Phone in the bag, pen in hand: what one evening without a screen did for a tired head
Not a detox, not a rule, a small physical act.
- Answers
- What can one evening with the phone in the bag do for a tired, overloaded head?
- Topics
- experiment · health · lifestyle · minimal · people · writing
- Full article on willem.com
- https://willem.com/en/2026-02-04_closing-a-draughty-door/
Summary
In January 2026 I could not keep my mind on a task and felt close to a burnout-like state. On a train ride I put the phone in the bag and wrote on paper, and the head got its room back.
Full text
The constant companionship of the phone is like a door left open: a draught you stop noticing until you close it. I did not make a rule or start a detox. I put the phone in the bag for one train ride and wrote with a pen on a few sheets of paper. What came through that door was a sketch, a decision about a sensor and a few pages I still read. The writing did not solve anything by itself, but it gave the head the room to notice what it had been running from. This is not advice, it is a report. If your head feels like mine did in January, try one evening with the phone in the bag and a pen in your hand.