How I Sparked 38 Ideas By Ignoring My Phone

Reducing My Phone Usage, One Year On: Article 2

Creativity is a muscle and mine had been slowly atrophying, having the life sucked out of it by a 6 x 3 inch glowing rectangle of doom.

Once I cut back, my Logseq graph (the place where I put my thoughts, notes, etc.—a PKMS (Personal Knowledge Management System)) jumped from 0 to 38 #idea tags in one quarter. The proof is in the delicious, phone-less pudding.

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What does creativity mean to you? Is it something you think you have? Have you actively worked on it? Myself, I've had an active imagination as long as I can remember. I didn't always have ways to harness or keep it at bay—there were times it became a runaway freight train. Yes, to all those aren't “naturally” creative, it can be a double-edged sword. Especially when you're a kid and the whole world is new and exciting, sometimes scary. Sometimes terrifying. Thinking back I didn't have many outlets. I was just the weird kid who could make people laugh. Whether or not you have an official outlet, its gonna come out one way or another. Usually not in a good way—at least in my case. Even if you're not naturally creative—whatever that means, you can work on it, improve it.

I used to daydream in class. A lot. During primary school (elementary) I'd be in my own world. Instead of paying attention to whatever was going on, I had shrunk down, made a flying fox out of a paper clip and some string and ventured my way from one end of the classroom to the other. Or using my eraser as a remote control for my micromachine harrier jumpjet. There were of course times I was suddenly yanked away from my alternate reality back to the one most of us are familiar. Sometimes my subconscious was paying attention so I could bluff my way out of trouble, but I also spent my fair share of lunch times and other breaks in detention. School wasn't too fun a lot of the time. Outside of school I did my best to fit in, to suppress my weirdness, my creative imagination. It worked for a while, but I'd inevitably slip up somewhere and I'd be back to square one. I don't know if you suppress it long enough whether it dies down or if you'd end up having sort of mental break.

I reckon it'd be interesting to conduct long-term studies on the effects of suppressing creativity. For example, through extended use and exposure to smartphones. There's no doubt in my mind the mere act of having a smartphone nearby is enough to interrupt our brains, holding back our creativity. I've observed it first-hand and I dread to think the effects it has on children's development. People will argue it's the same as older generations staring at TVs growing up. The difference is companies have poured so much money into designing an ecosystem for the purpose of gaining and maintaining attention. These devices are with us all the time and we've been socially conditioned to become dependent on them. We are being pushed to use our phones for everything under the guise of convenience. In reality, companies are more than happy to reduce their bottom line, not having to worry about manufacturing physical cards and the rest of it. The, “it's better for the environment” arguments also fall flat when you realise how terrible smartphone e-waste is, considering how many phones are produced and discarded every year (gotta have this year's iteration, right?). In 2024 alone, manufacturers pumped out about 1.22 billion new smartphones—nearly 40 fresh handsets. Every. Single. Second. The WEEE Forum estimates that 5.3 billion old phones were chucked or stashed away in 2022.¹²

See if you can picture 5 billion phones in your brain, and realise that happens each year and is only going to keep growing. Struggling to visualise it? Here's some reference points to help you out:

\(\small \begin{array}{|l|l|p{6cm}|} \hline \textbf{Visual} & \textbf{Rough No.} & \textbf{What it means} \\ \hline \text{Olympic pools} & \approx 180 & 50\!\times\!25\!\times\!2\,\text{m pool } \approx 2{,}500\,\text{m}^3.\newline 445{,}000\,\text{m}^3\!/\!2{,}500\,\text{m}^3\! \approx 180.\newline \text{One pool every two days for a year.} \\ \hline \text{Eiffel Towers} & \approx 95\text{–}100 & Avg phone 180 g.\newline 5.3 B \times 180 g = 954 000 t.\newline \text{Eiffel (incl.\ lifts) ≈ 10 100 t.} \\ \hline \end{array}\)

Those are still a bit difficult to comprehend. Here's a better one:

Empire State Building (by volume) ~½ a building The Empire State’s interior volume ≈ 37 million ft³ (≈ 1.04 million m³). Our e-waste mound is about 43 % of that.

Thanks WallpaperSafari for the image of the Empire State Building to use as a template

All we've done is create attention-sucking gadgets that never leave our side, with the co-dependency to match. Keeping us distracted, good little consumers, who are more angry, divided and confused than ever. Oh, and deluded. Almost forgot that one. We stand in line to the checkout with our headphones on, delivering our lines almost unprompted. The ones we've memorised-no, I don't want a receipt, thanks. No, I'm not a member. No, I don't want to become one. It's starting to feel like we're actively avoiding real-life social interactions. Yet we'll happily send message after message through the air, to people who may or may not even be people. We're training our brains, tricking ourselves into believing the virtual world, which is mostly bots spewing out pixels at this point, is inherently better than the real one. It's mass delusion bordering on psychosis, a socio-technical contagion. A true epidemic, pandemic that we're all too blind to see because we're so caught up in it. We can't see the forest because the trees are injecting us with dopamine.

