Phone Experiments - Week 1

This is an update post based on my 4-week experiment to reduce or shift my smartphone usage patterns.

During week one, I made tons of small adjustments. They all have contributed to less overall usage, but also shifts in how I use the phone and what pulls at my attention when I do.

Blocking Apps

Using Blank Spaces app, but not for the minimal list homescreen launcher feature. I’ve used this in the past because it looks so focused and minimal. I’ve gone with only using the app locking feature for things like my RSS reader (Unread), YouTube watch later app (Unwatched), and many more. If I attempt to open these apps, I’m presented with the option to do a 30-second breathing exercise. Do that, and I’m asked again if I actually want to use the app. If yes, for how long out of 2, 5, and 10-minute options. This is a great point of mental and physical friction.

Reading articles and newsletters via RSS is great. Unread is a great app experience to do it. I recognized that while it is definitely not an algorithmic feed, it is a pull-to-refresh mental slot machine to see if there’s a new item to read. By locking it, I mentally prepare for it to be a short time period of use. In fact, I haven’t been using Unread on my phone much this week. Instead, I have been processing RSS and email once a day during a dedicated morning session.

Visual Tweaks

• Removing lockscreen and homescreen wallpapers. The cool depth effect and beautiful blur and gradients are pleasing to the eye. My phone is not a piece in an art museum deserving of my gaze for the sake of visual appreciation of its parlor tricks.
• Removing lockscreen widgets other than one that reads “Be intentional” above the clock. Tap that and it prompts me for text via a shortcut input window. That text gets written to the Apple Journal app without it opening. Phone back away from my eyes, thought logged without any distraction opportunity. For those interested, I’m using Any Text to accomplish this.
• Two columns of apps down the center of my single homescreen. The apps on the left stay the same. The apps on the right change based on if I’m in my default Focus mode or my Work Focus mode. I realized two things about the visually pleasant list of app names or functions widget homescreen-style: 1. I rarely used the list to launch the app. I’d either pull down and search in Spotlight or I’d swipe left to open it from the App Library. 2. It was minimalism visual porn. For me, so are minimalist Shortcuts icons to launch apps that have better info or actions from the icon or long-press of the icon. A perfect example is Apple’s Calendar app. Having it on the homescreen shows me the current date from the icon alone, then a long-press allows me to go directly to the add event UI. I found that many apps have useful long-press icon actions that get me to a UI without having to open the app, then open those UIs and maybe get caught up in between.
• Grayscale mode all the time (other than when I need to see color to view a photo or other info where color is a necessity). Triple-click of the side button is set to toggle this mode. Super easy flow and while iOS 18 made it easy to have glassy clear icons, I’ve actually gone back to the color versions because grayscale mode solves for the same. Function over fantastic aesthetics fanfare.

Screenshots ignore the grayscale being on, but here’s what my lock and homescreens look like during the first week.

Current lockscreen and homescreen.

Hiding Apps

I’m saving the best for last… Long-pressing on an app’s icon and choosing Require Face ID. That brings you to a menu where you have two options. One is to require Face ID to open the app, the other is to require Face ID and hide the app. If you choose that, you have to press another button to confirm that’s what you want. While some may be using this feature to hide dating apps or things they’re embarrassed to have installed on their phone, I’m using it to remove every app from my view that I don’t want to or need to use regularly, but benefit from not having to reinstall and re-login every time I do need it. What have I hidden, you ask? All finance apps. All food ordering apps. All the apps that do a certain utility that I need every once in a while, but don’t need it cluttering up my App Library all the time. Apps that are hidden appear in a folder in App Library all the way at the bottom, and it doesn’t even show you the icons in the folder preview. It’s like they don’t exist until you tap that folder to go to them. They don’t show in Spotlight searches. They don’t have a presence in the Share Sheet. They don’t even show up in the swipe up or over app-switcher. It’s glorious.

Physical Replacement

I started carrying a small pocket notebook (Field Notes-style), and a Fisher Space Pen I’ve had for well over a decade. I even found a way to keep the pen from sliding out of my pocket using heat-shrink tubing. I wouldn’t say this new alternative has stuck yet. I still dictate reminders to Siri (mostly while using CarPlay), but my hope is that ideas that hit me that aren’t reminders will start going here to process digitally later. I have some other ideas here, but we’ll save those for future weeks.

2026 Feb·15

A Random List of Silly Things I Hate

How can I turn down a great blogger challenge!? Andrea, Manu and Carl have inspried me.

