Ask HN: Have you ever gone without a computer or phone for an extended period?

Download every documentation you might need;

Delete every offline-capable time-waster from all your devices;

Remove your phone's SIM card (don't worry, you'll still be able to make emergency calls if such a need arises);

Unplug your internet router (and store it away somewhere inconvenient).

If you have to sync for any reason, go to a expensive coffee shop or the like that has WiFi and do your business there. You'll soon stop going so frequently because it'll hurt on the pocket.

Do you think if you were to do the same trip today (let's assume no covid nonsense) you would use the same balance of technology, or do you think that things have become much more integrated over the last decade?

It's really thrown into contrast the temptation of quickly flicking on a mobile phone or work laptop to check something. There's a mental geographic context as well — I have to go to a specific place to do a specific task, and it can't follow me round the house. It also makes the work / life boundary a little bit clearer.

It's a little inconvenient, but the whole point is to underline the trade-off of that convenience. A week in and I'm tangibly feeling the benefit.

To the original point, I'm parted from my computer for hours rather than days, but it still helps.

But in terms of ditching those things after getting used to them, it's only happened when my family went on overseas trips.

A problem for me is that the computer is not just a connection with the outside world, but has become a medium for thinking. Take away my Jupyter, and you've removed half of my brain.

But I've never used social media, so I have less to give up when I walk away from a screen. Unless this counts as social media, which it probably does in a sense.