Could you live without a smartphone? | Anastasia Dedyukhina | TEDxWandsworth

Anastasia Dedyukhina ditched her smartphone, together with her senior international career in digital marketing, when she realized how dependent she had become on the gadget. Today she acts as a business mentor, supporting ethical tech startups, and runs Consciously Digital, helping companies and individuals be more productive and less stressed in an age of digital distraction. In her talk, Anastasia will explain why we feel the uncontrollable urge to check our smartphones all the time and share the valuable lessons she learned and the tips that helped her find the balance between her online and offline life.

Anastasia is a frequent speaker at global Internet conferences on the topics of ethical tech and digital detox, as well as marketing in the age of digital distraction. She blogs for Huffington Post about digital detox and is currently finalizing her first book on the same subject. Anastasia was born in Russia, has lived in six different countries, and has an MBA from SDA Bocconi (Italy) and NYU Stern (USA), and a PhD from Moscow State University.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

This sculpture by Sophie Ryder
in the UK seat of Salisbury

had to be moved

because people busy texting
on their mobile phones

kept bumping their heads into it.

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

or maybe catch a Pokémon
while you're walking.

And who does that?

(Laughter)

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

Well, we check our devices
about 221 times per day

according to Tecmark,

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

What is going on?

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

The more Internet pages
you browse through,

the more advertising
an Internet company can show you,

and so the more money they make.

Their success metrics

are based around how much time
you spent using their app

or you were on their website,

not on how productive or focused you are.

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

I decided to give up my smartphone.

I replace it with a very basic
no Internet phone.

At the time,

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

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

I slept with my phone,

and I kept checking it all the time,

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

Giving up my smartphone

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

And today, I want to share with you

my key learnings from the journey

of taking back control
over my time and my life.

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

Given that we check our devices
about every 4.3 minutes,

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

three or four times during my talk.

So, I want to challenge you
to resist this urge

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

So, lesson No. 1.

You are more addicted
to your device than you think.

But you're also much more resourceful.

Now, why can't we go for 4 minutes
without our devices?

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

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

And this variability of the reward
releases dopamine,

the neurohormone of pleasure
and anticipation of the reward.

The problem with dopamine

is that excessive stimulation
of your brain

that is caused by dopamine
creates addiction.

This is exactly how drugs work.

The first makes you feel excited,

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

to have the same feeling.

Devices use the same principles.

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

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

Bam! Dopamine releases. You feel great!

But then the excitement
fades pretty quickly,

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

Technology is purposefully
designed the way

to make you use it over and over again.

We also feel dependent on our gadgets

because we have outsourced
too many important functions to them.

Has it happened to you
to go to Google maps

or any other kind of phoneline maps,

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

This is exactly what I mean,

we easily get into the habit
of not trusting ourselves.

Well, you know what?

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

There are maps all around,

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

before leaving the house,

and then I could always ask
people in the streets.

I realize that

I have outsourced to technology

too many things that were important to me

that made me human

like my sense of orientation and direction.

My memories of spaces and certain events

and it felt great to get them back.

All I wanted

when I was given up my smartphone

was to have a little bit more

clarity in my brain

and not to feel so overwhelmed

and what I unexpectedly gain

was the feeling that

I will find my way

No matter what

both physically and metaphorically.

And of course

a great chat up line

to make new connections.

Sorry, I don't have a smartphone

Could you please help?

Lesson number two

If you want to change your digital habits

Do not rely on your willpower.

Instead create structures around you

to support you in that.

Our brain is very lazy.

So, When we repeat a certain action

over and over again.

It's that's organizing

our brain cells urinates

into particular chains

so that it is easier

to pass the information

through this chains.

This makes your behavior automatic

and unconscious

and this is exactly what notifications do

the prompt you to come back

to your device over

and over and over again.

Up until your behavior

becomes automatic and unconscious.

According to Kahuna report

87% of android users

and 48% of iOS users

opt-in for receiving

app notifications on their devices

or in other words all these people

allow their devices

to decide how they will behave.

Once these chains are formed

it takes quite a long time

and effort to undo them.

And relying on the willpower

doesn't help.

I certainly learned it twice.

For the first time,

When it took me five months

from the decision of

giving up my smartphone

to actually doing it.

And for the second time,

When after about a year of not owning

any smartphone

I got one back.

Which I thought,

I would only use a spirit device

in case my laptop breakdown

and I need to talk to clients over Scott

and in no time,

I found myself using it all the time.

The URL path was still there.

Now, It felt incredible embarrassing,

because at the time

I was already conducting

digital detox trainings.

(laughts)

So, I obviously was not walking my talk

but, It also gave me great insides

into the real challenges

that people who do not want

to give up their devices, altogether face.

So, I developed 4 principles

that help me take control over my time

and my life.

And I want to share

this principles with you

These are :

Time management

Space management

Relationship management

and Self-management.

These principles help

restablished boundaries

that technology removed between our work

and private life.

Or between our public and private lives

So, let's talk about them

Time management,

We need to give up on the idea

that we have to be connected

or accessible 24/7.

