Dear readers,
How are you?
I hope you've had a good summer and that, somewhere along the way, you found a little time to disconnect.
Maybe you travelled. Maybe you stayed home. Maybe you spent more time with the people you love. Or maybe you simply enjoyed a few slow afternoons and perhaps that's exactly what summer is for.
Because there's something special about summer.
The days stretch out.
Things feel a little less urgent.
And then suddenly, you find yourself in the last week of August without quite knowing how you got here.
I've been thinking about why summer feels so different.
And I think I've found an answer.
In summer, we put our phones down almost without realising it.
Not because we suddenly become more disciplined, but because we spend our time doing things that make our phones feel unnecessary.
- You get in the water and your phone stays on the towel.
- You sit around the table for three hours and nobody picks it up because there's food, wine and conversation.
- You go for a bike ride.
- You play with the kids at the beach.
- You go for a walk without checking the time.
The phone becomes less important.
Not because you consciously decided to disconnect, although I wish it were always that easy, but because life gave you something better to do.
And maybe that's why summer feels so much like rest.
The problem comes in September.
Routine returns, the beach disappears, long lunches get shorter.
And all those little gaps in the day come back: the commute, the waiting, the five minutes between meetings.
And suddenly, the phone is the first thing that comes to mind.
But I think we can learn something from what worked this summer.
Maybe it was never really about willpower.
Maybe it's about creating the right conditions.
Finding the things that, just like getting into the water, make your phone feel unnecessary.
- A book that completely absorbs you.
- An afternoon at the cinema.
- Meeting someone for dinner with no particular plan.
- Going to a museum on a Saturday morning, with nowhere else you need to be.
Yes, it takes a little more effort than summer does.
The water doesn't make it easy for us anymore.
We have to choose these moments a little more deliberately.
But the feeling can be the same, and that's what we're trying to do at Balance Phone.
We're very happy to be back to routine with you.
As always, we'd love to hear from you.