I still remember when having a Blackberry phone was a thing. This was way before iPhone heralded the age of smartphones. The Blackberry was the iPhone of the early to mid-2000s.
The company I was working for at the time decided that every manager’s flip phone would be replaced with a Blackberry. With that, we could suddenly receive work emails on our phones. This was the first time emails became accessible to the general public through a mobile handheld device.
How exciting!
Yeah, I know many people today may not be able to understand how important and exciting this was. After all, we now carry around in our palms and pockets computing power that is ten times what was available then. But to those of us who had the privilege of getting the Blackberry at that time, it was a big deal.
Suddenly, we could get work emails without having to log on to a computer. We could even get work emails after we return home from work without having to whip out our laptops! As a project manager leading teams that were dispersed around the globe at the time, it gave me the opportunity to stay connected with my teams who were halfway across the world.
With an 11½-hour time zone difference, the problem was that their days were beginning just as mine was ending. If I get an email at 9:30 pm requiring a response from a team member in India whose day was just starting, I wasn’t the kind of person who would sleep on the information and wait to respond the next day. The result? I would work late into the wee hours of the night from home.
This continued for about two years until I realized this practice was neither sustainable nor good for my sanity. So, I decided it was time to cut the cord. I knew the only way this could happen was for me to not see those late-arriving email requests. But I had a Blackberry, and I was notified each time a new email arrived. The only solution was not to see the notifications.
And that’s what I did.
Once I returned home from work, I would unclip the Blackberry from my belt, turn it off and throw it into my nightstand drawer. There it would stay until I was ready to leave for work the next morning.
In June 2007, the iPhone became the thing. It revolutionized our interactions with mobile devices. Fifteen years later, we now have different shapes and sizes of smartphones that control our lives. We're addicted. We've got apps we suddenly think we can’t live without.
But what if we can?
Just imagine being without your smartphone. Perish the thought, you say! Many will start having withdrawal symptoms. It’s almost as if a part of the body is missing.
Still, just imagine being without your smartphone. Well, maybe not completely. What about getting rid of the apps that you can truly live without? How much time per day will you regain if you mute or disable some of the notifications, even for the apps you need? Instead of those pings constantly interrupting and disrupting your day, you decide when the interruptions would happen. You plan for them.
That's the reason I have most of the notifications on my smartphone disabled with the exception of text messages and phone calls. I check all other apps when I decide to check them.
Several months ago, one of my sons jokingly asked why I have a smartphone if I don’t get notifications. Well, I did it because I remembered when the Blackberry was a leach that was controlling my life. I decided nothing of its ilk would ever do that to me again.
As we prepare for the new year, it may be a good idea for you to consider how to regain control of your life from the smartphone. I think your sanity and peace of mind will thank you greatly.