Learn how going with no-notification devices, like getting rid of your smartwatch, might give you the best productivity and memories you have ever had in your life.
So many epiphanies came to me as I traveled through Egypt. I took off my smart watch. I put my phone away so I wouldn’t rack up international charges. And I spent time with people.
I saw the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. I saw King Tut’s ruins. I even saw Mount Sinai and cruised down the Nile. But what struck me most wasn’t the ancient world — it was what I could do without the interruptions. Without the notifications buzzing my wrist. Without the text messages pulling me away from what was right in front of me.
(Need I say something here about this piece I wrote? I have used em dashes forever. (the — that you see.) I’ve spent the last few months removing them from my writing so people wouldn’t think I was writing with AI. I’m done with that silliness. I write like I write. Maybe AI uses em dashes because good writers use them? I could only hope. But I digress!)
I was actually in the moment. I was actually in Egypt. And silly cat videos weren’t distracting me from one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
What the Algorithm Actually Wants
As I prepared to return home, I started thinking about algorithms and who they really benefit. The saying goes: if the product is free, you’re the product. On social media, we’re the product. The platforms serve our attention to their advertisers on a plate. Advertisers pay, and in return, they get to be seen by us.
So what is the purpose of the social media algorithm? It’s not to make my life better.
It’s to make me spend more of my life online. To make me look at more things. That’s it. That’s the whole purpose.
And lately, those algorithms have become particularly aggressive. I’ll open Facebook to do one quick thing and find myself forty-five minutes later scrolling through reels — which are basically a knockoff of TikTok’s addictive short-form videos. Quick dopamine hits. But when I’m done, my stress has gone up instead of down. Instead of cooking dinner, I end up eating out because I wasted my time feeding someone else’s algorithm.
The Thanksgiving Moment
Over Thanksgiving, we were watching a movie together — four of us in the same room. I looked up and realized that all four of us weren’t watching the movie at all. We were each staring at a small screen in our hands.
That’s not smart. We weren’t using our phones as phones. We were using them as yet another screen, yet another distraction. We were feeding the social media algorithm and putting money in the pockets of social media companies while we gave our attention to things we didn’t really care about — instead of seeing the beauty and joy of the people right in front of us.
I felt the calling deep in my soul. I need to focus on the people and forget about the things.
Starting with the Watch
I’ve been wearing a “smart” watch since version one of the Apple Watch. (And yes, I intentionally use the word smart there in quotes.)
I loved the step counter, the heart rate tracker for running, and even the notification that my husband was calling. But somewhere around the pandemic — when everyone in the whole school got my cell phone number, and phone numbers started being bought and sold on the dark web — my smart watch became a huge distraction instead of something that made me smarter.
If I really wanted to get things done, I didn’t put on my watch at all.
So I’ve made a decision: I still want the health counters. The heart rate monitor. All the things someone my age needs. But I don’t want the constantly distracting screen beckoning me into whichever algorithm is working best that week.
What I’m Changing
Since I’ve come back from Egypt, I’ve been writing every morning longhand before I even pick up my phone. I’ve been taking my watch off to get things done. And I’ve been putting my phone away — literally forgetting where it is — because I’d rather focus on the people right in front of me than the people far away who really only want my attention so they can sell it.
I’ve moved social media to my desktop only. Not my phone. Maybe that’ll be the smartest thing I’ve done with my phone in the last ten years.
And I’ve gone with a screenless health tracker. That’s been smart because my sleep is the best it has been in years! The smart watches just keep getting better and better at notifying and distracting me from the work I need to be doing. There’s nothing smart about that. What is smart is reading, sleep, and family time! That’s the best use of my time!
Oh and I have moved to a Remarkable Pro tablet instead of my iPad. No notifications! I can write and work uninterrupted! Devices with no notifications are my new Holy Grail of productivity!
Three Books in Three Years
Here’s what haunts me: back before all these addictive algorithms took hold, I wrote and published three books in three years. Three. I read voraciously. I generated content that helped people. (I hope I still do that! Tee hee!) The point is that I was productive in a way that mattered.
I’m ready to get back to that. Back to reading an hour a night. Back to the kind of focused work that produces something lasting — not lost in dopamine-infused quick videos and the swipe, swipe, swipe of my life going away like rain washing off a windshield.
I’d rather live my life. I’d rather watch beautiful things unfold in real time. I’d rather look in the eyes of my husband than at the eyes of some stranger sharing their latest epiphany on TikTok.
So the next time you see me at a conference, I’ll probably have one of those old-fashioned analog watches on my wrist. I’ll have my health tracker somewhere out of sight. My phone will be put away. And I’ll be looking at you.
Watch me.
