The Health Chronicles: Reining in the Phone
Inspiration From Others, and Listening to Experts.
In case you didn't read last week's edition of The Health Chronicles, I got a new phone last weekend. I am incredibly happy about it, but also knew that with this, I would be presented with old (new) challenges of making sure I was using this device, and not the other way around. However, it’s really sleek, incredibly fast, and I had to do some updates on it. So, I did allow myself a bit of a grace period in terms of how much I was checking and, for lack of a better term, staring at my screen.
I’d say it wasn’t the worst. Plenty of people would be terrified of their screen time data. But, I also know it’s something I am going to have to improve moving forward. Last year when I didn’t have my phone for a few days, I talked about having anxiety machines in our pockets. With the “news” those in power want us to constantly be bombarded with, along with social media platforms promoting hateful and divisive rhetoric as part of their “unbiased algorithms”, addiction to certain platforms, and therefore our screens, is incredibly easy. It is also the business model for some governments, and most social media platforms. Fear and anxiety sells.
There’s a reason my personal Twitter account is no longer on my phone and why I thanked Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg for making their platforms so pro-bigotry and pro hate that there’s less and less reason to engage on them. I have not completely pulled out of the platforms for certain reasons, but bare minimum use is definitely the name of the game moving forward.
Speaking of, a colleague of mine has also inspired me to pull back even more with my phone. For the first time I am making use of the personal focus tool when I am at home. I was using the work focus and sleep focus already, so this was a great idea. I only have my phone on vibrate as is, so this was another excellent edition in terms of cutting back on notifications. I also continue to relegate more and more apps to just the notification center, rather than popping up on my lock screen.
I have even done that with Substack. Why? More to come later. I’m working on that with someone.
So, the new phone does present its own challenges, but I am trying to be proactive in making sure it does not become all consuming. But it is not all doom and gloom because I can now, once again, share more of this data with you all to keep me accountable! So, without further rambling, let’s do the first check ins of 2025, something that will once again be a staple of this series moving forward.
Did I drink this week? No.
Did I have junk food? Yes, but not a lot. There’s a drawer of junk food where I work now that sits right beside me. The struggle is real but I did not overindulge.
Average Walking Distance: 4.5 Miles. Y’all know me. I want this at 5 minimum, so we’ll definitely be working on that.
Sleep Average: 6 hours, 14 minutes. I think there’s a few reasons for this, all of which should not be a problem moving forward. Plus, I just need to get to bed earlier.
Screen Time Average: 6 hours, 57 minutes. To be fair, a TON of that was spent on personal messages, but still something I would like to see curtailed as well.
Average Notifications: 401. Not terrible, most of it was from personal messages, but also certainly something that could go down.
Pickup Average: 225. This can definitely go down. It’s not an indicator of how much I am on my phone, but since I can do a lot with my watch, I should be making more use of that now.
I’ll do some of the health check ins like waist measurements and weight next week. Those will not be a weekly feature, but I again want to keep myself honest so I’ll put those details here from time to time.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
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Excellent that you are able to keep track of some of this. No one but yourself knows what the right combination of all these activities is. The experts will always give us a one-size-fits-all approach with is basically useless.