I’m powering off.

10 years. That’s how much time has passed since the last time I spent a day without looking at a screen.

Quite frankly, it’s probably quite a lot more than 10 years, but as much as I hate to admit it, I’ve lost track—much like I have lost track of a lot of the little things in life over the past few years.

I enjoy my time with technology, and I’m usually more than happy to call myself a “tech optimist,” but it’s inarguably hard to ignore the fact that it has its fair share of issues. Over the last two years—especially after having to use my MacBook and iPad at school—my screen time has skyrocketed to take up essentially all of my time during the day, which means around 10-13 hours of daily usage. I, personally, for the longest time, have believed that a high screen time number alone isn’t necessarily a bad thing: what matters more is how you spend that time. I stand by it for the most part, and I spend my time with technology rather productively—significantly more so than my peers (not to toot my own horn)—however, I’d be lying to you if I said there weren’t occasional slip-ups. I’ll occasionally find myself mindlessly opening up Messages, Email, or Twitter when I find myself “bored,” or end up endlessly scrolling YouTube Shorts (in spite of the fact that I have guardrails set up to prevent Shorts from loading.)

One of the Tim Cook quotes I love is:

“We make the phone not so that [you] use it all the time, but we make it so that we can make your life better. If I’m looking at the device more than I’m looking into someone’s eyes, I’m doing the wrong thing.”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66SJTqGZNhI

Technology is a tool. It lets me get things done quicker, it lets me create wonderful things that I share with the world—whether it’s Apps, Siri Shortcuts, YouTube videos, or blog posts like these that connect me with you. But at some point in the process, I’m spending more time than I need to on these devices. Echoing what Tim Cook said, I think going forward it’s important for me to realize that these devices are merely tools to get things done and do what I love, and that I should spend more time with people than with my screen.

The truth, I’ve realized, is that the time I spend in front of a screen when I’m idling simply isn’t necessary. I’d much rather spend that time in the real world doing something else—whether it’s talking to someone or something entirely different. But at the same time, any time I try to think of something to do outside of my computer, it’s often hard for me to answer. I simply don’t know. Even besides that problem, I think there’s so much content being thrown at us on our devices that we often lose out on the headspace that’s required to be creative and come up with great ideas. Every time I’ve come up with an innovative app idea or any idea that solves a problem, it has never been when I’m staring at a screen, but rather when I’m in the shower, on the toilet, at the dining table, or when I’m truly living in the moment.

Starting in 2024, I stopped watching TV/YouTube when at the dining table to spend my time a little more meaningfully and live in the moment. While I think that has helped, I’ve realized I’ve been spending a lot of my time on autopilot. My days are a never-ending checklist of tasks that I’m racing to finish off, and while I do think I enjoy my time (A LOT), I think it’s important for me to take a step back and be a little more mindful of what I do and focus on the aspects of life that are meant to be experienced but are instead often forgotten.

That brings me to the coming week. A complete power-off. Yes, you read that right. After months of deliberation, I’ve decided I’m turning off every single piece of tech I own. My phone, my laptop, my watch, my Vision Pro—everything and anything that has a screen. I’m switching out my Apple Watch for a regular watch, and all my tech with a simple notebook to put my thoughts down. I know that this is likely the first (and last !!) time I get to something like this, because I’ll simply be busy after this and will have something or the other that will require me to be online. So I want to make sure I make the most out of this.

I have a few things in mind that I’d like to give a shot and experience, and I’ve planned out meeting with a friend of mine at a fixed time every day (although I’ll have no way to know if she says she won’t be able to make it). I don’t know what will happen by the end of the next week, but I do want to come back with an answer to the question I often find hard to answer: what do I do when I’m not using my tech? I want to take control of how I spend my time, experience the little things that screens make me lose track of, live in the moment, and boundlessly ideate.

My love for building, programming, tinkering—it all remains unchanged. In fact, once I’m back, I hope to become better than ever at my craft, but I want to make sure I’m a little more deliberate and a little more mindful. Who knows what I’ll figure out in this week? Maybe it’ll feel like the week just flew by, or maybe it’ll feel like it lasted forever. Whatever it is: I’ll keep you posted.

See ya next week.