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This sculpture by Sophie Ryder
in the UK seat of Salisbury

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had to be moved

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because people busy texting
on their mobile phones

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kept bumping their heads into it.

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Does it happen to you to text, phone,
check your Facebook timeline

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or maybe catch a Pokémon
while you're walking?

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And who does that?

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(Laughter)

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How many of these times
do you actually have to go on line?

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Well, we check our devices
about 221 times per day

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according to Tecmark,

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or about every 4.3 minutes
of the time we don't sleep.

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What is going on?

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Well, we live in the economy
that is based on distraction.

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The more Internet pages
you browse through,

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the more advertising
an Internet company can show you,

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and so the more money they make.

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Their success metrics

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are based around how much time
you spent using their app

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or you were on their website,

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not on how productive or focused you are.

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Two years ago,
around the same time of the year,

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I decided to give up my smartphone,

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and replace it with a very basic
no Internet phone.

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At the time,

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I was working in a senior position
in digital marketing industry,

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which means that I was connected
pretty much 24/7.

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I slept with my phone,

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and I kept checking it all the time,

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and even felt it vibrating in my pockets
when I didn't have any pockets.

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Giving up my smartphone

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was one of the best decisions
that I have ever made.

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And today, I want to share with you

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my key learnings from the journey

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of taking back control
over my time and my life.

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But, before we do that,
I want to give you a little challenge.

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Given that we check our devices
about every 4.3 minutes,

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this means that you will feel
an urge to check your device

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three or four times during my talk.

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So, I want to challenge you
to resist this urge

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and count how many times
you will succeed in doing that.

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So, lesson No. 1.

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You are more addicted
to your device than you think.

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But you're also much more resourceful.

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Now, why can't we go for 5 minutes
without our devices?

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A US psychologist, David Greenfield, says
the Internet is like a slot machine:

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you never know
what you're going to find inside.

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And this variability of the reward
releases dopamine,

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the neurohormone of pleasure
and anticipation of the reward.

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The problem with dopamine

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is that excessive stimulation
of your brain

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that is caused by dopamine
creates addiction.

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This is exactly how drugs work.

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They first make you feel excited,

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but then you have to go back
and take a new dose,

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to have the same feeling.

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Devices use the same principles.

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You never know what you're going to expect
in your mailbox or on social media, right?

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One day you get a "Like"
and then the next day 50 "Likes".

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Bam! Dopamine releases. You feel great!

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But then the excitement
fades pretty quickly,

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and you need to go back
to your device to feel good again.

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Technology is purposefully designed

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the way to make you use it
over and over again.

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We also feel dependent on our gadgets

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because we have outsourced
too many important functions to them.

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Has it happened to you
to go to Google maps

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or any other kind of online maps,

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and look up your way even though
you kind of knew how to get there?

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This is exactly what I mean,

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we easily get into the habit
of not trusting ourselves.

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Well, you know what?

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I discovered it's not actually
very easy to get lost in London.

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There are maps all around,

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and all I needed to do
was to look up my way once

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before leaving the house,

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and then I could always ask
people in the streets.

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I realize that I have
outsourced to technology

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too many things that were important to me,
that made me human,

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like my sense
of orientation and direction,

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my memories of spaces and certain events,

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and it felt great to gain them back.

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All I wanted, when I was
giving up my smartphone,

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was to have a little bit
more clarity in my brain

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and not to feel so overwhelmed.

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What I unexpectedly gain

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is the feeling that I will find
my way no matter what

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both physically and metaphorically,

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and, of course, a great chat up line
to make new connections.

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"Sorry, I don't have a smartphone,
could you please help?"

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Lesson No. 2.

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If you want to change your digital habits,
do not rely on your willpower.

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Instead, create structures around you
to support you in that.

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Our brain is very lazy.

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So when we repeat a certain action
over and over again,

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it starts organizing
our brain cells, neurons,

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into particular chains

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so that it is easier to pass
the information through those chains.

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This makes our behaviour
automatic and unconscious.

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And this is exactly what notifications do.

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They prompt you to come back
to your device

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over and over and over again,

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up until your behaviour
becomes automatic and unconscious.

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According to Kahuna report,

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87% of Android users and 48% of iOS users

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opt in for receiving
app notifications on their devices,

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or, in other words, all these people

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allow their devices
to decide how they will behave.

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Once these chains are formed,

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it takes quite a long time
and effort to undo them,

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and relying on your willpower
doesn't help.

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I certainly learned it twice.

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The first time,
when it took me five months

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from the decision of giving up
my smartphone to actually doing it.

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The second time,

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when after about a year
of not owning any smartphone

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I got one back,

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which, I thought, I would only use
as a spare device

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in case my laptop breaks down
and I need to talk to clients over Skype.

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In no time, I found myself
using it all the time.

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The neural path was still there.

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Now, it felt incredibly embarrassing,

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because at the time I was already
conducting digital detox trainings.

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(Laughter)

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I obviously was not walking my talk,

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but it also gave me great insights
into the real challenges

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that people who do not want
to give up their devices altogether face.

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So I developed four principles

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that help me take back control
over my time and my life,

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and I want to share
those principles with you.

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These are:

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time management, space management,

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relationship management

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and self-management.

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These principles help
reestablish the boundaries

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that technology removes
between our work and private life,

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or between our public and private lives.

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So, let's talk about them.

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Time management.

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We need to give up on the idea

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that we have to be
connected or accessible 24/7.

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Now, of course, developers
will try to convince you

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that everything is very important.

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The truth is very few things are.

