When Ryan Shelton traded in his iPhone for a flip phone with no Internet connectivity, he took to calling it his smug phone because he felt so smug watching the rest of us stare down at our little pocket computers all day every day. He was smug for other reasons too. The new level of silence allowed for more clarity of thinking, and he quickly noticed he was having more creative ideas more often. He also began to appreciate his in person interactions more now that he wasn't entertained by podcasts, music, movies, and social media at every moment of the day. So why did the comedian and podcast host of The Imperfects go back to the iPhone in the end? And how did he modify his iPhone to give him the same benefits without the drawbacks. My name is doctor amanthe Imbat. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, And this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's quick Win episode, will you go back to an interview from the past and I pick out a quick win that you can apply today. In today's show, I speak with Ryan Shelton about what he learned from swapping his iPhone for a dumb phone.

When Ryan Shelton traded in his iPhone for a flip phone with no Internet connectivity, he took to calling it his smug phone because he felt so smug watching the rest of us stare down at our little pocket computers all day every day. He was smug for other reasons too. The new level of silence allowed for more clarity of thinking, and he quickly noticed he was having more creative ideas more often. He also began to appreciate his in person interactions more now that he wasn't entertained by podcasts, music, movies, and social media at every moment of the day. So why did the comedian and podcast host of The Imperfects go back to the iPhone in the end? And how did he modify his iPhone to give him the same benefits without the drawbacks. My name is doctor amanthe Imbat. I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, And this is how I work a show about how to help you do your best work. On today's quick Win episode, will you go back to an interview from the past and I pick out a quick win that you can apply today. In today's show, I speak with Ryan Shelton about what he learned from swapping his iPhone for a dumb phone.

I called the phone my smug phone because I felt extremely smug while the people were on their smartphones. I was just sitting quietly by myself in silence, like a smug dickhead.

I called the phone my smug phone because I felt extremely smug while the people were on their smartphones. I was just sitting quietly by myself in silence, like a smug dickhead.

But I was.

But I was.

Noticing the effects, Like there was so many benefits of doing this. It's hard to know if it was just the phone, because I was also doing other things, so it wasn't like a pure experiment. But the thing I noticed more than anything is my clarity of thought in that time. For the two hundred and something days I did this, I felt you know that that movie with Bradley Cooper where he like takes some drug and he's like, all of a sudden uses one hundred percent of his brain or something.

Noticing the effects, Like there was so many benefits of doing this. It's hard to know if it was just the phone, because I was also doing other things, so it wasn't like a pure experiment. But the thing I noticed more than anything is my clarity of thought in that time. For the two hundred and something days I did this, I felt you know that that movie with Bradley Cooper where he like takes some drug and he's like, all of a sudden uses one hundred percent of his brain or something.

Yes, it was that.

Yes, it was that.

It felt like I was using as like parts of my brain were like switching on, and I just felt so clear, like clear minded. I was having so many good ideas. It was incredible. It was incredible, and the feeling from it was was I felt karma. I felt karma. Yeah.

It felt like I was using as like parts of my brain were like switching on, and I just felt so clear, like clear minded. I was having so many good ideas. It was incredible. It was incredible, and the feeling from it was was I felt karma. I felt karma. Yeah.

So given that, why after two hundred and something days did you go back to your iPhone.

So given that, why after two hundred and something days did you go back to your iPhone.

Because the most annoying part of well really the only annoying part of the flip phone experience is messaging people. You're out of the if you're an Apple user, you're out of the blue bubble. You know, you're you're you're coming up as grain bubbles. You can't be in I message groups. But also just physically typing on those phones is it's like predictive text like it's it's really cumbersome, really annoying to the extent where I found myself not writing back to people as much as I would because I couldn't be bothered doing the messaging. So eventually that just became too annoying. I found myself being more disconnected from a lot of people because of that, and I thought, Okay, I'm going to try and go back to the iPhone, but with a whole new set of rules, sort of trying to emulate the smug phone experience on the iPhone. So essentially restored my iPhone back to factory resets, like you know, back to its bare bones. I deleted all the apps that I could that Apple allows you to delete, and then I only put the apps on like the filtration system for the criteria for apps to get back on the phone was very strict. It had to be things that would that were like they were like tools. So no entertainment on the phone zero. So now on my phone, I have an iPhone and the only things on here now are like my calendar, maps, weather tasks, obviously, WhatsApp, messages, phone Uber. That's pretty much it. And then I'm Peloton because I have to have that for my Apple Watch to connect to the Peloton through the phone. That's slightly annoying, but yeah, I never look at it, but that, yeah, that other and then there's just like photos and camera and the normal Apple apps. But that's all I've got, And so it means that, I mean, I still habitually check my phone when I don't need to, because I'm still getting messages and all that sort of stuff. But I'm not stuck on my phone anymore because there's really not that much to do on there.

Because the most annoying part of well really the only annoying part of the flip phone experience is messaging people. You're out of the if you're an Apple user, you're out of the blue bubble. You know, you're you're you're coming up as grain bubbles. You can't be in I message groups. But also just physically typing on those phones is it's like predictive text like it's it's really cumbersome, really annoying to the extent where I found myself not writing back to people as much as I would because I couldn't be bothered doing the messaging. So eventually that just became too annoying. I found myself being more disconnected from a lot of people because of that, and I thought, Okay, I'm going to try and go back to the iPhone, but with a whole new set of rules, sort of trying to emulate the smug phone experience on the iPhone. So essentially restored my iPhone back to factory resets, like you know, back to its bare bones. I deleted all the apps that I could that Apple allows you to delete, and then I only put the apps on like the filtration system for the criteria for apps to get back on the phone was very strict. It had to be things that would that were like they were like tools. So no entertainment on the phone zero. So now on my phone, I have an iPhone and the only things on here now are like my calendar, maps, weather tasks, obviously, WhatsApp, messages, phone Uber. That's pretty much it. And then I'm Peloton because I have to have that for my Apple Watch to connect to the Peloton through the phone. That's slightly annoying, but yeah, I never look at it, but that, yeah, that other and then there's just like photos and camera and the normal Apple apps. But that's all I've got, And so it means that, I mean, I still habitually check my phone when I don't need to, because I'm still getting messages and all that sort of stuff. But I'm not stuck on my phone anymore because there's really not that much to do on there.

I hope you enjoy this little quick Win episode today. If you would like to listen to the full interview, you can find a link to that in the show notes. If you're looking for more tips to improve the way that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving three to interesting research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing part of your day with me by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool And Nation. I am so grateful for being able to work and live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium and hosted by me Amantha Imba. And a big thank you to Martin Imber who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.

I hope you enjoy this little quick Win episode today. If you would like to listen to the full interview, you can find a link to that in the show notes. If you're looking for more tips to improve the way that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging from software and gadgets that I'm loving three to interesting research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork dot com. That's how I Work dot co. Thank you for sharing part of your day with me by listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more tips on how to work better, connect with me via LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cool And Nation. I am so grateful for being able to work and live on this beautiful land, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. How I Work is produced by Inventium and hosted by me Amantha Imba. And a big thank you to Martin Imber who did the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it would have otherwise.