5 Things I Learned During My Week (s) Without A Phone

It was one of those days. You know, where nothing seems to go right and it always rains when you walk out the door. On the way from Carrboro to Savannah Nova-Luna bolted from the back of my little honda element to the front passenger's seat. On her way she dug her claws in an extra-large cup from Chick-Fil-A  filled with lemonade. The hole in the cup made the lemonade spill all throughout my center cup holder. What once held cups for my  trip soon held a big pool of lemonade. 

Several hours later, after getting off the phone with my mom and forgetting to clip back the bottom charger port on my life-proof (NOT) case, my phone silently slipped off my lap and into the moat of lemonade. Thus ruining my refurbished replacement (from dropping my i phone in the dog's water bowl) i phone. With my cell-phone-replacement-funds fresh out of cash, I find myself without a cell phone. 

Now, i phone texts still show up on my computer, so I am not cut of completely.. but it's enough to cause a pretty big shift in my day-to-day existence. I've learned a lot while I have been withoutmy always handy GPS, social media stalking, bank account status, music playing device.. lucky for you I've narrowed it down to Five takeaways for you:

1. social media can wait: 

The first and foremost nugget of truth I am keeping in my pocket from this period is this " social media can wait". I have already cut out facebook, no longer use snap chat or twitter, and prefer to keep my attention turned towards instagram. You cannot use instagram without a phone. 

I realized that I am normally checking in on intagram when:

• i am bored
• i am in a boring conversation
• i am overwhelmed and exhausted
• i feel awkward
• i feel like i'm missing out
• i get stressed that i am not booking work
• any other situations where I want to occupy my brain with something other than the present 

On average, I'd say instagram normally takes up an average of 1-2 hours a day of my attention and focus. Since not having my phone, I have checked into instagram twice on my computer, and only stayed on it long enough to check my messages. I don't miss it. I don't even know if I ever get any leads/traffic/bookings from instagram. 

I am now questioning whether or not I want to get back into the instagram game when I get a new phone?

2. turn off and tune in: 

Last Sunday, I was at dinner with my parents and I realized I was super annoyed with my dad because he kept checking in on his phone. After I stepped back from the situation, I realized that I would have (and often do) done the same thing my dad did.

When there's a void in conversation and we start to get awkward, what do we do? check our phones.

When you are at a stoplight, what do you do? Check your phone for new leads, new likes, new e mails.. 

When I look around the room at dinner, parties or public places I realize how thankful I am that I dropped my phone in lemonade and am re-training myself to turn off my phone and attention to my phone and tun in to what is going on around me. People are actually really interesting! 

3. your brain still works:

This is quite possibly the most alarming piece I am taking away from this whole phone fast.. my brain works really well. I can get places on my own (without google maps), I can still do simple math (without my calculator), and I can come up with alternative ways of looking up informationinstead of googling every question I have. 

4. cut out the noise: 

Sometimes we just need a break from the constant bombardment of texts, instagram likes, twitter tweets, e mails in your inbox, and voicemails from doctor offices. 

Without my phone I haven't had the opportunity to bring more noise (by way of sound/media/advertisement etc) into my day-to-day. My mind seems clearer since I'm not distracted by communicating with the people that aren't around me.. My thought processing is better, and my ideas are clearer. I would also like to think I am more present in conversations now. 

5. just because it says life-proof, doesn't mean it actually IS life proof. aka take care of your stuff: 

"This is why we can't have nice things" is a phrase I am constantly saying out loud to myself when I break something. I have always been a bargain shopper, but have started allowing for a splurge on something if it is a product that will last me a LONG time and will pay off in the long run. 

This leads me to my point: when you have  nice things, treat them well. Don't let them drop on the ground, don't assume that since it's in a case it's impenetrable by outside forces, and batteries are made to last a while so charge them accordingly. 

I have an e mail out to Huaweh about their new Mate 9, and am saving up money for another replacement.. but in the meantime I am going to enjoy being unreachable, inspired and entirely present in my life. Who knows, I may just end up getting a flip phone and/or a land line!