With that out of the way, on to part 2.

Part 2: Creativity and Cognitive Shifts

Looking back on the past year the most striking change came in the form of creativity and mental clarity. Before, my mind was often scattered–countless social media posts and ‘infinite’ scrolling tend to clog anyone's creative channels. However, as smartphone distractions dwindled, I experienced a kind of “cognitive renaissance”. My journal entries and idea logs exploded with activity. In mid-2024, new ideas were few and far between, but by late 2024 I was recording ideas almost daily. In fact, the number of #idea tags in my Logseq notes went from near zero in the spring to 38 distinct ideas in Q4 2024 alone. Once I was freed from constant phone notifications, I became an idea machine.

See that Christmas tree spike (pretty cool how it worked out that way!)? That's what happens when boredom replaces {insert whatever crap you spend your time on, for me it was Twitter (the only time I've been on it was during this period), YouTube, Substack}.

What my data shows

\(\begin{array}{|l|l|l|} \hline \textbf{Phase} & \textbf{7-Day Avg} & \textbf{Narrative Nugget} \\ \hline \text{May--Aug 2024} & <1\ \text{idea/day} & \begin{array}{l}\text{Pre-detox baseline—}\\[-2pt]\text{brain fog central.}\end{array} \\ \hline \text{Sep--Oct 2024} & \text{Gentle climb} & \begin{array}{l}\text{Early curiosity as}\\[-2pt]\text{screen time dipped.}\end{array} \\ \hline \text{Dec 2024 $\to$ Jan 2025} & \mathbf{3\ ideas/day} & \begin{array}{l}\text{Holidays + phone curfew}\\[-2pt]\text{= cognitive renaissance.}\end{array} \\ \hline \text{Feb--Mar 2025} & \text{Plateau} & \begin{array}{l}\text{Habits stabilised,}\\[-2pt]\text{output steady.}\end{array} \\ \hline \text{Apr 2025} & \text{Second lift} & \begin{array}{l}\text{Creativity now the}\\[-2pt]\text{default state.}\end{array} \\ \hline \end{array}\)

I documented this idea spike phenomenon in real time. On December 17, 2024 at 9:24pm, I jotted down a revelatory note:

I haven't been staring at my phone or computer nearly as much... yesterday by the time I put the kids to bed (7:30pm) I'd only used my phone for 28 minutes that entire day, compared with my normal 4–6 hours. I really think this has a massive effect on creativity and idea generation–you can think clearer… there are so many benefits from not staring at a screen all day.

My realisation–that idleness and boredom, once filled by mindless scrolling, were now sparking idea after idea–capturing the essence of my cognitive shift. Though it's less about ideas suddenly being sparked and more opening a gate that allow ideas to flow freely. All those notifications and staring at mindrot act as creative blockers. They stop us thinking clearly. In the end I found myself reaching for a notebook instead of my phone. By removing the endless feed of others' content, my mind started producing more of my own content. I brainstormed topics for my newsletter, jotted down business concepts, even outlined book chapters. My Logseq graph is full of new nodes in late 2024, evidence of my mind reactivating.

The below image from one of my previous articles visualises the idea of your phone as a creativity blocker:

The article is here if you're curious.

Another journal entry from January 5, 2025 illustrates my change in creative ability. I wrote at 10:29am,

I would never have been able to just sit and write like this when I was constantly on my phone

marveling at how I can now spend a quiet Sunday morning composing thoughts without the itch to check messages. I even drafted a poem of sorts to celebrate the moment:

To think great ideas, get your brain into gear, put away your phone…

based on Dr Seuss–a simple mantra that became a new credo. I reposted it as a note again because it disappeared

The positive effects went beyond creativity. I also noticed sharper focus and memory. By the start of 2025, I observed that I could read long-form articles or books and actually remember them. In a reflection on New Year's Day, I wrote,

Even my ADHD symptoms are less—more focused, less distracted.

This was a surprising benefit. I'd expected to regain some time, but not necessarily to feel cognitive fog lifting in such a tangible way. Reduced screen time meant my attention span began to recover. Tasks that used to feel insurmountable (because my phone would interrupt me every few minutes, or I was glued to it like a zombie) became easier when I could work uninterrupted for an hour.

