Day 1: Let’s Establish a Baseline
Welcome to Day 1 of the February Phone Breakup! I’m so glad you’re here.
Today’s goal is to figure out how you feel about your phone right now – and what your habits are – so that at the end of our month together, you’ll be able to assess your progress and see how you’ve changed.
Today’s assignments:
Fill out this baseline survey. It should take 10-20 minutes to complete (depending on how detailed your answers are!) and your answers will be emailed back to you after you submit it. Its goal is to help you measure where you are right now so that you can measure your progress at the end of the month.
Optional (but encouraged): Use the comment feature on this post to share your insights and reactions and questions with me and your fellow participants.
In case you’ve already forgotten what I asked you in that survey, here are a few of the things I asked you that you might want to consider sharing:
Why did you sign up for the February Phone Breakup? What are you hoping to get out of it?
Roughly how many hours are you currently spending on your phone?
What app(s) do you spend the most time on?
How many times per day do you typically pick your phone up and what’s the first app you typically use when you pick it up? (Mine is Messages!)
How many notifications do you typically get per day? Do you want all of those notifications?
To scrolling less and living more,
Reminders:
This breakup will be more fun if we get to know each other. If you haven’t already, please take a moment to introduce yourself.
You can ask me (and your fellow participants) questions—and share observations and insights— by leaving a comment on the day’s blog post. (I check and respond to comments each day.)
You can also send me questions privately simply by responding to your daily email, but I encourage you to engage with the community; you may be surprised to discover that other people are struggling with the same thing!
You can see a list of all of our daily assignments so far – as well as answers to FAQ – at the February Phone Breakup home base. (I recommend bookmarking it.)
Don’t forget to download and print the companion workbook. Visit this page on my site, add the workbook to your cart, and enter FEBPHONEBREAKUPWORKBOOK at checkout. (Please keep the code private.) After you submit your order, you should get a separate email with a download link.
Please make sure to find or order a standalone alarm clock!
I’ll be asking you to join me in taking a full 24-hour break from your phone from 5pm on Friday, February 20th to 5pm on Saturday, February 21st. Yes, I know: you probably just freaked out — most people find this idea very scary. BUT those same people often end up saying that it was one of the most rewarding parts of the entire breakup.
How to Leave a Comment/Engage in Conversation:
If you want to start a new thread/conversation, simply type your comment into the big white comment box below.
If you’re trying to respond to a previous commenter, or add a comment to a thread, simply tap the small “reply” circle on the top right of the post (if you’re on a computer, you may need to hover your mouse over the comment to get the “reply” option to show up) and reply in the thread. This will help keep our conversations organized.
You do not need to log in or create an account in order to comment. Simply enter your first name, ignore the other fields, and then submit the comment as a guest.
Catherine will be popping in once a day to read through and respond to your comments. You may also hear from other members of the team, Maryana and Laura, who are helping with logistics.