Time to wake up. I wonder what time it is. Well, what better way to find out than to check the device right next to my face. Oh it’s vibrating. That must mean it’s time to wake up. Since it is in my hand, I better take a look at what’s happening on YouTube. My favorite creators are posting new content! That’s great! I’ll have to watch it later. That looks interesting… 30 minute video? I’ll just watch the first 5.

Good Intentions

This describes my morning just about every morning. I really hate to admit that but it does. I fall asleep listening to some video on my phone and I wake up ready to watch another. I swear there’s good intentions hidden somewhere in there. Probably lost all meaning at this point.

My good intentions are found in what I’m subscribed to on YouTube. Black smithing videos, bass players, lawn care, home repair, etc. I love to use YouTube for all the good intention reasons. I need to know how to fix things for when I’m a home owner. I would love to learn how to expand more skills. Got to watch more videos to learn how.

This is great! I really actually do believe that! It’s wonderful to have such an amazing tool that can be used to better myself and those around me. Here’s the caveat: watching videos and not applying the knowledge is just a time waster. Why bother watching all this content if I am not even applying it? Because planning is much easier than executing.

What to Do

I’m obviously addicted. Just like the rest of the world that owns a phone. So here’s the truth: my phone is evil. Wait let me try that again: EVIL. Much better. It’s true. Hidden in good intentions is just evil waiting to pounce.

What am I to do? Reduce the footprint my phone has on my life. It is a tool. Just like my knife, matches, compass, etc. Apparently, wilderness survival tools are the only things that are coming to my brain. But perhaps that has some parallel to my phone. A phone is a tool that can help you survive that daily life challenges that need to be overcome. Nah, I don’t like that, makes it sound more important and gives it more power than it deserves. Yes, phones are AMAZING. But I do not need mine. The modern world disagrees. In fact, the modern world tries to make sure a phone (smart phone even) is required for any activity. It’s actually become annoying.

Here’s what I’ll do. I don’t want to go cold turkey and just throw my phone in the ocean and never look back. That’s not practical. It would just make everything much harder. I propose that I pretend that my phone is a landline while at home. A cell phone was originally invented so that people could reach each other while out of their house and then you had your landline for reaching people at home. I don’t even know if that’s a good idea anymore to be able to reach people whenever and wherever. Let’s just go back to sending pigeons. Or maybe hawks. That’s much cooler. Where was I? Or right: landline! My phone does not need to be on my person while at home. Just plug it in at a central location and turn up the volume. That way if someone calls, I can hear it.

I need to remove my notifications. This should be on just about everything. Some exceptions are phone calls, texts, and maybe bank alerts. I do appreciate those. But emails, twitch, or anything else really does not need my immediate attention.

What about at night? My phone does not go to sleep with me. Eventually, I would like to buy an old fashioned alarm clock. Or maybe one of those sun simulator alarm clocks (because I’m a nerd that doesn’t go outside). Something that isn’t my phone is the point. My phone will be charging in the same location mentioned before. This way, it’s not even in my room. Why would it need to be in my room? I’ve got an alarm clock to wake me up instead.

Any activity that I would normally do on my phone, I should be able to do on my computer. Currently, I don’t use my computer habitually like I do my phone. But if I am applying these things, that could change if I’m not careful. It’s important that I am replacing my habit with others.

Things I would like to do in place of using my phone for everything:

• Continue to learn Hebrew
• Learn to draw
• Coding projects
• REDACTED (Sorry some things I don’t yet feel comfortable mentioning on the internet, even on my lonesome blog)
• Reading (What’s that again?)
• Etc.

That’s a good starter list. I’m sure there’s plenty of other things that will pop up.

I use YouTube for listening to music. I don’t have any music streaming service. But that means if there’s an interesting video I want to watch, I will become distracted. There’s this amazing feature that I can do. It’s called downloading. Wanna know my secret? NewPipe. By using NewPipe, I can downloaded any video’s audio and save it to my phone. Then I just use my phone’s local music player instead. That way, there is no video that can distract me.

Luckily, I don’t use any other social media. YouTube is bad enough for me. I can’t imagine using others as well. NewPipe will still be on my phone. I hope I am strong enough to stay away.

Now, I don’t want to just say “no, I will never use my phone at all.” That’s a recipe for disaster. I should set aside some time for using it. Or rather: I should set aside some time for doing the things I would normally do on my phone, on my computer instead. If it’s done on my computer, it feels more intentional. Perhaps that’s just a facade, but it feels real to me. Frankly, that’s all that matters.

When I’m out, I mentioned how I can download the audio for music I want to listen to. To be honest, I don’t seem to have as big of a problem with I am out in the world doing things. Perhaps its because I’m constantly distracted by other things.

Will this work?

To answer my heading, I hope so. I need to be diligent and really focus on those that matter around me.

“Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” - 2 Nephi 2:25

My phone does not bring me joy. It’s just an addiction. Time to realize God’s plan for me and introduce a little bit more joy into my life.