This is the first step that I took on my journey of using a phone in a more mindful way. 

I noticed that email notifications just make me nervous about something that I can be nervous about later. 

Like, I would be outside walking my dog and suddenly I'm reading an email that I cannot do shit about and instead of dealing with my dog's shit, now all I can think about is this dogshit of an email, that I cannot even reply to (sorry, not sorry for the puns)

I don't think that I've typed more than 10 emails on my phone in my entire life. For me, there's not an email that's so urgent that it cannot wait until I get access to a computer. 

Because I got into a routine of checking email once per day while I'm using a computer, I also live with a (mostly) empty inbox. When I go through my emails I always take an action: reply, archive, or delete.

No email notifications

This is one of the hardest challenges that I'm still facing daily. 

I strengthened this habit once before, but I started telling myself that if the content I'm consuming is "smart", it's totally fine that I don't walk in silence. 

But it's absolutely not fine. The brain needs time to think, dammit!

I walk my dog early in the morning, and usually I was listening to an audiobook or a podcast, thinking that I'm *reaaaaally* productive. Look at all of these plebs walking outside without headphones, while I'm learning about how much elk does Joe Rogan consume at 2x speed.

While listening, I noticed that I would drift off every once in a while because my brain needed time to think. Thoughts would suddenly be louder than the audio, and I would have to rewind while trying to keep my focus. Usually I wouldn't retain most of the information because my brain wanted peace and silence and instead of that I gave it the Tim Ferris Ultimate Productivity Bath Routine (that's probably a thing, idk)

I knew that consuming content that early in the morning is harmful in the long run, but I just couldn't leave my phone at home because I was afraid of being bored and alone with my thoughts. 

Every morning was like a wrestling match between the audio and my brain trying to plan the day, finalize some ideas, analyze past conversations and behaviors, have a minor anxiety attack about the thing I said out loud at that party in 2012, try to understand why there was a period in time when people were eating Tide pods, etc. etc. 

I don't think that I've completely mastered this habit yet, but for the past month or so I've been walking my dog in silence for 20 to 30 minutes, and it's getting easier to leave my home without a phone every day. 

I like that I also pay more attention to my dog. What a hilarious creature! I'm walking him 2-3 times per day for the past 5 years and I still can't get enough of his shenanigans. I'm entertained by the way he walks, sniffs, and thinks about everything around him, he's an absolute goofball!

I'll even catch myself thinking about ordinary things that I was too busy to notice like "Wow, that sunrise is beautiful" and "I'm so grateful that we have snow" and of course, the douchebag part of my brain kicks in like "Jeez Nicholas Sparks, how about instead of the corny thoughts we put on a tape so we can learn more about the startup life? ENTERTAIN ME!"

There's a time and place for audiobooks and podcasts, but I want to have at least one silent walk where I don't consume content at all. 

Walk in silence

iOS is absolutely *the worst* when it comes to managing notifications. 

It's like the iOS notification center was built by developers who *never* got a notification in their life so they were like "LGTM, the clock looks pretty with that wallpaper so ship it, add a //TODO and we'll fix it later". 

Blows my mind how bad it is. What also blows my mind is that most people keep *all* of their notifications on, including the ones that someone liked their photo or a tweet. How the fuck is that urgent information?

I realized that if I don't disable most of the notifications in iOS, I won't be able to use my phone as a utility device. 

I'm not sure how this magical process happens, but a simple notification about the air pollution can end up with an ultra focused research on the downfall of Britney's career.

Oh, you wanted to be focused for a second? Cute! How about your screen turning on to tell you the super urgent and important information that the price of Dogecoin has dropped by a *whopping* 0.0035%. OH NO, MY SAVINGS !!!!11

"Uhm, Kitze, haven't you heard of Do Not Disturb or keeping your phone away from you when you want to be focused?" - people who don't use DND or put their phone away

You have to be *ruthless* when it comes to disabling notifications. Anything that doesn't deserve your immediate attention needs to be turned off. And when you think about it, that's most notifications.

