One of my biggest mistakes that I keep repeating again and again is installing Slack on my phone.

For those of you who are not familiar, Slack is an instant message service in which you can create multiple workspace and within each workspace you can create channels in it. Think… Discord (if you are young, young at heart, or not have been living inside a cave like I am because when I first tried Discord I felt like I’m the coolest kid ever. Note: I’m not a kid. I guess.) Or, WhatsApp on steroid (as if that place is not weird enough with families WhatsApp groups and whatnots.)

Automattic is using Slack as its primary way to communicate/instant communication. For long-read format and announcements, we are using internal blogs (we called it “P2”.) These P2 blogs can be followed using WordPress’ Reader feature and emails.

I have WordPress app on my phone and on my iPad. With my phone, I even have two WordPress apps — one is the stable version, another one is the beta version (for testing purposes.) I also have my work email inbox on my phone.

But nothing beats the stress when Slack is there. Nothing.

I can ignore emails and Readers. Slack? No. It’s like that dopamine rush in early mornings. Funny to call it “dopamine” because the whole thing starting to accumulate and caused stress on my end. Slack is like caffeine for my FOMO, and knowing me, it never ends well.

I used to have Slack on my phone, then I installed it again because I thought I need it, then I uninstall it again because I found the whole thing causing stress, then I installed it again…

I just uninstalled that app for the umpteenth times last night. I found myself getting irritated easily. I also noticed myself unable to focus, constantly feeling overwhelmed, and uninspired (“why on Earth I have to do this ughhhh.”)

I’m also starting to make use of my iPad more. I have limited apps on my iPad because I use iPad mostly for drawing. The social media apps I have on this iPad are Youtube (not sure if Youtube a social media app or not,) and Pinterest. I do have work-related apps such as GitHub and and Zoom, but I rarely check them anyway.

Also, by using my iPad more, I can reduce my social media consumption. Facebook is too weird and Twitter is too angry. I haven’t got the opportunity to clean my other social media accounts too (Tumblr and the likes) so let’s see. I kinda miss those “Tumblr aesthetics”, you know? I’m not sure if it was ever a thing, but I remember “Tumblr aesthetics” with rainbow gradients, sparkles, bokeh pictures, and cozy-feelings. I don’t know if it’s still there. TikTok starting to consume my time in a really unhealthy and ridiculous manner so I’m planning to reduce that too.

These are the things I’m hoping to achieve with my iPad:

• Draw more,
• Read more, especially long-read format, articles, and blogs
• Watch more relaxing and feel-good entertainment on Youtube and Netflix

Another thing is, I’m “separating” myself from my phone in a physical sense. I used to put the phone next to me on my bedside table and it’s the, yes, you guessed it, first thing I reached every goddamn morning. I want to change that.