Work mode does change things

Work's back in full force, which has been interesting from a digital balance point of view. I know a lot of people who can't disconnect, have to check their emails and social media inboxes at all times, that sort of thing. I'm not one of them, these things don't stress me out like they used to. From a digital balance standpoint, going back to work from the summer holiday made little difference.

Don't get me wrong, I get plenty stressed by other things at times. Just like with the end of the year and its "we have to get this done now" nonsense, a lot of clients want to kickstart the autumn with deliverables. There's a difference between these periods of time because people come back somewhat energized from their summer breaks, whereas they just want to get things done by the winter holidays at the end of the year. Funny thing is, it always tapers off after the initial rush, so January and February are usually calm, and while the same might not be said by late September and October, it's back to business as usual at least.

I guess these stressful periods could be even more so if you were glued to your phone and had to check it when you wake up in the middle of the night, but I'm not that person.

What has happened since last time is that I've delegated the Punkt MP02 to weekends. There are too many situations where I need my iPhone. I can't even enter the gym without it unfortunately, a place where I really don't feel like I need it (music streams from the Apple Watch). I've mentioned needs like online identification through BankID, as well as the taxi services, but I've had to rely on the Maps app a couple of times as well. It's a different thing, a different life even, when you need to be able to navigate a city, where you're expected to have a smartphone at all times. Missing out is a real thing, and it's not just the good stuff either, it's crucial things like parking and charging the car. There's a way too silent debate in Sweden about the older generation and how they're not at all in tune with this new way to do things. I get that, society is a lot harder to navigate without a smartphone.

That doesn't mean that you have to be glued to you phone at all times obviously. Just putting it away for a month has removed a lot of those situations where I pick up the iPhone out of habit. I wouldn't say that it was a huge issue before, but it's even less so now. I put my iPhone on the charger when I get home, where it acts as a ridiculously overpriced clock, and then I take it off when I leave for work in the morning.

Some random thoughts, thus far into the experiment:

• I pay with my Apple Watch all the time now. I'm also wearing it all the time because of this, something I actually didn’t do before. Not sure if that's a good thing, but at least I've go notifications turned down or off.
• My iPad usage hasn't gone up, it's about the same. I've not replaced something with something else, which is good.
• I still haven't found my Ricoh GRIII, which is annoying because I wanted to know if this experiment would ignite a new love for it. Alas, I take almost no photos, despite bringing the iPhone as a dumb device in my bag most of the time.

I'll be keeping tabs on my usage the coming weeks and months, to see if something changes. I do want to read more on paper, but it's tricky to break the habit of reading in bed, in the dark, with a screen that can handle that. We'll see how it goes.

— Thord D. Hedengren ⚡