Resisting the Rabbit Hole

Last month I asked my Substack subscribers what they'd like to read about, and one response felt like a push I wanted to explore: tech.

The thing is, I don’t feel comfortable offering specific classroom tech tips given how variable school cultures and district policies are and given that I haven’t been a classroom teacher since 2013, eons ago in classroom tech.

So instead I responded to this request through the lens I always come back to in my coaching work and my writing: supporting educators in finding their own intersection of effectiveness and sustainability.

Here are 5 practices that helped me find a relationship with technology–and my phone specifically–at my intersection of professional effectiveness and personal sustainability.

These practices aren’t original or innovative or headline-making. They’re just actual things I’ve chosen to do that have resulted in less distraction, time-suckage, and feeling bad about myself through comparison to other people while still allowing me to get shit done and generally enjoy my life.

1. Print books only: Reading is one of the primal touchstones of my identity, seeded in early childhood with $2.95 Bantam Books editions. Touching paper, turning pages, dog-earing, being told “that’s a great book” by a stranger on the subway: that’s reading to me.
2. Phone off in the kitchen overnight: Because I go through bouts of insomnia, if my phone is on and nearby I will be on it at 2am shopping for skin products. Instead, I have an actual analog alarm clock next to my bed that I also take with me when I travel.
3. Phone on after morning routine: My day starts with meditation, journaling, and pulling a card from an oracle deck (also rolling my eyes at myself). That routine takes about 30 minutes, which means my phone and all its attendant enragements and inanities isn’t the first thing I see when I wake up.
4. Phone out of sight: My work day can look like anything, anywhere, but when I’m sitting in front of my laptop working on something that requires focus, I put my phone where I can’t see it. At this very minute I’m at a coffee shop, and my phone is on silent in my backpack.
5. No notifications: I only get alerts for phone calls, text messages, and breaking news. I don’t want anything else to interrupt me, make me mad, or send me down a rabbit hole.

Want more? Here are 3 books I love about this:

• 24/6: Giving Up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection by Tiffany Shlain
• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
• Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May