- May 18th, 2025
I’ve been experimenting with this thing every Sunday. No Phone Sunday.
I cheated this morning but basically I’ll leave my phone at home for the day, and chuck it deep into the cabinet above the fridge so it’s hard to get. I’ll walk everywhere for the day since I’m not able to book scooters. It’s hard to describe how refreshing it is.
You know when you’re manually trying to restrict your phone usage, but your hand keeps instinctively going to your pocket to grab it, almost unconsciously? It’s great when it’s not even there because most of that distraction/urge disappears.
I truly view the phone as a modern-day addiction, and I can feel even off just one day my body healing, my brain curing itself. The itch to scroll, tap, or check something slowly starts to go away throughout the day.
And your brain actually starts thinking creatively for the first time in a long time.
At some point today I thought:
“What if I buy bird food, stand on my balcony with an outstretched hand for a really long time, and train the birdies to eat food straight out of my hand?”
Ridiculous, sure. Creative, though? Yes.
And you wouldn’t be talking shit if you saw real-life bird-man. Me, motherfucker.
I thought about my friend Kshmyu (kind of anonymized — you know who you are) and about making a toilet hole shitter ultimate squatty potty product. Basically turning your toilet into a classic hole-in-the-ground potty.
Stupid idea? Yeah.
Health benefits abound? Hell yeah.
My 70-year-old grandma can still get low for a reason.
I thought about how I’d break into the local ONNI twin 100-story construction site and scale the buildings without detection — theoretically.
I know the line of sight of all 6 cameras on the southeast side. If you climb the left side of the right set of 3 cameras, those 3 cannot see you. There is only one camera remaining in that line of sight. It’s easily accessible from the crosswalk, so I’d hop up on the fire hydrant, stay low and out of sight, and turn the camera to face the street side. Then I’d go back to the first set of cameras and make the jump, and head straight into the stairway, making my way up one floor at a time til I’ve reached the top. If I had a drone I’d document the journey using that. Of course, there’s also security, which usually doses off on the southwest side of the building. If quiet enough, I could probably avoid them entirely — but they also only patrol at night. There seem to be at least a few hours in the early morning that they aren’t present at all on weekends.
Again, all of this theoretical of course.
I’m also writing this blog for the first time in 6 years.
You also tend to think about painful things that your brain never even fully thought through or resolved, but just pushed away for a long time, and you actually think deeply through it without the urge to check dating apps, messages, your email, IG, or some random shit on the news to distract you.
You’re forced to sit with your thoughts. And the lack of distractions is deafening. There is truly nowhere to turn for quick dopamine comfort.
What’s next?
I don’t know.
There was definitely something therapeutic about writing this all out in proper English and not over text message like:
“Yo bro I did no-phone Sunday today, it was actually super dope”
“Sick man. Check out this IG reel”
*Sigh.*
I guess part of why this feels so therapeutic to me is that I have an addictive personality; I get fixated on things easily, and am impulsive in my daily decisions. And my phone is no exception to that.
This sucks because distractions are bigger obstacles, but it can also be a blessing because the hyperfixation cuts both ways — both for distractions and for real work. Some people just call this ADHD (I technically was diagnosed). But:
- I hate that this country feels the need to throw a disorder title on everything, and
- Having ADHD is synonymous with “You take Adderall,” which I don’t — and think a lot less people should.
But I digress.
Back to the addictive personality thing — It’s why I threw out all my video games in high school. I saw them start to consume me and I didn’t want that. But the smartphone is not as easy a solution.
But this one-Sunday-a-week experiment has been great. And it feels nice to start the blog back up again.
I started writing this in a coffee shop after a long walk back from the gym. But now I look homeless; I’m sitting on the curb of the local parking lot to wrap this up, because the coffee shop next door closed and kicked me out.
And it feels fucking good.