1. Emails after I’ve decided not to buy something because I “forgot something” in my cart.
2. Soul-sucking complainers.
3. Entitlement.
4. 2 minute and 30 seconds music tracks being the norm.
5. Hallmark holidays.
6. Email addresses in email signatures.
7. Drivers that turn hazards on when it starts to rain.
8. All modern cars looking the same, down to color options.
9. The only exception to #8 being electric cars that have to look techie.
10. Small talk about mundane bullshit.

2026 Feb·14

Minimal Kobo Reader

I enjoy reading on my Kobo Sage a lot. Before the Sage, I had the Libra H2O. That device went to my wife when she gifted me the Sage. The ability to carry around a huge stack of books on one thin device is so convenient. I still enjoy physical books, but outside of books I read in my home office, my reading occurs on the Kobo.

Make it minimal

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about the Kobo device was the Kobo service side of things. I don’t buy my books through Kobo, and am not interested in “discovering” anything. I just want my books that I sideload to the device, and occasionally the ability to look at a long-form article that I’ve saved to Instapaper. I don’t use Instapaper as my primary read-later app, but I sometimes save an especially long article I’d prefer to read on the Kobo or listen to from CarPlay. My method of sideloading kepub/epub/pdf files is with the integrated Dropbox experience.

So here was my list of features, to work into the most minimal experience I could by tweaking things with tools like nickelmenu and Kobopatch.

• Access to Dropbox
• Toggle for dark/light mode
• Access to Instapaper
• My Books (and nothing else)
• No auto-updating firmware when on WiFi for syncing Instapaper or downloading books from Dropbox (because it breaks the tweaks from time to time; WiFi).
• Eliminate as much unnecessary UI as possible.

Mission Accomplished

With a crafty combo of the two tools mentioned above, I’ve achieved exactly what I wanted. I’ve been using it since late November last year, and it’s glorious and stable. Here’s a sample of how it looks and the menus that get me to all of the above functions where/when needed:

Books View

Menu View

Reading Menu

I’m happy to share examples of my nickelmenu files, etc. Just reach out if you need them along with some links to some great Reddit posts that guided me to my solution (if your needs slightly differ).

2026 Feb·14

Sure, why not?

Inspired by Kevin’s and Manu’s joint experiment, I’m going to run my own for the same timeframe. I won’t post Screen Time weekly reports, because well, they suck and I don’t feel like manually backing out the time spent in Maps during my commuting to schools for drop-offs, pickups, etc. I’ll review them to see if they offer anything insightful.

I will share weekly updates on how I feel the tactics I’m choosing to put in place are affecting my phone usage. I’ve done some of these before, and others are new twists on previous experiments. While I’ve been focused on reading at night vs. mindless YouTube consumption, these changes should avoid the phone being a draw during those small moments of boredom when I should be letting my mind wander without a screen’s siren song.

Combined, the tweaks all focus on making my phone and watch merely tools:

• Grayscale mode on: I have the triple-click side button set to turn this mode on and off for when I need to see something in color, but otherwise, the phone and watch both stay in boring grayscale mode.
• Lockscreen and homescreen in Personal Focus Mode are set to plain black wallpaper. Lockscreen widgets are reduced to just one above the clock that shows me the message “Be intentional”. When tapped, this widget captures text and writes it directly to the Apple Journal app.
• Watchface is set to Simple with no complications.

Since I stumbled into this derivative personal challenge just today, I’m considering a few more restrictions that I’ll make within the first week. I’ll share more on those next week on my first update post.

2026 Feb·08

Intersecting Interests

This post is my entry for February’s IndieWeb Carnival being hosted by Zachary Kai.

I had to think about this one more than most IndieWeb Carnival topics. Most of my interests have almost default assumptions of intersection. The person that likes writing in Markdown, drinking pour-over coffee, and is into design and typography is almost an archetype in the world of IndieWeb. Stereotypical interests aside, I realized there may be one more unique for the topic.

I’m simultaneously interested in how these modern technological advances (LLMs, for example) can be used for real value in our world and in how we as a human species can regain ground when it comes to our fragmented focus and battered attention spans. These interests are almost always in conflict because I recognize how much the first is being used against the second. Algorithmic feeds of all sorts continue to dominate and compete for our attention. Attention finds itself lacking intention. AI and large language models (LLMs) are everywhere, and the pace of change is a hockey stick upward curve. There’s no denying that these new platforms and tools are going to change so much for current and future generations, just as the internet did for generations before it.

I’m trying to keep the intersection of these interests strong. That’s the only way to ensure that I’m directing my attention vs. allowing it to be engaged by the same tech working against me. I’m both a technologist and an intentional thinker. These intersecting interests are part of why I write this blog, so it certainly isn’t impossible to keep the intersection rooting in adding value to your life.