To clarify, when I say **most** notifications, I *really* mean it. You don't need 99% of them. It took me a while to get where I am now.

The only notifications I get nowadays are from:  
- My girlfriend who lives with me (and who rarely texts me anything except "music is too loud", "lunch is ready", and "I'm having an affair", all other contacts are muted)
- My bank (in/out transactions) 
- My todo/reminders/calendar apps  
- Home automation notifications (reacting to a water leak immediately might be a *tad* more effective than checking it during a "Check home for leaks" calendar event)

For this to work, I have to check certain apps manually, but that can be only a few times per day or week (depending on the app), and it can be done when *I* decide so, on my own time, instead of the phone pulling me in a rabbit hole 100 times per day. 

P.S Pizza Hut developers, if you're reading this, and probably you are, WHY THE FUCK DO I NEED ANY REMINDER NOTIFICATIONS FROM YOUR GODDAMN APP. I can be a responsible adult and consistently destroy my health with a quattro formaggi *myself*, thank you very much!

### A note about Android
Android phones have great built-in settings and third-party apps for managing notifications. 

If you're an Android user, and you actually care about these types of apps, it might make sense to keep some of the notifications on.

For example, there was a useful app (can't remember the name for the life of me) that pauses most of your notifications and delivers them in bulk a few times in the day, so you don't constantly check your phone on every ding. 

Sadly, most Android users never bother to explore the powerful third-party apps that are not available on iOS, because the main reason they got an Android is "fuck Apple, I'm not a sheep so why would I want a stable, smooth, constantly updated, and privacy-oriented OS" 🤷‍♂️️

Disable most notifications

### What?

Fasting is the willful refrainment from eating. In a physiological context, fasting may refer to the metabo-
Jesus Flippin Christ Wikipedia how hard it is to say "not shoving food in your face constantly"?

### Why did I start?
My journey with fasting started in 2018. At the time, I just wanted to lose some weight and I didn't really care about any of the other benefits that come with fasting. And it was one of most goddamn effective methods for losing weight (more on this later).

I'm not gonna lie, it was a really hard at first, especially for someone who was used to shoving food in their mouth *immediately* after waking up. And I mean, **immediately**. Ok what text formatting effect should I use to tell you what I mean by ***IMMEDIATELY***.

I M M E D I A -

Ok, you got it. 

I spent most of my life eating breakfast during the first 15 minutes of the day. Why? 
Most people do it this way, I guess? *shrug*

Wake up -> Immediately shove heavy carbs in body -> Step on scale -> Pikachu face -> Feel tired and crappy and the day hasn't even started -> Heeey it's lunch time -> I need a snack -> Fml I'd kill for some sweets -> Did somebody say dinner? YES SIRRR -> Midnight sweets? SIGN ME UP -> Go to sleep -> Wake up -> Repeat.

Worst. Cycle. Ever.

My mom was always amazed by our breakfast habits and she couldn't understand how can we eat that early.

However, her breakfast was usually black coffee and a cigarette (to her credit, she quit a looong time ago), so it was not the best example to follow for a 5yr old.

"Ma, I'm skipping breakfast but I cannot find a goddamn lighter in this house" - 5 y.o me in a parallel universe

### It runs in the family
When me and my sister were sleeping over at my grandma's place, she would get up super early and watch like a hawk. If any of us made the *slightest* movement, and I mean the **slightest** movement, the S L I G H - (ok let's not do this again) if you made the slightest movement she was like:

- GOT YA! You're waking up. Time for breakfast motherfucker!!! *throws 3 eggs in a pan with a ninja move*  
- But grandma, I haven't even brushed my teeth or read the latest stock market new-  
- You're awake. Time for breakfast. End of story.  

> Clarification: My grandma never called me a motherfucker. It would be so cool if she did, tho.

What was I saying? Ah yes. Changing my eating habits after 25 years of eating super early in the morning was *really* hard at first. Now, after my metabolism got used to it, I cannot even imagine to eat early in the morning and the feeling of "lightness" is amazing. My fasts easily extend beyond 16hrs (usually from 18 to 20hrs). 