I also poured this new focus into personal projects. For instance, I really started getting into 'vibe coding,' for lack of a better term—seeing what was possible using LLMs (Large Language Models). I'm now up to 70 code repositories, with a few having real promise, as well as a bunch of lessons and some useful scripts. It was also much easier to think up activities my kids and I could do together. We dipped our toes into gardening, and after a couple of hic-ups our plants are thriving (my youngest has taken ownership and does all the watering).

I posted this as a substack note as kind of a running joke:

– a lighthearted jab at how I now spent time gardening and writing instead of chasing clout online. It shows an emerging creativity and humour in my writing that wasn't there before. It was there, I just had to reactivate it. By breaking the cycle of consumption, I unlocked a well of production.

My switch from passive consumption to active creation wasn’t an accident; it happened because I built a few tiny, repeatable rituals that force-fed my brain boredom and then gave it somewhere to dump the ideas. Yes, I used Logseq (it has a phone and desktop app) to log ideas, however, many of those started in a physical notebook and I transferred them over.

Ready to run your own cognitive renaissance? Steal my three go-to moves (plus a dash of Adlerian psychology to keep things spicy):

\(\begin{array}{|l|l|l|l|} \hline \textbf{#} & \textbf{Habit} & \textbf{Exactly what to do} & \begin{array}{c} \textbf{Why it works}\\ (\text{Adlerian lens}) \end{array} \\ \hline \textbf{1} & \text{Five-Minute Idea Sprint} & \begin{array}{l} \text{Trigger: coffee / toilet / kettle.}\\ \text{Set a 5-min timer.}\\ \text{Fill the sheet—no judging.} \end{array} & \begin{array}{l} \textbf{Compensation.}\\ \text{Swaps scroll-itch for}\\ \text{rapid ideation.} \end{array} \\ \hline \end{array} \)

\(\begin{array}{|l|l|l|l|} \hline \textbf{#} & \textbf{Habit} & \textbf{Exactly what to do} & \begin{array}{c} \textbf{Why it works}\\ (\text{Adlerian lens}) \end{array} \\ \hline \textbf{2} & \text{Boredom Alarms} & \begin{array}{l} \text{Two 15-min “nothing blocks”.}\\ \text{Phone on airplane; walk, stare}\\ \text{out window. Capture \#aha ideas.} \end{array} & \begin{array}{l} \textbf{Fictional Finalism.}\\ \text{Quiet moments become}\\ \text{idea incubators.} \end{array} \\ \hline \end{array} \)

\(\begin{array}{|l|l|l|l|} \hline \textbf{#} & \textbf{Habit} & \textbf{Exactly what to do} & \begin{array}{c} \textbf{Why it works}\\ (\text{Adlerian lens}) \end{array} \\ \hline \textbf{3} & \text{Analog Nightcap} & \begin{array}{l} \text{Park phone 20min (ideally}\\ \text{1-2 hours) before bed}\\ \text{Notebook Prompt:}\\ \text{• Brain-fog 1–10}\\ \text{• One thing learned}\\ \text{• Tomorrow’s micro-goal} \end{array} & \begin{array}{l} \textbf{Encouragement.}\\ \text{Nightly reflection builds}\\ \text{ confidence & calm.} \end{array} \\ \hline \end{array} \)

If you’re unsure what ‘Adlerian lens’ means, see the citations here →³⁴⁵

5-Minute Idea-Journal Template

⏱️ 5-MINUTE IDEA SPRINT
Trigger: ____________________   Date: _____________

1. _______________________________
2. _______________________________
3. _______________________________
4. _______________________________
5. _______________________________

Mood after sprint (😫 1 – 10 😃): ___

Your only KPI for this is, pages filled, not “good” ideas.

If you want a PDF version of the above, let me know!

Micro-Proof These Habits Work

• After 30 days of Idea Sprints my Logseq #idea tags jumped 3×

• Boredom blocks coincided with the December “Christmas-tree” spike you saw on the graph

• Analog night-caps dropped my average sleep latency by ~12 minutes (Garmin data)—less bedtime doom-scroll, more REM = sharper mornings

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Try it: run the three habits for one week, then DM me (or comment) the weirdest idea you logged. If this playbook helps, smash the share button—let’s pull more brains out of the scroll-swamp.

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Like what you read?

Until next time: ask the awkward question, break a tiny system, and document the delightful chaos.

\

Braeden Mitchell

1. https://canalys.com/newsroom/global-smartphone-market-q4-2024

2. https://weee-forum.org/ws_news/of-16-billion-mobile-phones-possessed-worldwide-5-3-billion-will-become-waste-in-2022/

3. https://www.simplypsychology.org/alfred-adler.html

4. https://www.adler.edu/center-for-adlerian-practice-and-scholarship/foundational-adlerian-principles/

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Adler