1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:04,760 Speaker 1: When Ryan Shelton traded in his iPhone for a flip 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:08,560 Speaker 1: phone with no Internet connectivity, he took to calling it 3 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:12,480 Speaker 1: his smug phone because he felt so smug watching the 4 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:15,560 Speaker 1: rest of us stare down at our little pocket computers 5 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:19,400 Speaker 1: all day every day. He was smug for other reasons too. 6 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 1: The new level of silence allowed for more clarity of thinking, 7 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:28,040 Speaker 1: and he quickly noticed he was having more creative ideas 8 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: more often. He also began to appreciate his in person 9 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: interactions more now that he wasn't entertained by podcasts, music, movies, 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:40,559 Speaker 1: and social media at every moment of the day. So 11 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:44,919 Speaker 1: why did the comedian and podcast host of The Imperfects 12 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: go back to the iPhone in the end? And how 13 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: did he modify his iPhone to give him the same 14 00:00:51,960 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: benefits without the drawbacks. My name is doctor amanthe Imbat. 15 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:04,880 Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science 16 00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:09,120 Speaker 1: consultancy Inventium, And this is how I work a show 17 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:12,400 Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. On 18 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 1: today's quick Win episode, will you go back to an 19 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,920 Speaker 1: interview from the past and I pick out a quick 20 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: win that you can apply today. In today's show, I 21 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: speak with Ryan Shelton about what he learned from swapping 22 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: his iPhone for a dumb phone. 23 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 2: I called the phone my smug phone because I felt 24 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 2: extremely smug while the people were on their smartphones. I 25 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 2: was just sitting quietly by myself in silence, like a 26 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:36,120 Speaker 2: smug dickhead. 27 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:38,080 Speaker 1: But I was. 28 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:42,400 Speaker 2: Noticing the effects, Like there was so many benefits of 29 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 2: doing this. It's hard to know if it was just 30 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 2: the phone, because I was also doing other things, so 31 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:52,640 Speaker 2: it wasn't like a pure experiment. But the thing I 32 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 2: noticed more than anything is my clarity of thought in 33 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 2: that time. For the two hundred and something days I 34 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 2: did this, I felt you know that that movie with 35 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 2: Bradley Cooper where he like takes some drug and he's like, 36 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 2: all of a sudden uses one hundred percent of his 37 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 2: brain or something. 38 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:09,919 Speaker 1: Yes, it was that. 39 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 2: It felt like I was using as like parts of 40 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 2: my brain were like switching on, and I just felt 41 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 2: so clear, like clear minded. I was having so many 42 00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:24,920 Speaker 2: good ideas. It was incredible. It was incredible, and the 43 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,239 Speaker 2: feeling from it was was I felt karma. I felt karma. Yeah. 44 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:34,040 Speaker 1: So given that, why after two hundred and something days 45 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: did you go back to your iPhone. 46 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,280 Speaker 2: Because the most annoying part of well really the only 47 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 2: annoying part of the flip phone experience is messaging people. 48 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 2: You're out of the if you're an Apple user, you're 49 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:52,519 Speaker 2: out of the blue bubble. You know, you're you're you're 50 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 2: coming up as grain bubbles. You can't be in I 51 00:02:54,800 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 2: message groups. But also just physically typing on those phones 52 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:05,840 Speaker 2: is it's like predictive text like it's it's really cumbersome, 53 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,040 Speaker 2: really annoying to the extent where I found myself not 54 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:12,079 Speaker 2: writing back to people as much as I would because 55 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 2: I couldn't be bothered doing the messaging. So eventually that 56 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 2: just became too annoying. I found myself being more disconnected 57 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 2: from a lot of people because of that, and I thought, Okay, 58 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 2: I'm going to try and go back to the iPhone, 59 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 2: but with a whole new set of rules, sort of 60 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 2: trying to emulate the smug phone experience on the iPhone. 61 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 2: So essentially restored my iPhone back to factory resets, like 62 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 2: you know, back to its bare bones. I deleted all 63 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 2: the apps that I could that Apple allows you to delete, 64 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 2: and then I only put the apps on like the 65 00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 2: filtration system for the criteria for apps to get back 66 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 2: on the phone was very strict. It had to be 67 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:02,120 Speaker 2: things that would that were like they were like tools. 68 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,120 Speaker 2: So no entertainment on the phone zero. So now on 69 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 2: my phone, I have an iPhone and the only things 70 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 2: on here now are like my calendar, maps, weather tasks, obviously, WhatsApp, messages, 71 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:25,279 Speaker 2: phone Uber. That's pretty much it. And then I'm Peloton 72 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 2: because I have to have that for my Apple Watch 73 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 2: to connect to the Peloton through the phone. That's slightly annoying, 74 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:32,920 Speaker 2: but yeah, I never look at it, but that, yeah, 75 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,279 Speaker 2: that other and then there's just like photos and camera 76 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,159 Speaker 2: and the normal Apple apps. But that's all I've got, 77 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 2: And so it means that, I mean, I still habitually 78 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 2: check my phone when I don't need to, because I'm 79 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:44,200 Speaker 2: still getting messages and all that sort of stuff. But 80 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 2: I'm not stuck on my phone anymore because there's really 81 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:50,160 Speaker 2: not that much to do on there. 82 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this little quick Win episode today. 83 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: If you would like to listen to the full interview, 84 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: you can find a link to that in the show notes. 85 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: If you're looking for more tips to improve the way 86 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:07,800 Speaker 1: that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that 87 00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me 88 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving 89 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: three to interesting research findings. You can sign up for 90 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I Work dot co. 91 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing part of your day with me 92 00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for 93 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: more tips on how to work better, connect with me 94 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just 95 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:39,520 Speaker 1: search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on 96 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,599 Speaker 1: the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the 97 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,800 Speaker 1: Cool And Nation. I am so grateful for being able 98 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:48,359 Speaker 1: to work and live on this beautiful land, and I 99 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. 100 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: How I Work is produced by Inventium and hosted by 101 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 1: me Amantha Imba. And a big thank you to Martin 102 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: Imber who did the audio mix and makes everything sound 103 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:03,480 Speaker 1: better than it would have otherwise.