How did the dopamine detox go?

Last week, I decided a decided that a dopamine detox would be good thing. It was too easy to get distracted, too hard to get actual work done. I resolved that Sunday morning would be my detox moment. How did it go?

Normally, I wake up very early, so my surfing starts pretty much when I wake up. It’s a quiet activity, mostly reading interesting articles and playing sudoku, but it means I am on my phone from when I wake until when I get up. So I decided I would not look at the phone until lunch time.

So I woke up at oh-dark-thirty, or whatever it was. Yes I looked at the phone to see what time it was, but I didn’t unlock it.

The moment of crisis. I can’t use my phone. What am I going to do? I look around the room, desperate. Then I spotted it. Something I haven’t touched in a long time. A book. An actual book.

So I read the first chapter. The book was Finde dein Ikigai (Find your “Ikigai”, which is Japanese for your life’s purpose), which touches on many of the themes of Personal Agility. It is really quite inspiring, and in particular, I was really taken my the references to Japan and to Lost in Translation and to the Shinkansen effect. (Short version: Don’t ask a for train that goes 10% faster, ask for one that goes twice as fast. This causes you to through out your assumptions and rethink. This can enable great things to happen!)

I also got inspired to watch Lost in Translation, a really beautiful film that business travellers can relate to.

What happened? I read a book. I got inspired. I watched a movie. I now have a lot to think about. All that for turning off my phone for 6 hours.