Life without a smart phone 2

Another week or so has passed, I figured I can do more of the followings when I do not have a smart phone around me:

1. Read: Last year I have this plan of reading more books, and due to my "3-minute passion", I started for a month or so and gradually died. I did still keep a book in my bag after that month, but it kinda just added weight for my bag but being totally unproductive. Then last month, I finally finished the book, planning to share some reviews on that later

2. Exercise: working out does take a lot of time, i.e. taking running courses twice a week in happy valley is a luxury (traveling to happy valley back and forth around 1.5 hours, shower 45 mins plus the actual class 2 hours, adding up to more than 4 hours. multiply it by 2... 8 hours per week). In addition to that, I have to add additional weight training session in the gym to train my quad muscles.

Achievement - half marathon done, felt amazing especially I didnt hurt myself after the run and it's enjoyable. Coming up end of march 15 km race with some hill slopes and maybe a 1000m swimming in the sea (which I have zero confidence in achieving)

3. Blogging: havent been blogging for years coz
(1) dont know what to write about
(2) too busy with just texting and I think I have enough typing every day
(3) just being lazy and dont want to touch any device (aka laptop) other than my smart phone
now- just type whatever, just write something, anything and forget about the results and doesn't matter how crappy it looks

4. Just looking at "stuff": when you don't have your smart phone around you or when your friend sitting opposite to you is busy with her smart phone, you are forced to either play with your fingers or look around. Looking around gets interesting coz you probably haven't been looking around for 7 years after you got a smartphone (at least I am), you start to pay attention to people around you, some stores that you may pass by every day but you don't even know they existed, the flowers on the pedestrians which are pleasing to look at and more.


No more addiction on meaningless stuff:

1. Gaming: every day I used to spend 15 minutes on finishing "tasks" on a particular game to earn gems for "buying" new gadgets for the virtual me. Another 30 minutes on a puzzle game to earn something else so I can get better gadgets to gain a higher score among my friends. Saved 45 minutes plus.
You may say - do it while you are waiting for a bus - NO, coz you can spend that time reading instead

2. Whatsapp: so you have 10+ group chats in your whatsapp which 60% of the conversation is not related to you. You may say "I don't read them", but you do "skim through them", that took more than 30 minutes each day plus your brain need time to switch from one thing to another.
Yes - you are multi-tasking
No - a lot of them are meaningless that you can just cut them out of your lives, or minimize them by using email where they cannot see when's your "last login"

3. Instagram: Instagram has been a big part of my smart phone life, you get more information on what's going on with your friends, what they have just eaten, style.com updates, new product information etc. I used to save the images which I find interesting, restaurants that I planned to go... I saved tons, but didnt really go back to the images and investigate into them coz I'm too busy saving new ones.

.. and more

Does losing a smart phone make you more self-absorbed? You are not thinking about what other people/work? Maybe that's what everyone owning a smart phone need - to think more about what you really what to do every day.

Less distraction, more focused.

Just devoted my stretching hour to this blog post...

PS those friends who still reach out to me without whatsapp, <3 p="" you.="">

Life without smartphone 1

First post after my iPhone got stolen

Been using iPhone for more than 7 years, the smartphone world taught me a lot, helped me made new friends, allowed me to connect with old friends etc. I felt extremely occupied and busy with a smartphone, I lowered my head on the train, in the bus line, in the bathroom...

I had a 64GB phone with 17000 + photos and videos, tons of handful apps, lots of memories.
2013 is not a good year for me and 2014 chinese new year wanted me to leave the smartphone world.
Whatever reason it is, I would like to treat it as fate
Friends asked me when I'm gonna get my smartphone back and be in the "modern world", I say as long as I could resist taking money from my pocket to get a new one.

Life without smartphone:
1. Felt like a hero, friends are amazed how you can live without a smartphone in 2014
2. Felt lonely, you got no one to "talk" to during your train rides (not to say the games that you have been playing and earning the "gems"/"coins")
3. Felt distant, while having a face-to-face group gathering with friends, they share photos into the "group chat" infront of you, but you cant download them
4. "Handicapped"- you have no idea where to place your hands now
5. Observe more of the "real world" - you start to pick up your head, you are forced to look around to find interesting things to look at, forced to listen to the people around you
6. "Too much" free time - reading books, writing blogs (ah-ha), daydreaming

Now I still see more pros than cons, till next time.

PS i got a nokia 206 as my temp phone for now, for real.