I signed up for a month-long, email-based writing course from Cole Schafer of Sticky Notes, Honey Copy, and Chasing Hemingway fame.
He sends a lesson and prompt every day. I have 10 minutes to read and consider the prompt, 40 minutes to write, and 10 minutes to edit before posting publicly.
I’m posting here to not drown my Casey's Notes content. On to day 6...
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I recently started a freelance writing gig for a productivity blog. When I told a friend about it, his response was, "Wait, like telling people to turn their phone off or something?"
That's... not what I'm writing about, but it's actually not bad advice. I'm a fan of keep-it-simple-stupid approaches, and turning your phone off when trying to work is a pretty good first step.
Today's writing prompt is to write about a new experience I had over the weekend. My new experience was to kind of take my buddy's advice and disconnect email and delete the Twitter app from my phone. While I've deleted the Twitter app before and have disconnected email during vacations, this is the first time I'm doing both with no plans to reconnect email or add back the app.
It's not quite an earth-shattering experience, but it's been so... freeing. I knew I used my phone as a crutch, pulling down to refresh email for no reason and loading up the Twitter app for more brainless scrolling. But I didn't realize just how often I grab my phone, unlock it, and click into email or Twitter.
It becomes clear that your brain is broken when you grab your phone, unlock it, click the email icon, and are greeted with the "add accounts" screen.
My screen time is already down, I'm more comfortable keeping my phone in the other room, and I don't have that itchy pocket feeling. I haven't felt a phantom vibrate in days.
And it doesn't hurt to have more focus for the things that matter, like spending time with my wife, playing with my kids, and writing article about how to turn off your phone.
He sends a lesson and prompt every day. I have 10 minutes to read and consider the prompt, 40 minutes to write, and 10 minutes to edit before posting publicly.
I’m posting here to not drown my Casey's Notes content. On to day 6...
--------------------
I recently started a freelance writing gig for a productivity blog. When I told a friend about it, his response was, "Wait, like telling people to turn their phone off or something?"
That's... not what I'm writing about, but it's actually not bad advice. I'm a fan of keep-it-simple-stupid approaches, and turning your phone off when trying to work is a pretty good first step.
Today's writing prompt is to write about a new experience I had over the weekend. My new experience was to kind of take my buddy's advice and disconnect email and delete the Twitter app from my phone. While I've deleted the Twitter app before and have disconnected email during vacations, this is the first time I'm doing both with no plans to reconnect email or add back the app.
It's not quite an earth-shattering experience, but it's been so... freeing. I knew I used my phone as a crutch, pulling down to refresh email for no reason and loading up the Twitter app for more brainless scrolling. But I didn't realize just how often I grab my phone, unlock it, and click into email or Twitter.
It becomes clear that your brain is broken when you grab your phone, unlock it, click the email icon, and are greeted with the "add accounts" screen.
My screen time is already down, I'm more comfortable keeping my phone in the other room, and I don't have that itchy pocket feeling. I haven't felt a phantom vibrate in days.
And it doesn't hurt to have more focus for the things that matter, like spending time with my wife, playing with my kids, and writing article about how to turn off your phone.