I put parental control on my own phone hoping to become a responsible adult with normal sleeping schedule.
This whole idea of blocking myself out of my phone came from a friend of mine, I thought he was absolutely ridiculous when he was telling me about it. A few days after I sent him a message and ask him what’s the app he’s using, it all of sudden became a good idea. For nights of spending too much time on my phone staying awake till later than 2 am (occasionally dealing with work requests from different timezones), often lead to painful mornings
Day 1:
I went over to a friend’s place and stayed till close to midnight. Not sure what to expect from the app, I asked my friend to get me a Uber home. Clock went past midnight while I was in the ride home and all of my apps disappeared! My phone was left with 2 basic functions: Call and text, welcome back to the flip phone era. I wasn’t sure if I was knocked out at 12:30am because I had a really eventful weekend or not being able to play with my phone actually helps.
How I feel:
It felt really weird, I wonder if drug withdraw felt the same. I would pick up my phone trying to do something with it and realize that I can’t do anything with it.
Day 2:
It was just another normal day and I ended up going to bed around midnight on my own. I was so tired from work and slept for nearly 9 hours, I was almost certain that this is going to work.
How I feel:
It felt like I haven’t had a good night sleep like this for a while, though I was still having a tough time waking up in the morning.
Day 3:
I am very much convinced that weather in San Francisco is bipolar. It was unbelievably beautiful today, until it got way too hot to sleep at night. I laid in bed having trouble falling asleep cause I was too hot and I ended up texting my friends about how hot I am. Aside from all the apps being removed, I can still call and text others with my phone being on parental control. (uh-oh)
How I feel:
At this point I’m already getting used to having a flip phone after midnight, I still have fair amount of friends who will respond to my annoying text messages after midnight when I was too hot to sleep. I started to get tired around 23:30, not sure if it’s related to the time cycle though.
Day 4:
I have to be really honest that I couldn’t remember what happened tonight. I might have gotten dinner with my friends which some of them think that my idea of using parental control on myself is ridiculous. Though it was weird that my Facebook messenger wasn’t blocked tonight, along with a few other apps. Not sure if there’s a glitch, I was able to be on Facebook tonight.
How I feel:
I still think it’s a decent decision, at least I’m really starting to have a more regular sleeping schedule on school days.
Day 5:
Last day of trying this app and it’s Friday tomorrow. Same as the night before my Facebook Messenger wasn’t blocked, I honestly can’t remember what wasn’t either. I got tired again around 23:00, I laid in bed and fell asleep by midnight. I however woke up to a disaster, my organized iPhone app became unorganized spread within 6 pages, took me 30 mins to reorganize them in the morning.
How I feel:
With the unblocked FB messenger and other apps (it got more and more every night) and waking up to unorganized applications all over the place I decided that I should really take on my buddy’s suggestion to turn off my phone at midnight and get myself an alarm.
At the end of the 5 days challenge I learned my lesson — it’s way better to self help than rely on outsource apps. While I decided to delete the app on my way to work, the app decided to kick in and immediately turned my phone into a flip phone — I almost got a heart attack. A large part of my work relies my phone being able to function properly. Lesson learned, maybe it’s time to buy an actual alarm clock and stop being so reliant on my iPhone like most other millennials.