B1 reading: A week without my phone

1 I check my phone about a hundred times a day. I know this because my phone tells me. Last month I decided to try an experiment: one week with no smartphone. I put it in a drawer and went back to an old phone that can only make calls and send texts.

2 The first day was the hardest. On the bus to work I didn't know what to do with my hands. I kept reaching into my pocket for a phone that wasn't there. In the end I looked out of the window, and I noticed a small bakery on my street that I had never seen before, although I've lived there for three years.

3 Some things were really difficult. I didn't have maps, so I got lost on the way to a friend's party and arrived an hour late. I couldn't pay with my phone, so I had to remember to take my bank card. And I missed a message in our family group chat about my brother's birthday dinner. My mother phoned to ask why I hadn't answered.

4 But by the third day, something had changed. I was sleeping better, because I wasn't looking at a screen in bed. I read two books that had been on my shelf for months. At lunch I talked to my colleagues instead of scrolling through the news. One of them said, "You seem more relaxed this week." She was right.

5 I also realised how much time I usually spend on my phone without really choosing to. I often pick it up "just for a minute" to check the weather and then spend half an hour looking at photos of people I hardly know.

6 When the week was over, I took my smartphone out of the drawer. I didn't give it up completely, because life without maps and online banking was simply too inconvenient. But I made some rules. I don't take it into the bedroom, I've deleted two social media apps, and I leave it in my bag during meals. I now check it about thirty times a day. It's still a lot, but it's a start.