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Remember what we said before.

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It is your attention

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that is a real scarcity
in the information age.

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It is a little bit like with food.

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You can have all the food
you may want to have in your fridge,

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but this does not mean
that you need to eat it all, all the time.

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So my top tip is to disable
all notifications on your devices,

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use delayed email function
to avoid being distracted by emails,

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and use blocking apps to make sure
that you're accessing certain websites

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only at a certain time

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and not being distracted
by them at other times.

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This way, you are in charge
of where you're getting information,

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as opposed to being
dictated by technology.

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To give an example,

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Eric Schmidt,

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who is Executive Chairman of Alphabet,
the Google company,

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switches off both of his smartphones
on most evenings during dinner time.

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And, believe me, he's a much
busier guy than most of us.

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Also, do not multitask online.

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So, do not switch between different tabs
or between different devices.

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A Stanford experiment proves

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that the more we multitask,
the worse we become at it,

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we unlearn our brain to do that.

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Well, you will still likely
get distracted,

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but you can plan for it.

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So incorporate five minutes
of distraction time every now and then

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in your work routine,

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but only after you're done
with a chunk of work and as a reward only.

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Again, this way, you are taking back
control over your time.

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Space management

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is all about where you want
to have connection,

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and where you want to have silence.

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Have you ever thought

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why the most expensive areas in the city
are usually the quietest ones?

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Why is it that,
in airport business lounges,

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there is hardly any sound
or music or advertising?

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Why is silence valued so highly?

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Well, this is because it's only in silence
that our brain gets an opportunity

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to process information
that we have been feeding into it.

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We cannot take good conscious decisions

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or be creative

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if we are overwhelmed.

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And we are always overwhelmed
when we go online,

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because our brain
is not good at multitasking.

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So, do not bring the devices

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into the areas
where you process information,

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where you have rest.

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This includes your bedroom,
your bathroom, and your dining table.

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Also, if you keep your phone
next to your bed

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this puts your brain
into the state of alarm.

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as [shown by] research
by Harvard Medical School.

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And, of course, you will feel tempted
to check it first thing in the morning.

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It's like keeping a chocolate brownie
next to your bed;

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of course you will eat it.

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So, get an alarm clock.

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Your device is just a tool.

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it is not part of you.

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You can carry around
your saw or your hammer,

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you don't take them
to the bedroom - hopefully!

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Like any tool, your devices
need their own places.

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For example, I try not
to carry around my devices,

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and also remove them out of sight
when I'm not using them.

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This way I feel less tempted
to check them.

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Relationship management.

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When I was still working
for an advertising agency,

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we had a client who kept sending us
hundreds and hundreds of emails daily

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to make sure that we're on track
delivering the project.

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In fact, it was his emails
that kept us away from doing the work,

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because all we were doing
was just reading and answering them.

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So, we built a dashboard

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that allowed us to show to the client

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the progress we're making in real time
without any involvement.

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It took us about an hour to do so,

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and, in a week's time,

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the email rate dropped so considerably

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that we were finally able
to get the work done.

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We still don't have a digital etiquette
as to how people can best contact you,

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so you can get
an equally important message

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via WhatsApp, Skype, email, you name it.

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The moral is you need to heavily manage
people's expectations

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as to how they can contact you.

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For example, before I meet somebody,

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I ask them to send me a text message
if anything changes.

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Because I don't have Internet
on my phone.

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And it works really well.

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What do you do, however,
if you work for a company

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that expects you to be connected
and on top of everything for 24/7?

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Well, first things first,

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stop contributing to this mess
by cc'ing everyone.

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If you want to receive fewer emails,
send fewer emails.

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Second, you might want to mention

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a few statistics
to your colleagues and bosses.

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For example, a study
by Harvard Business School

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that said that consultants,
knowledge workers,

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who had predictable time off
throughout the week

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performed much better
and were much more productive

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than those who didn't.

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Or you can quote an example
of a few companies.

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For example, one of the UK's
leading multinationals

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recently introduced
a two-hour-per-week email ban

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for all senior management

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in the interest of productivity.

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Or a current German car manufacturer
does not allow sending or receiving emails

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30 minutes after the employee's
shift has ended.

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If this doesn't help,

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then you can try moving
to a different country,

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like France and Brazil

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where they have now
the so-called rights to disconnect laws,

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that, among other things, regulate

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whether the person has the right
not to read work-related emails

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after the working hours.

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Self-management is the last cornerstone
of changing your digital behaviour,

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and the most tricky part,

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because it does not help, it doesn't work,

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if you prohibit yourself
from going online.

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Because your brain still needs
the excitement of dopamine.

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So, instead, you need to be thinking about
where you will take this dopamine from?

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What will you do with all this free time

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that all of a sudden
you will have available?

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And this is where I want to share with you
my last key learning,

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and why I think I failed for so long
to give on my smartphone.

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I just did not want to deal
with my own problems.

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When you don't have
anything that distracts you,

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then you will have
to start dealing with the stuff

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you have been running away from.

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We often go online not because we need to,

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but because we have
some internal trigger to do that.

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Maybe we want to feel Important,

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or maybe we are depressed.

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In fact, a study by Missouri University
of Science and Technology

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says exactly that,

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that people who spent a lot of time online
tend to be depressed.

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So, the next time you feel
an urge to check your device,

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ask yourself:

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What is really triggering me to do that?

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Is there is something I'm trying
to avoid feeling or thinking about?

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Once you get a life,
and a natural source of dopamine,

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you won't need anything
to distract yourselves from yourselves.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)