I think I’ve finally figured out how to spend less time on my iPhone.
Apparently, it required another iPhone.
I’ve been flirting with the dumbphone life for a while. I never expected to go full time, but I wanted a little refuge from the internet on nights and weekends.
I tried Brick (
@livebricked) on and off for a couple of years. It’s a great device, especially paired with Blank Spaces to make my phone feel as dumb as possible.
The problem: because I have no life, I was usually home near my Brick whenever I wanted to cheat. Which happened more often than I’d like to admit.
I also tried a Light Phone (
@thelightphone). But iMessage had its claws in me, and switching back and forth made messaging enough of a nightmare that I eventually sold it.
What’s finally stuck for the past few months is an iPhone Air with only the bare minimum apps installed.
Every night, I forward calls from my main phone to the Air and put the main phone in a drawer. The Air becomes my nights-and-weekends phone.
The familiar experience makes a bigger difference than I expected. I can use the essential apps without fighting the phone or reaching for my normal one.
Right now, the Air is on a cheap MVNO plan. I’m hoping
@ATT supports iPhone Handoff (
theverge.com/tech/990868/iph…) in iOS 27 so I can retire the call-forwarding routine.
Getting another iPhone to use my iPhone less: the kind of reasoning only a gadget addict could believe.