Last year I spent a month without a phone.

It. Was. Amazing.

Here’s how the experience went:

Day 1: Sadness. Breaking a phone is a bummer.

Day 2 – 5: Jitters. I reached for my non-existent phone hundreds of times during this period. When it’s no longer there, you realize how often you use it distract yourself.

Day 6 – 14: Full detox. It’s amazing how much more time time you get back when you don’t have your phone.

Day 14 – 30: Bliss. I started living in the moment again.

Day 31: Relapse. I couldn’t get by without 2-factor authentication or navigation.

Phones & Dopamine

While phones aren’t all bad, having a tiny computer in your pocket 24/7 can reduce your happiness. That’s because using your phone can provide small dopamine hits, which leads into a 3-stage negative feedback loop.

Stage 1: Your realize phones are awesome! Maybe it’s a positive email. Likes on your photo. A fun mobile game. Whatever it is, your brain loves it.

Stage 2: Your brain automatically seeks the same reward. However, it’s not always there. It a psychology conditioning quite similar to slot machines, where you pull the lever (i.e. take out your phone) MORE often when the outcome is random.

Stage 3: You enter a negative feedback cycle. Using your phone for long periods of time makes you unhappier. To combat this you begin to seek small dopamine rewards to balance it out.

Try to spend half the day without your phone and count how many times you instinctively reach for it. The number will probably be higher than you think.