A bit of context.

In the past, I've used big challenges to learn new skills and make big lifestyle changes. one year, I read books. to learn how to read, and read a lot.

This allowed me to have a new passion for reading, which I didn't have before. I did the same for running, where I went running every day for about a year.

So now I'm looking at the next step. Lifestyle challenge that I could take.

The problem.

At the moment I noticed that my smartphone becomes A bit of an addiction. I use it way too much. And this is something that I'm not proud of. the relationship that humans should have with digital devices.

Yes, I'm a geek I love technology and I find it very interesting. I believe that technology can also be super helpful.

But the simple truth of "too much of anything is a problem" is also true when it comes to technology or to specific devices.

The aha moment

That's why for the last few months I've been thinking on ways of reducing the use of a smartphone, as I was sharing this struggle and addiction with my wife, she said an interesting thing,

"I don't think that you can use your smartphone, for just 10 minutes a day or less."

That's when things popped in my head. This is a beautiful challenge to experiment with for a year. what if for a year, I would use my smartphone never more than 10 minutes a day?

Why 10 minutes is a good challenge?

I believe that 10 minutes is still a reasonable amount of time to do the practical things. It's enough to:

• taking a photo of my child

• taking a video of an experience that we want to remember as a family

• show my travel card when I'm in a train

• access the authentificator app for the double sign-in

• etc.

In 10 minutes, I should be able to cover all the practical stuff.

How am I going to do this?

I'm not against digital devices, but I want to be more focused on my use. The goal for me is to use the least possible my smartphone also for simple practical things in order to avoid as much as possible that it could suck my attention. And I hope that this approach will help me unlearn the habit of using my smartphone for anything.

So I'm already making a few changes where I offload some of the practical tasks I used my iPhone for, to my Watch. For example: note taking while walking: I'm now using voice notes that I transcribe instead of typing on my phone

This is just the start

This is a big challenge, and writing about it is in a way a helpful manner to make sure I commit to this challenge more deeply.

Let's see how that goes.