'To stop wasting hours after work, I tried the one thing everyone talks about but never does.'

This article was originally published in the substack Down to Earth by Rose Stremick. It has been republished here with permission.

I'm back after a month offline.

It's with mixed feelings that I return to this online space of mine.

Here's what I've missed: the connection with each one of you — our inspiring conversations about slowing down, books we're reading, and stories of the latest adventures we've been on.

What I haven't missed: the feelings of not being good enough, not being active enough, not keeping up with the endless hamster wheel of the internet.

At the beginning of August, I decided to take a step back from my online life.

Watch: How to dumb down your phone to break social media addiction. Post continues below.

I wanted to reclaim my time, and to fill my days with the things I actually wanted to do. I wanted to remember what boredom felt like — and how it led to greater amounts of inspiration and creativity.

Instead of wasting hours after work switching between apps, I wanted my evenings to be a rotation of reading, painting, running and writing.

This was the challenge I wanted. I wanted to see if I could do it at all — or at least how long I could do it, and what would happen if I did.

And, so, one evening in late July, I just did it. No second thoughts, no what ifs, just a loose guideline of how I wanted my offline August to go.

Offline August: A cosy girl's guide.

Step 1: Delete your socials and any other non-essential apps.

How I did it: I deleted about half of the apps on my phone. Goodbye TikTok, Instagram, Substack, Facebook, and YouTube (and more)!

And for the ones I did keep, I hid them in the app library, rather than on my home screen/home dock.

Apps I kept: Email, Snapchat (I go on it once a day to chat with my friends), Pinterest (used only for inspiration), and then later, I caved and redownloaded YouTube.

Step 2: DIY your own dumb phone.

How I did it: I'd been seeing the Light Phone circling the internet, and I didn't want to spend the money to get one, so after a bit of research, I discovered I could DIY my own version of it on my own phone.

There's an app that I downloaded called 'dumb phone'. It allowed me to create shortcuts of seven essential apps (I chose Messages, Photos, Camera, Settings, Email, Maps, and Notes). It then prompted me to rearrange my home screen, to change my background and to remove any other app shortcuts/widgets that could be distracting.

I loved this app, but ultimately ended up removing it because the shortcuts no longer worked how they were supposed to after two weeks, and instead I was prompted to buy into their subscription every time I clicked something lol. Might be worth it for some people though!

My workaround: keep all apps in the app library and remove apps from the home dock.

I finally found time for painting. Image: Rose Stremick.

Step 3: Make your phone as boring as possible.

The goal is to get bored every time you pick it up. There's nothing left on there for you. It's all gone. It's boring.

It's pretty much like an iPod from 2013. You can text, write in the notes app, take photos, or scroll through older photos — but that's it!

How booooring. Let's go do something more fun like paint or read.

How to make your phone boring:

• Set 'do not disturb' schedules.

• Turn off notifications for 90 per cent of your apps.

• Make your background a plain colour.

• Remove widgets and all other things from your homepage.

• Turn your whole phone to greyscale (I didn't do that but I would bet it'd be effective).

Step 4: Fill your time with the other things you've always wanted to do.

Now that you have more free time, get creative about what you'd like to fill it with instead!

Grab some art supplies from the art store and get crafty. FaceTime friends, write letters, head to the library and check out books/magazines that inspire you. Learn a new skill.

How I did it:

• I got used to being bored. On days after work, I'd often just lie in bed beside my cat, staring at the ceiling, habitually reaching for my phone, and desperately thinking of what I should do with my time. After 15-20 minutes of this, the boredom would turn into inspiration, and I'd be up and ready to paint, knit, read, or go for a run.

• I went camping for a week.

• I finished four paintings.

• I learned to knit.

A painting by Rose Stremick. Image: Rose Stremick.

What I learned.

First, going offline helped me reorient my time and gave me perspective on what my priorities were. I realised how much time and energy I was wasting! And how much of this time and energy I could instead put into things I cared about.

There are platforms that bring joy, creativity, and inspiration, and platforms that bring anxiety, insecurity, and stress. Figure out which ones are which, and then go forward with that information. Maybe don't redownload the ones that don't make you feel good?

I want more of my life to be irl, not url. Analog, not automated. I want to print photos and put them into photo albums. To paint on canvas rather than Procreate (or at least make prints of what I've created on Procreate). I want to make art with my hands first and then share it online after.

And how I'm going forward.

• Weekends offline, always. No scrolling! I've learned that my boredom transforms to creativity if I give it time to simmer, rather than scroll it away.

• Create more than I consume. One of my biggest issues with the internet is scrolling for inspiration before I jump into a creative project. This does nothing for me except lead me into a spiral of comparison, perfectionism, and feelings of not being good enough. I'm over it.

• No phone until 8am. No checking notifications until I've had an hour to sit in silence and enjoy my hot cup of coffee, as slowly as possible.

• I'm allowed to scroll, but I've got to keep it short. 20 minutes, maybe?

Image: Rose Stremick.

But... I have to be honest.

My offline August was not perfect.

Actually, it was filled with many distractions and app redownloads.

I kept Pinterest on my phone for the whole month. I justified it because it left me more inspired than depleted after scrolling. Plus, towards the end of the month, I ended up redownloading YouTube onto my phone, and used it to watch YouTube Shorts — which, honestly, I found quite boring and would quit scrolling after about 20 minutes (sooo, a better alternative to TikTok, I thought).

I'm okay with this, though. Sure, I wasn't 100 per cent off the grid for the whole month, but I cut back a huge chunk of my screen time and filled my time with things that brought me joy.

Never once did I fall into the comparison spiral or push myself to the brink of burnout to create more content.

I took the month at my own pace, stayed mindful about how I was consuming media, and nurtured my creativity. And I call that a win.

To read more from Rose, find her Substack, Down to Earth, here.

Feature image: Rose Stremick.