How do you stay off your devices?

Question

Odysseus tied himself to the mast of the ship so that he wouldn&rsquo;t succumb to the sirens&rsquo; calls. What&rsquo;s the equivalent here?I work in tech and I enjoy programming, and there&rsquo;s always stimulation to be had on my phone. I&rsquo;m growing to resent this and want strategies to deal with it.What I want is to go completely dark, but I don&rsquo;t want to lose 1) my job or 2) my friends on WhatsApp.My first thought is to replace my iPhone with a feature phone that still has WhatsApp but maybe not a browser. Any other strategies that have worked for you?Edit: just occurred to me that maybe this is the wrong place to ask.

HomeDeLaPot · Accepted Answer

Yeah, maybe not the best place to ask, but I'll try to help.
Tell your friends you're taking a 30-day break from the internet. Uninstall all the apps from your phone and leave it by the door. Take walks, get outside, explore your city, read books, work on something you've been neglecting. Call your friends and make plans to meet in person. Use the time away to recalibrate and reevaluate how you use your devices.
It's like losing weight. I haven't gotten around to it yet... Good luck!

LinuxBender · Answer

I've never owned a smart phone but sometimes I power off my flip-phone. When I was working I would set the default ring tone to a nearly silent beep then set a custom ring tone for work and the paging system they used. I have no idea if WhatsApp supports this but if you could set custom tones per person or groups of people then you could minimize distraction. If your phone supports it you could also have it mute all sounds during certain hours.

jareds · Answer

Have children, when they get old enough, they will yell "No phones in school" while there playing with you. THis probably means I shouldn't spend as much time on my phone either.