In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel reports on the work of Angus Campbell, a psychologist who studied what makes people happy.

Campbell wrote, “Having a strong sense of controlling one’s life is a more dependable predictor of positive feelings of wellbeing than any of the objective conditions of life we have considered.”

Housel summed it up: “Control over doing what you want, when you want to, with the people you want to, is the broadest lifestyle variable that makes people happy.” (This is from chapter 7 of his book, by the way, if you’d like to check it out.)

I’m not sure why, but when I read this, I immediately thought not of the pressure to make money or follow through with obligations to which I commit myself. I thought about my phone—specifically, the extent to which my phone steals my ability to control my life.

I had become very accustomed to checking three apps anytime I had some downtime, was bored, or just wanted a diversion. The three apps are:

1. Email
2. Facebook
3. Twitter

For some reason, after reading Housel’s bit on happiness, and without thinking about it much, I removed these three apps from my phone.

It took less than a minute to do this, and the results have been revolutionary in my life.

Photo by George Kedenburg III on Unsplash

What do I mean? I’d like to use this blog post to chronicle some of what I’ve learned both to cement these learnings in my own consciousness and to share them in case they might be helpful to others.

Slower Pace

Life seems less hectic. If my “hectic meter” was at 8 before, it’s now at 2. It’s so strange to say this, but life seems to move at a slower pace. This is absolutely astounding to me.

At first, I used the word “disruptive” to describe the effect of removing these apps. It was jarring. But over the course of two weeks I started using the word “revolutionary,” a much more positive word.

This development is due, I think, to the fact that a change like this involves both loss and gain. I think I had to go through the loss of these apps to get to the unfathomable benefits on the other side.

More of My Time

I have more control over my time. One significant area where I’ve noticed this is in the morning.

I like to spend the morning writing, reading, and meditating. But often these apps would hijack my morning ritual. I’d get caught up in app land, then look at my watch and realize, “Oh shoot, I need to get ready for my first appointment!” and I’d have to rush off without doing what I actually wanted to do. Without these apps, I find myself sticking to my ritual with much less difficulty.

It’s not just mornings that have improved. In the first few days after deleting these apps, I had several moments where, when I would normally pick up my phone and engage with one or more of these apps for who knows how long, instead I picked up my phone, looked at it, and then set it back down. Honestly I felt a little defeated, sad even.

I recall thinking, “There’s not much for me to do on that thing.” I might check the weather or do the Wordle for that day, but that was about all I could think to do. That’s what led to another pivotal development.

Thinking My Thoughts, Feeling My Feelings

Without something to do on my phone, I was left to think my own thoughts and feel my own feelings. What I realized is that for years my phone acted as a smokescreen for my thoughts and feelings—a diversion from myself, essentially.

Now I have no choice but to actually think some things! One time I recognized feeling tired, so I took a 25-minute nap—a nap that would not have happened otherwise. I would have spent at least 25 minutes scrolling, fretting, whatevering.

Not a Bed of Roses

My addiction to these apps continues, of course. It was only a few days after removing my email app that I realized I could access it via my Chrome browser app. But it’s pretty clunky and involves another step or two, so at least to this point it hasn’t been nearly as consuming as the app was. I’ve thought about removing the Chrome app too; I haven’t yet.

Two more lessons.

In Praise of Books

I’m reminded of the life-changing power of books. All of what I described above took place because of Morgan Housel’s book. I doubt Housel wrote it with the intention of helping people remove apps from their phones, but I bet he’d be glad to hear it.

Anyway, my point is just that books change lives. Books change the world. Yay for books!

Try Stuff

Finally, this experience reminds me that when it comes to living well, it’s important to try stuff. I’m still astonished that this world-shattering experience was the result of actions that took me less than a minute to do. I mean, isn’t that unbelievable!? And it has me wondering: “Good Lord, what else can I try?” or “What else would take not much time to try?”

Do I hope that people reading this article will remove apps from their phone? Well, sure, if it would help them. But my journey is not your journey, and I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to prescribe what you need to do in your life.

What I do hope is that maybe this piece will inspire you to try something—something slightly crazy, even—to improve your life. If someone were to write to me after reading this and tell me about something they tried that improved their happiness, that would be wonderful.

Question: Recalling that one of the most reliable determinants of happiness is control over your life, is there something you want to try? You can leave a comment by clicking here.