I recently did a 24h fast and I didn't even think about food (but it took me ~3 years to get here)

### What can you consume during a fast?

- Water
- Coffee
- Tea 

No additives, no honey, no sugar, no milk. 

Maybe fasting can help you to start drinking *actual* black coffee instead of that StarbucksFrappucinnoMarhsmallowChocolateHoneySyrupDoughThing that's literally a cake. 

That's it. And it's so great. I got so used to this that I cannot even imagine putting food in my mouth for the first 4 hours of the day.

### The benefits
- Less wasted time on cooking (because you're always skipping one meal: breakfast or dinner)
- You have only 8 hours to eat during the day (so you cannot shove that many things in)
- If you eat very late, you cannot eat very early, so you start planning things and you're not saying yes to anything that resembles food at any time of the day
- After 16 hours, the body starts "eating itself" (Autophagy) so weight loss is one of the benefits
- Yes, you can workout and you'll be 100% fine. I've done 5K and 10K runs, swimming, weight lifting, the Insanity workout program, and a bunch of other workouts without a problem.

### Losing weight
Fasting can be a double-edged sword when it comes to weight loss. When I started fasting I was just looking at the clock and as soon as the fasting was done, I would devour as much food as possible. It took me a long time to adjust to the fact that I don't have to eat *everything* in those 8 hours when I'm not fasting.

### I dOnT nEeD aN aPp fOr fAsTiNg
I rated the strength of this habit an 8 instead of a 10, even though I'm doing this regularly for more than 3 years. Why? Because I screwed it up a couple of times when I decided to freestyle instead of using an app.

Whenever I have convinced myself that I'm doing so good and I don't need an app anymore, I would start messing up and saying things like:
- Eh, I can eat half an hour earlier…
- Do I *really* need to fast at least 16 hours? 
- Today is Sunday, which means fasting is cancelled!
- *furiously googling to find opinions of how fasting will literally ruin your life and steal your pet turtle*

Now I'm back to using [Zero](https://www.zerofasting.com/) and hopefully I won't uninstall it again. 

As soon as I finish my last meal I start a fast from my watch as soon as possible. I keep a complication (apple's dumb term for a widget) on my watchface so I can see the progress all the time.

If I fast without using an app I can just push around the start and end time of the fast depending on how I feel, which misses the point of fasting. 

Fasting taught me a lot about discipline and commitment. 

When I get a temptation to eat but I have **already started a fast**, it's totally different. I can glance at my watch and remember that I *committed* to it to this and there's no going back. 

Fasting

In January of 2020 I was walking my dog Benji with my fiancée. 

We always enjoy our conversations during his evening walk, and we're admiring how chill is the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood that we lived in then was amazing when it came to peacefulness. No tension, no disturbance, not a single threat. Nothing was actually happening... EVER. 

We were even joking that it's actually TOO peaceful because NOTHING ever happened there, it felt like cheating life. Like we found this hidden place where we can feel safe and completely relaxed.  

We often talked about how grateful we are that we can just walk our dog in peace and nothing serious is happening in our lives. There are no threats. Everyone that we love is healthy and alive. We have stable income, and everything is going great. What can go wrong?

From time to time during our we asked ourselves "can you imagine if all of this is taken from us one day? Like even this simple walk that we're enjoying. Imagine that we cannot do it anymore. Is that even possible?"

Now, you might think what I'm saying is bullshit, and it sounds like a setup for the next part of the article, but we actually had this one discussion so many times. However, we never took it that seriously because deep down we were assured that everything we have in life is a guarantee, and we couldn't even imagine what would disturb that peace.

Then I saw a video from Wuhan on Reddit. A bunch of people screaming on their balconies because they are locking them in their homes. What is going on? It was horrifying. Like something out of a movie. I showed her the video and she said "wow, I cannot imagine something like this happening in our area". We keep scrolling through all of these disasters in the world thinking that we're untouchable and we'll never be affected by anything. We're safe, right? 

Welp. It happened. 

