As part of my ongoing initiative to reclaim my digital agency I've made a couple of strides today that may not seem important in the grand-scale, but are significant to me. First, I installed a minimal launcher on my phone in hopes of reducing its pull over my attention. I want my phone to return to being just a phone. Primarily a communication tool with the ability to look up information if need be - nothing else. No doom scrolls, no algorithmic social media, none of those fast fucking videos that go on forever - none of that shit. I'm fighting a battle against companies that hired legitimate top of their field psychologists to design the perfect brain trap. Measures like this are necessary - I'm not better than anyone, and I'm certainly not immune to the allure of these devices. If the minimal launcher approach doesn't work then I'll just do something a bit more drastic and ditch the smartphone all together. I'll admit, losing navigation would be a difficult transition for me, as it plays a massive role in reducing my driving anxiety - but there are alternatives if that bridge ever needs crossing.
The other step I've taken is adopting a T480 Thinkpad as a "get shit done" machine. It can't play games and the speakers suck ass, but goddammit if this thing doesn't do exactly what I need it to do when it comes to checking shit off the to-do list. The past week has been phenomenal for my workflow and all it took was customizing a device to my exact style and flow and then actually using it to get shit done. I'm going to continue forward in this journey - learning to utilize Org-mode in Emacs better is my current project. So far so good on that one, it's really done a lot to help me track myself, stay on task, and manage the various projects I'm in charge of. Technology should serve humanity, not the other way around.