Minimalism

I have been an active practitioner of minimalism for a long time. My minimalism journey began when a friend gifted me a book called Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism.

As someone who constantly made impulsive purchases in the past, this book opened the door for me to live a more mindful life. With fewer things to care about, both mentally and physically, I could focus on more important things, such as my family and my children.

But there is one thing that I keep failing to use less: the iPhone 😅

Since starting my career as an iOS developer many years ago, the iPhone has been a part of my life for over 10 years. Nowadays, the iPhone has become one of the most important physical items for me, and I believe, for many people as well. Smartphone addiction has become a real problem. I believe Apple has recognized this issue and has tried to address it.

I have tried many apps and methods to reduce my iPhone usage, but none of them have worked out for me. In the end, I either deleted them or turned off all screen time settings because I simply ignored or bypassed them.

As a minimalist practitioner, I believe the only weapon to fight this battle is our mind. Being mindful when using the iPhone is the only way to develop a long-lasting habit to avoid excessive usage.

Even Apple CEO Tim Cook has shared his mindful words of wisdom on how to avoid iPhone addiction:

“Every time you pick up the phone, it means you are taking your eyes off the person you are dealing with. If you are looking at your phone more than you are looking at someone’s eyes you are doing the wrong thing. Apple never wanted to maximise user time. We’ve never been about that. We don’t want people using their phones all the time. This has never been an objective for us.”

Minimalist Phone

I have had this idea for an app that can help remind us to use our iPhones mindfully for a very long time.

The idea is simple: whenever you look at your phone, the app will remind you of what’s important to you. It doesn’t prevent you from using the phone, though—you still decide how you use it.

I believe that with this reminder system, our minds will slowly be trained to develop a habit of mindful iPhone usage.

Build in Public

I plan to build this app in public. Feel free to follow me on X/Twitter as I’ll share my journey to develop this app using SwiftUI there. The app will be published in the the App Store when finished.

I have kickoffed working on this app this weekend. A simple landing page is created at this beautiful domain: https://minimalistph.one/

The initial version would simply show a custom message to remind you to use your phone less. This is the home screen of my iPhone now.

🧘🏻 No distraction, pure mindfulness 🧘🏻