Now of course developers

Will try to convince you

that everything is very important

The truth is

very few things are.

Remember what we said before

It is your attention

that is a real car city in

the information age.

It is a little bit like with food,

You can have all the food you may want

to have in your fridge

but this does not mean

that you need to eat all, all the time.

So, my top tip is to disable

all notifications

on your devices.

Use delate email function

to avoid being distracted by emails

and use blocking apps to make sure

that you're accessing certain websites

only at a certain time

and not being distracted by them

on other times.

This way you are in charge

of where you're getting information

as opposed to being dictated by technology

and to give an example,

Eric Schmidt,

Who is Executive Chairman of Alphabet

the googles company

switches off both of his smartphone's

on most evenings during dinner time.

And believe me, He's much busier guy

that most of us.

Also, do not multitask online

so did not switch between different tabs

or between different devices.

A Stanford experiment proves that

the more we multitask

the worse with the coveted.

We unlearn our brain to do that

but, you will still

likely get distracted it.

But, you can blend for it

so incorporate

five minutes of destruction time

every now and then

in your work routine.

But, only after you're done

with a chunk of work and as a reward only.

Again this way

you are taking back control over your time.

Space management,

is all about where

you want to have connected combination

and where you want to have silence.

Have you ever thought

Why the most expensive areas in the city

are usually the quietest once.

Why is it that in airport,

business launchers,

there is hardly any sound or music

or advertising?

Why silence valued so high?

Well, this is because it's only in silence

that our brain gets

an opportunity to process information

that we have been feeding into it.

We cannot take good conscious decisions

or be creative if we are overwhelmed.

And we are only always overwhelmed

when we go online,

because our brain

is not good at multitasking.

So, do not bring the devices

into the areas where you process

information where you have rest

this includes your bedroom,

your bathroom,

and your dining table.

Also, If you keep your phone

next to your bed

this puts your brain

into the state of alarm.

As a research by Harvard Medical School

and of course you will feel tempted

to check out the first

thing in the morning.

Now, It's like keeping a chocolate brownie

next to your bed,

of course you will eat it.

So, get an alarm clock

your device is just a tool

It is not part of you

You can´t carry around

your soror your hammer

you don't take them

to the bedroom, hopefully!

It's any to your devices

need their own places.

For example, I try not to carry

around my devices

and also remove them out of sight,

When I'm not using them.

This way I feel less tempted to check them

Relationship management,

When I was still working

for an advertising agency,

We had a client,

Who kept sending us

hundreds and hundreds emails daily

to make sure that we´re on

the trip with delivering the project.

In fact, It were his emails

that captains away from doing the work,

because all we return was

just reading and answering back.

So, We have built a dashboard

that allowed us

to show to the client the progress

we're making in real time

without any involvement.

It took us about an hour to do so

and in a week's time

the email rate dropped so considerably

that we were finally

able to get the work done.

We still don't have a digital advocate

as to how people can best contact you.

So, you can get

an equally important message.

Why what's up, skype, email you name it

the moral is you need to have

really manage people's expectations

as to how they can't contact you

For example, before I meet somebody

I asked them to send me a text message

If anything changes

Because, I don't have internet on my phone

and it works really well

what do you do however

If you work for a company

that expects you to be connected

and on top of everything for 24/7

Well, first things first,

stop contributing to this mess

by seeing seen everyone.

If you want to receive fewer emails

sent fewer emails

Second, you might want to mention

If you started to your colleagues and bosses

For example, a study

by Harvard Business School

that said that

consultants knowledge workers

who had predictable time off

for all the week perform much better

and were much more productive

than those who didn't

or you can quote

an example of a few companies

for example, one of...

the uk's leading multinationals

recently introduced

a two hour

per week email ban

for all senior management

in the interest of productivity

or a current German common affect your

does not allow sending or receiving emails

30 minutes after the employees

sheet has ended.

If this doesn't help,

then you can try to move

into a different country

like France and Brazil

where they have now

the so-called rights to disconnect laws

where that among other things

regulate whether the person has the right

not to read work-related emails

after the working hours

Self-management

is the last cornerstone

of changing your digital behavior

and the most tricky part

because it does not

how it doesn't work

if you prohibit yourself

from going online

because your brain still needs

an excitement of dopamine

so instead you need to be thinking about

where will you take this dopamine from?

what will you do

with all this free time

that all of a sudden you will have available

and this is where i want to share with you

my last key learning

and why i think I failed for so long

to give on my smartphone

I just did not want to deal

with my own problems

when you don't have

anything that distracts you

then you will have

to start dealing with stuff

you have been running away from

We often go online not because we need to

but because, we have

some uncontrollable trigger to do that

maybe we want to feel Important

or maybe we are depressed.

In fact, a study by Missouri University

of Science and Technology

says exactly that

that people

who spent a lot of time online

tend to be depressed

so the next time

you feel an urge

to check your device

ask yourself

What is really triggering me to do that?

Is there is something I'm trying to avoid

feeling or thinking about?

Once you get alive

and a natural source of dopamine

You wouldn´t need anything

to distract yourselves

from yourselves.

Thank you.

(applauses).