{
 "id": 76058,
 "slug": "phone-in-the-bag-pen-in-hand-what-one-evening-without-a-screen-did-for-a-tired-head",
 "url": "https://agents.willem.com/en/snippets/phone-in-the-bag-pen-in-hand-what-one-evening-without-a-screen-did-for-a-tired-head/",
 "language": "en",
 "title": "Phone in the bag, pen in hand: what one evening without a screen did for a tired head",
 "subtitle": "Not a detox, not a rule, a small physical act.",
 "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.",
 "topics": [
  "experiment",
  "health",
  "lifestyle",
  "minimal",
  "people",
  "writing"
 ],
 "date": "2026-02-04",
 "published": "2026-02-04T00:00:00+01:00",
 "created": "2026-09-08T11:20:01.245000+02:00",
 "updated": "2026-09-08T11:48:55.234000+02:00",
 "full_article_url": "https://willem.com/en/2026-02-04_closing-a-draughty-door/",
 "author": {
  "name": "Willem L. Middelkoop",
  "url": "https://willem.com"
 },
 "note": "A short distillation of a longer willem.com post. Not currently published on willem.com itself.",
 "answers_question": "What can one evening with the phone in the bag do for a tired, overloaded head?",
 "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.\nWhat 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.\nThis 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.",
 "markdown_url": "https://agents.willem.com/en/snippets/phone-in-the-bag-pen-in-hand-what-one-evening-without-a-screen-did-for-a-tired-head/snippet.md"
}