A few weeks later we were in quarantine. We took the pandemic super seriously (AS ONE SHOULD WITH A GODDAMN PANDEMIC THAT WOULD'VE BEEN DONE BY KNOW IF YOU ACTUALLY LISTENED AND GOT THE GODDAMN VACC-, nvm, let's not go there)

We almost never left the apartment in the beginning. Our walk had to be shortened and restricted. We had to wear masks everywhere, even outside. We started crossing the street when another human was coming our way.

WELL OF COURSE WE DID BECAUSE THE MASK GOES *A B O V E* THE NO- nvm, nvm, let's continue. 

We couldn't do our restaurant dates, or go to the movies, or basically live normally. It felt like the world collapsed in an instant. It felt crushing. We lost our precious walk. We lost the feeling of peace.

Most people couldn't deal with this. They *demanded* to get their parties, restaurants, and lives back. I didn't resist at all. I immediately started accepting the idea that mother earth can just decide that we're absolutely *fucked* at any given moment. We can protest all day, but there's nothing that we can do about it.

We don't want to believe that things can be taken away from us. We take everything that we're enjoying right now for granted, every single day. I'm talking about the basic things: our limbs, eyesight, hearing, the fact that we were lucky enough to be born at a location that's not torn by war. 

We don't give a shit about any of this. The LIMBS? The WiFi SUCKS! My phone is slow, doing dishes is annoying, my instagram photos are not instagrammy enough, my TikTok of my *unique* dance moves doesn't have enough views, uuuughhh guyysss being an adult is sooo haaaard.

Boo hoo. Go read Anne Frank's diary. 

I tried the "Anne Frank House VR" for 10 minutes before ripping my headset off and hugging my coffee table while thanking it for its existence. It's horrifying to imagine living life like that.

However, despite her *horrible* situation, anytime she had access to the window she would admire a tree in front of the house. She would say that nature is beautiful and life is amazing.

WHAT. 

HOW???

LOCK ME ANYWHERE FOR EVEN A FEW HOURS AND I'LL SAY FUCK THAT PARTICULAR TREE AND FUCK ALL THE OTHER TREES IN THE WORLD.

WE HAVE POCKET COMPUTERS THAT ARE CONNECTED TO *EVERYTHING*
WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY UNLIMITED SOURCES OF ENTERTAINMENT AND PEOPLE STILL SAY "UGHHH GUIISEEE I'M BOOORED"
WE CAN WATCH PEOPLE FALLING FROM STAIRS OF MILK CRATES *FOR FUN* FFS

HOW ARE WE NOT HAPPY WITH ANYTHING?!?!??!?

How do we go from our bullshit ways to Anne Frank's level of appreciating life? It's really hard, but it's possible.

The solution is practicing gratitude every day. Even for a few minutes. 

I started doing a "5 min gratitude journal" at the beginning of this year and it's amazing. 
3 minutes in the morning, 2 minutes at night.

The things that I'm writing in it sound mostly silly, but those are the things that we need to be happy about. 

- My parents are still alive. 
- I fixed something with my dad
- Benji made me laugh during a walk
- Had a great chat with the team today
- Played board games with a friend
- etc.

*takes a shower after publicly sharing this cringe*

Practicing gratefulness and writing these things down sounds cheesy, but I'm not taking anything for granted anymore. 

Appreciate the normalcy. The privilege that we have. The fact that you can go for a walk with no disturbance. Appreciate the health of your family. Appreciate that your pet is still around (actually go pet it right now because it's probably bored while you're reading this article) 

11 years ago, my grandpa wanted to spend more time with me. I didn't understand why, so of course I chose to spend my time on MSN and Counter Strike instead. 

It was *soul-crushing* when my parents told me that he died of lung cancer and he didn't want to concern me. I would give everything that I have right now to go and spend even a moment with him. 

Appreciate your grandparents being around.

Appreciate if you had a normal day and nothing bad happened. 

That is an AMAZING day!


Better

No email notifications

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Walk in silence

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Disable most notifications

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Fasting

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Practicing gratitude

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