Hey Bas! So I've had similar issues with smartphone use, and my own solution has had a few friends and colleagues laughing at me, but I don't care. Basically I bought Boox Palma, which is a wifi-only e-ink Android device. It is phone sized, but it's not a phone and only has wifi.
What I love about it is that it's basically a dumb device when I'm out and about. I use it to read and listen to stuff: I have a couple of ebook readers on there (Kindle, Kobo), and I also have Qobuz and YouTube Music on it for music listening. Oh and I have Pocket on there too, so just sync articles before heading out for the day and then I can read them on the train etc.
All of this means that I tend to just put my phone into my bag or pocket, and leave it there. Inevitably I am in town during work time, so now and then I need to send an email or check messages, but for the most part, I devote my time to reading articles of note, or just reading my books, all whilst listening to music. I don't have any messaging apps on there, nor any social media etc. It's literally there to read books and articles, and listen to music.
I love it. The battery life on the Palma is crazy too because of the e-ink. If you only turn wifi on when you need it, I've found it's not weird to come home with 85% battery remaining but having spent hours with the screen on and music playing via bluetooth as well.
Others have sneered at me for carrying two devices etc, but I couldn't care less: the setup works great and in terms of my mental health etc it's been a massive help.
Everyone's solutions differ, but I can safely say this one's been transformative for me.
That sounds like a great solution. Thanks for sharing!
I'm considering getting a 'dumb phone' with 4g so I could still use messaging apps & music, and having that with me as my 'default'. Only bringing out my 'full phone' for special reasons. I think the intentionality of making that decision would be a good habit for practicing some vigilance.
And yes, I think everyone is going to have a different solution to this. We're all wired a little differently, and that's not even taking into account how different all of our lives look.
On another note: I'm curious about Qobuz, especially if additional to another streaming service. Is it the audio quality? Booklets?
I recommend Jose Briones' channel on YouTube that reviews dumbphones of all kinds: https://www.youtube.com/@JoseBriones He also links to a kind of dumbphone finder that just lets you filter everything that's out there by what features you need.
The move to Qobuz was largely just to get off of Spotify in the main, BUT, I trialled it and the difference in audio quality was really stark. You could hear it even when listening on my Samsung Buds headphones, but on my proper setup at home it was like night and day. Quite amazing. Then beyond that, I love that it's "just" a music streaming service, so is a return to a more basic approach where you have great editorial, solid (human) playlisting, plus really simple-but-effective means to navigate the week's new releases by genre etc. Highly recommended.
Hey Bas! So I've had similar issues with smartphone use, and my own solution has had a few friends and colleagues laughing at me, but I don't care. Basically I bought Boox Palma, which is a wifi-only e-ink Android device. It is phone sized, but it's not a phone and only has wifi.
What I love about it is that it's basically a dumb device when I'm out and about. I use it to read and listen to stuff: I have a couple of ebook readers on there (Kindle, Kobo), and I also have Qobuz and YouTube Music on it for music listening. Oh and I have Pocket on there too, so just sync articles before heading out for the day and then I can read them on the train etc.
All of this means that I tend to just put my phone into my bag or pocket, and leave it there. Inevitably I am in town during work time, so now and then I need to send an email or check messages, but for the most part, I devote my time to reading articles of note, or just reading my books, all whilst listening to music. I don't have any messaging apps on there, nor any social media etc. It's literally there to read books and articles, and listen to music.
I love it. The battery life on the Palma is crazy too because of the e-ink. If you only turn wifi on when you need it, I've found it's not weird to come home with 85% battery remaining but having spent hours with the screen on and music playing via bluetooth as well.
Others have sneered at me for carrying two devices etc, but I couldn't care less: the setup works great and in terms of my mental health etc it's been a massive help.
Everyone's solutions differ, but I can safely say this one's been transformative for me.
That sounds like a great solution. Thanks for sharing!
I'm considering getting a 'dumb phone' with 4g so I could still use messaging apps & music, and having that with me as my 'default'. Only bringing out my 'full phone' for special reasons. I think the intentionality of making that decision would be a good habit for practicing some vigilance.
And yes, I think everyone is going to have a different solution to this. We're all wired a little differently, and that's not even taking into account how different all of our lives look.
On another note: I'm curious about Qobuz, especially if additional to another streaming service. Is it the audio quality? Booklets?
I recommend Jose Briones' channel on YouTube that reviews dumbphones of all kinds: https://www.youtube.com/@JoseBriones He also links to a kind of dumbphone finder that just lets you filter everything that's out there by what features you need.
The move to Qobuz was largely just to get off of Spotify in the main, BUT, I trialled it and the difference in audio quality was really stark. You could hear it even when listening on my Samsung Buds headphones, but on my proper setup at home it was like night and day. Quite amazing. Then beyond that, I love that it's "just" a music streaming service, so is a return to a more basic approach where you have great editorial, solid (human) playlisting, plus really simple-but-effective means to navigate the week's new releases by genre etc. Highly recommended.