to Cuba. For one week, we had no email, no gaming, no social media - all the things I was addicted to. The only time we were allowed to use our phones was to take photos.  

I won’t lie, while I was there it felt great to get away from my phone. There was a fantastic sense of liberation (ironic in Cuba). The week went by and I felt like a new person - until I landed back in the USA.

As soon as we touched down in Miami for our layover, my girlfriend and I were glued to our phones the rest of the way back home. We binged on social media updates, we absorbed ourselves in email - we had relapsed.

I was back to my old routine. While that week felt great, the digital detox had not worked to cure me of my phone addiction.

I’m not the only one. Research has shown that there is no evidence to show that digital detoxes work

This felt very familiar.

Little backstory for you, I used to be 45 pounds heavier than I am today. In my long road to losing weight, I kept trying crash diets to shed pounds quickly. Each time the same thing happened - I would temporarily lose the weight and a couple of weeks later, gain it all back again, sometimes even with a few extra pounds.

Cleanses and crash detoxes are temporary solutions to longer term issues. You may see an immediate decrease in your weight, but it won’t improve your overall habits; you’re not going to keep that fat off in the long run.

That’s what was wrong with my digital detox - as soon as it was over, I went right back to my old routine. This didn’t cure my addiction, improve my mental health, free up time during my week, make me more productive - it failed on all my original goals.

I mentioned I am now 45 pounds lighter than I was. How did I do that? I changed my habits for the better - more exercise, healthier diet, removed bad habits (sorry Jagermeister, you had to go). Over time, I got all the benefits of healthy weight loss and I was able to keep the weight off this time.

Like losing weight, I realized the secret to achieving your digital wellbeing goals - healthy habits.

I’m going to stretch an analogy here and compare using a mobile phone to eating. Think of each time you look at your phone as if you’re snacking. With me so far? 

Great! Here are some tips that I used for weight loss that I’m now using for digital wellbeing:

Tips 1: No late night snacking

• Studies show that having a phone in the bedroom can reduce your quality of sleep. To combat this, I've done two things:
• 1. I turn off notifications on my phone between 10pm and 7am. 2. I leave my phone in the living room overnight, rather than in the bedroom.
• As a result, my phone isn’t the last thing I see at night or the first thing I see in the morning, and I get a good night's sleep. 
• If you were trying to lose weight, you wouldn’t be snacking after midnight - you would feel like shit. The same goes for using your phone or laptop during these times

Tip 2: Try to limit snacking during the day

• The lower end of estimates say that Americas check their phones 47 times a day
• At one point while I was at Google, we touted a stat that said it was closer 150 times
• See if you can resist the urge once or twice today. Get from 47 to 45 today and see how it feels.
• When was the last time you went to the bathroom without your phone? Don’t lie; 75% of Americans use their phones in the bathroom. Today, leave it at your desk or on the coffee table. Again, imagine it was food. Who brings food to the bathroom? Weirdos. Don’t be a weirdo.

Tip 3: There’s a big difference in healthy snacking and unhealthy snacking

• Biggest secret to weight loss? It’s not the volume of food, it’s the type of food you eat that impacts weight. If I have two plates of equal size, one with spinach and one with doritos, which of these is better for my weight loss goals? 
• I may use my phone for 3 hrs and 20 mins a day, but what am I using it for?
• If you go onto Facebook to reconnect with an old school friend or arrange drinks at the weekend - fantastic, sounds like it was a fruitful time
• If you go onto Facebook to stalk your ex or to envy-like your friends’ vacation photos - probably not the best use of time, probably should cut this out.

Tip 4: Get rid of unhealthy snacks, and replace them with healthy ones

• Uninstall the useless game that sucks time (and potentially money) away from you
• Install ones that will give you some feeling of productivity or accomplishment - Duolingo, Pocketcasts are two of my most used apps.

Tip 5: Don’t beat yourself up

• There is no harm in occasional unhealthy behaviour, everyone does it
• I wrote this article while eating a stupid amount of Dark Chocolate, because I deserve it
• I’m not going to do that every day, or 47 times a day
• Allow yourself to indulge every once in awhile, just don’t let it get the best of you

Things have improved significantly for me. My average time on my phone in February? 2hrs 20mins

That's an extra hour a day - an extra hour back to focus on whatever you want.

Imagine what you can do with an extra hour a day.

If you're reading this on your phone right now - fantastic use of time! I commend you