2026 Feb·07

The End of Thinking

Derek Thompson, writing on his blog:

Thinking benefits from a similar principle of “time under tension.” It is the ability to sit patiently with a group of barely connected or disconnected ideas that allows a thinker to braid them together into something that is combinatorially new.

This entire expanded essay is excellent. It covers several topics that often get covered separately (decline of reading, decline of writing, AI coming for us all, etc.) and stitches them together the unfortunate narrative that seems in many ways unavoidable.

I’ve been saying it to my family for a long time now, but wall-e dystopia is rather quickly approaching us.

Read more. Write more. AI for mundane tasks and what was previously out of reach for reduction of mundane digital tasks. Touch grass. We must force ourselves to avoid the comfort of convenience. It will be our undoing as our brains unravel into a loose and disintegrating ball of yarn that used to be our novelty.

2026 Jan·19

Meaning of Life

This post is my entry for January’s IndieWeb Carnival being hosted by Jeremiah.

January seems like a great time to have the theme of Meaning of Life for the carnival. After spending time reflecting as one calendar cycle completes and another inevitably begins, my brain is in a good place to have some thoughts on this topic. From conversations had, read and overheard, I’d say the vast majority of people put a heavy weight on the question of “What is the meaning of life?” I don’t fall into that category.

For me, there are two frames of reference to answer the question. The more intimately personal perspective and the more as a human living on planet Earth perspective. Let’s start with the broader and more generic one. As a human being, it is my belief that if you distill it to its purest form, the meaning of life is to achieve what many refer to as karmic balance. It’s ironic to me that the term balance is used, because I think the goal should be to have it imbalanced with the positive outweighing the negative, but that’s idealistic. I think the balance comes from the reality that we’ll all have negative energy emit from us at points, so therefore the goal is to try and net to even or skew positive. This concept is so simple, which is why I love it. It’s the most simplistic framing for decision making and to level your thinking at any given moment. You see it take form in so many alternate contexts. WWJD comes to mind from a Christian religion perspective. Maybe The Beatles summarized it the best with the lyrics:

…and in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love… you make.

Zooming in on the speck that is you, there’s the more personal answer to the question. If you can subscribe to the line of thinking for the general human meaning, the personal answer can live in harmony by defining the specifics of how you achieve the balance in the ways that benefit the humans around you most. For some, this is by focusing on family and raising children that contribute more karmic energy than they consume. For others, this is by adding energy in the form of artistic expresssions that allow other humans to experience life in a way they cannot create with their own hands. The hardest part about this personal answer is that it is innately derived. Certainly, you can be influenced or guided to an answer by the experience or wisdom of others, but it’s akin to wearing a suit off the rack vs. one custom-tailored to you. To carry that analogy forward, a tailored suit costs more, as does a tailored and intentionally lived life. You have to spend more time in thoughts, both good and bad. You have to be much more decisive, which can be exhausting at times. You have to have the grit and conviction to push against the norms and make the choices that lead you to your own answer to the question. It isn’t always easy, or comfortable, but that’s kind of the point.

If one is feeling lost on their own meandering journey to find meaning in their life, come back to the easier to frame question of Is my energy gauge net positive or net negative?. That question isn’t always one you can answer in the way you’d wish, but knowing the reality of the answer is the only way to make the change to yield a different answer in the future. For me, in my current existence on this giant rock, I’m focused on trying to be the best husband and father I can be. The meaning of my life, is to aid those around me in gaining perspective on what their own meaning is and will evolve to be in the future. The answer to my personal meaning of life question has shifted and shaped itself over time. Much like a suit I wore to one event many years ago doesn’t fit me well today, I adjust and refine as the world and energies around me fluctuate. Don’t fool yourself into believing that your personal meaning can’t evolve with you.

2026 Jan·19

In/Out 2026

Once again, inspired by Carl, I’ll aim for the following this year:

IN

• intention
• action
• listening
• writing
• reading
• simplifying
• removing
• creating

OUT

• excuses
• algorithims
• adding
• inconsistency
• imposter syndrome

2026 Jan·19

2026 Uses Update

I updated my Uses page to capture changes since early 2025. The page still encompasses my current App Defaults as well.

Recap of changes:

Furniture & Accessories

• I haven’t used the Ugmonk Analog Weekly Kit almost at all. Considering removing it from use, or repurposing another way.
• Swapped out the leather deskmat for a new felt one. I liked the leather, but the smooth texture showed dust and didn’t grip items on it well. I kept it to find another use down the road.
• The Arc Pulse case on my iPhone 15 Pro has been hands down the best case I’ve ever owned. I haven’t used anything else the entire 2 years I’ve been using the phone and it’s awesome. Highly recommend if you’re looking for minimal bulk added, but protection from drops, etc.
• I’ve used the Bellroy backpack and Tech Kit on multiple trips and I can say that it has been the perfect choice for me.

