On digital deprogramming

What normally felt like the only possible world became one among many - Ben Lerner

This app WeCroak gives you notifications on your phone throughout the day that say

Remember, you are going to die.

Its basis is a Bhutanese folk saying : to be happy you must contemplate death at least five times a day. And while indeed morbid, it has been an incredible reminder of life's finitude.

The app is incredibly barebones. It is an anti-app in a way, because you can't do anything in it. It exists to remind you of your mortality. It will notify you and share a quote with you - that is it. You can't fetch old quotes. You cannot share quotes. You cannot make friends in it- there is no social aspect. You could look at the About page, but even that is just the bare necessities. Its incredibly utilitarian minimalism is refreshing. Zero feature creep.

I compare this to apps like Zero that went from a simple intermittent fasting timer, to something that attempts to hold you in it by way of engagement, subscriptions, and a seemingly never-ending growth cycle. It's the curse of the capitalist mindset. Feature creep is real, and there is no such thing as endless growth.

But back to wecroak. It has become somewhat of a figurehead in my digital deprogramming effort. To recap, I started this year with a goal to redesign my life. Distractions had conquered me. My phone became a gateway to escapism. I found myself phubbing my wife and friends. So I took drastic action.

This started with a flurry of reading, but I couldn't focus long enough to read on my phone. Yes, the kindle app existed there - but so did everything else. Reading takes active work. Mindlessly scrolling instagram - not so much. So I stopped carrying my phone and put it on the other side of the room. I no longer put it on my bedside table either, I'd become a regular revenge procrastinator. It was bad. I would tell myself that my phone was essential because it was -also- my alarm. So I bought a dumb alarm clock. That's it. It doesn't do anything else.

That wasn't enough. I still found myself unlocking my phone regularly to "check the time" or "see what's new". On bad days, I was unlocking my phone more than 80 times a day. I needed to add friction.

So I did. I created a Tasker script. I'm not a programmer, so it's not fancy. But it works. Effectively it has a list of apps, and based on a random number generator, it automatically launches one of these upon unlocking the phone. The apps are all things that I want to do but probably wouldn't have opened if I was looking for an easy escape. They include things like Duolingo, Hellochinese, Anki, Kindle, Moonreader, and such.

Whenver anything launches, I have to spend at least 2-3 minutes engaged with it. Be it, reading or completing a language review. I haven't yet figured out a way to enforce this by code, so it's a soft-internal rule I follow.

I also added wecroak, for which I need to contemplate the quote for the time's duration. Similarly, I added my camera to the routine with the internal-rule that I must take a photo in the next 15 seconds. It addds to my cataloging of my life but also acts as a shield against furitive distractions.

Lastly, there's a time limit of 10 minutes. After which, tasker closes the current app and the system locks. It momentarily disables biometrics too (further increase friction), so I need to enter my pin.

I'd say this system (however barebones) has been working. I find myself reading more (opting for a book, or the kindle device instead of my phone's app).

I've also created a similar system for desktop/laptop use, but that's for another day.