Hardware

• Added a M2 Mac Mini. My son got a Wacom tablet for his artistry and I wanted to have an option for him to use as needed in the home office. Will act as an always on server for other things (Hazel, etc.).
• My Keychron K6 is still great, but I did back the Cerakey Zen75 on Kickstarter and am looking forward to having both the thock of ceramic keycaps, but also the lower profile and VIA functionality for custom programming.
• Added Elgato Wave Neo for work calls and screencast recording. The mic on the Logi MX Brio was just okay and I sounded very distant when I listened back to recordings. The Wave Neo is great.
• I upgraded to the AirPods 4 ANC. The active noise cancellation is great when needed and my AirPods 3 sometimes would not sound great on calls (not sure why).
• Purchased a Plaud Notepin from a secondhand marketplace. I’m interested in testing out using it for idea capture and logging my life in a way that doesn’t require using my phone. The parts that I still need to workout is how to take those and action the recordings in a more automated way. I have ideas, just haven’t had time to develop them into a workflow. So far, I like the device and use it often but not daily.
• I am going to sell my Jabra Evolve2 65 MS, most likely. I don’t use it, and between the mic on the MacBook Pro, Elgato Wave Neo and AirPods in a pinch, I don’t think I need it.

Software Changes

• Biggest change in 2025 was email. I now use iCloud+ hosting and the Mail app across all devices. I’d realized that it was a bonus feature of my iCloud+ subscription that I’d never considered using. HEY! for Domains was working well for me, but there was no need to pay for it and most of the functionality I can replicate with Apple Mail at this point. I’ve enjoyed using Mail and it’s a lot different than I remember many years ago.
• I added an AI category to the software list. I use Claude Pro for almost everything. It’s pretty amazing what it is capable of and Claude Code has made personal app creation something to seriously consider to have tools that work exactly the way you want them to.
• I’m struggling to stick with a journaling app. Day One and Apple Journal are both great. They have many overlapping features and both plug in great with journal suggestions. Apple Journal is now on devices other than the iPhone, but I still don’t like the privacy implication of not being able to opt-out of Legacy Contact. Apple Journal has some great integrations with Shortcuts that I think make it lower friction. I need to pick one and stick with it soon.
• Stopped using Raycast Pro in favor of the new Spotlight. Clipboard history was one of the major drivers and Spotlight is more capable than ever. I wanted to kick the tires on the native experience for awhile.
• Dropped Parcel in favor of the beta order tracker in Apple Wallet. This is another integration that became available because of moving to Apple Mail.
• I still have Setapp, but would really like to eliminate it. There are a few apps that I use regularly, but I’m evaluating if I need it anymore.

Coffee & Miscellaneous

• Added Fellow Carter Travel Mug. I’d gotten this a long time ago, but never added it to the Uses page. It’s great and I need to use it when drinking coffee on the go vs. taking my house mugs with me.
• A family friend gifted me an Aeropress Go. I never would have gotten it for myself, but the way it all packs up into itself is so enjoyable and makes it a much better travel option than the Aeropress classic.
• I will likely get rid of the Fellow Prismo attachment. I haven’t used it in years.
• I haven’t used my Aarke Carbonator III as much lately, but not to the point that I will elminate it. Most days I only drink coffee and water. Last year, most of that water was still vs. sparkling, and I can say that’s mostly out of convenience.

That’s more change than I expected, but none of them were changes to add unecessary complexity. Several cut costs out of the mix, which is always good.

2026 Jan·18

Year of Living Without 2026

While I abandoned monthly updates on my 2025 items, here’s the recap:

• No soda: Success. Haven’t had soda since 12/24/24.
• 16:8 fasting: Mixed; inconsistently practiced this in 2025.
• No phone in bed: Failed miserably. Read at night for a couple of months, then stopped completely and fell into YouTube videos before bed. Then read a ton during a week in Puerto Rico over Thanksgiving. Then came home and fell back into less reading and more garbage.

I did add one, randomly to test my grit. I didn’t eat any Halloween candy. Christmas candy was fine. Other candy we had was allowed, but nothing that flooded into the house based on the Halloween holiday.

So… in a soon-to-be-posted In/Out 2026 post, you’ll see themes that try to adjust and focus where I’ve failed. To that end, I once again realize that monthly formats are good for my brain and keep me more accountable to myself. I’ll start in February, and here are my planned experiments for the first 3 months of “without” in 2026, plus a bonus one that I’ll attempt starting today for the rest of the year. Some of the without themes are focused on doing something, without missing a day.

• 2026: No more mindless¹ YouTube.
• February: No desserts/sweets + 16:8 fasting daily.
• March: Stretching/yoga daily + no hot showers.
• April: Daily journaling.

I’ll continue to strive for near-daily reading. I’ll continue to push out unintentional habits with intentional ones. The above are just ones that I’ll track more diligently and discuss how they’re rewiring my brain in ways it’s been on auto-pilot a bit during 2025.

2026 Jan·18

Web, Social Networks, Social Web

Manu posted this great take on a podcast episode that I also recently listened to (and was also underwhelmed by):

Ironically, this overlaps with another shoutout to Manu that I was planning to post. He’s launched his Dealgorithmed newsletter, and it’s one to subscribe to for sure. It aligns with my hopes outlined in the Intentional Web Manifesto.

For the sake of thought, I’ll offer my comments on his last paragraph and closing. While I agree that the internet ≠ social media, it’s a take on why we’re better without “social media” at all.

Imagine a social platform that’s not controlled by a single billionaire. A platform that’s not powered by a closed-source algorithm.

Like websites on the internet.

Usernames are unique, the underlying protocol powering it is flexible and very robust.

Like domain names directing to those websites.

Your profile page is infinitely customizable, and no two profiles need to look the same.

Yep.

It supports DMs and chats.

Email and comments, check.

A platform where you can post videos, photos, audio, 3D content, you name it, and where you can follow other people’s pages and be sure that no algorithm will hide that content from you.

RSS, check.

A platform that’s not censored or moderated by arbitrary rules set by a Silicon Valley billionaire.

Preach.

How good does that sound to you? Because to me, a platform like that looks like a dream, if only we could figure out a way to build it.

It sounds great. Long live the intentional web.

2026 Jan·18

AirPods Case Upgrade

A year ago, I was pondering that putting my AirPods case inside another case was fairly redundant. The AirPods charging case is already great at protecting the AirPods while they charge. I wasn’t keeping the charging case in a case to protect it or otherwise keep it pristine. At this point, AirPods are a utility product that stay in my pocket more often than keys or my wallet. The reason I was double casing was so that they wouldn’t constantly slide out of my pocket, off a table or otherwise skate across a surface like an ice dancer. Dropping an AirPods charging case is like watching a slow motion video of a building being leveled. Upon impact with the ground, the case flies open and the individual AirPods are launched violently in multiple directions. I wanted to avoid this anxiety and keep myself from losing the entire package when sitting at an angle where the naked case would constantly slip out of my pocket.

Then it hit me, a Ranger Band was the perfect and most minimal solution. I don’t recall where I heard about them, but Ranger Bands are thick, textured and sturdier-than-the-norm rubber bands. They’re great for putting around things like small tactical flashlights that you may need to hold between your teeth so that the metal doesn’t risk chipping them. A Ranger Band around the width of the case not only provides the texture and grip inside the pocket to prevent them slipping out, but has the added benefit of blocking that annoyingly bright light from piercing my eyes when I pop the case open at night. The band adds no bulk or weight to the conveniently small AirPods charging case. It doesn’t sacrafice the benefits of Apple’s design efforts. I’d even argue that it doesn’t look half bad. There’s something Storm Trooper-esque about the aesthetic.

Ranger band on AirPods 4 case (open).

Ranger band on AirPods 4 case (closed).

There’s something to be said for a perfect and simple solution to an a frequent and annoying problem. It’s the little things in life that are worth writing about sometimes.

2026 Jan·17

Utility Marketing

We have an HP Tango printer. When it was time for a new printer, I remembered Jeff over at Ugmonk recommending the HP Tango and it fit our family’s needs. I enjoy the HP Instant Ink program since it takes the stress out of being inkless late at night when the school project is due the next day. I’ve enjoyed the printer and the companion HP Smart app for several years. Until now…

HP has done what I’m noticing is a trend in “home” device app experiences. They’ve removed the printer specific app and replaced it with an app called only “HP” that is more of an HP shopping experience than it is a printer companion and utlity. Sure, all the features that were in the HP Smart app are there… somewhere. You have to tap on UI elements that make no sense to get to them, and you have to scroll endlessly for things that used to all be presented on one main screen in tiles. Your eyeballs get assaulted with ads for other HP products and everything about this new “unified” HP app experience sucks.

I’ve read that I’m not the only customer feeling this way and I genuinely hope that the HP Smart app returns to the App Store as an alternative option for those that don’t enjoy being kicked in the nuts when needing to use their printer’s app.

2025 Sep·03