On Mondays, we ditch the phones.

Make a little room for Monday.

You’ll have the best chance of success with a little bit of preparation.

Identify what, if any, phone use you might need, who needs to know about your plans, and how people can reach you urgently.

Then make a few arrangements: try analogue alternatives, set app blockers, or check whether your smartwatch can handle essential tasks while the phone stays out of reach.

Below are practical ways to make it work.

Out of sight!

The aim is a whole day without using or checking your phone. But the plan belongs to you, shape it how you need to.

Give your phone somewhere to spend the day, out of sight. Keep it in a room you don’t use as much or in a drawer. The truly devoted may opt to leave it at home for the day, but if the thought fills you with panic, don’t take it that far. The idea is to keep it out of reach so those little auto-pilot moments that add up throughout the day are minimized.

Keep the emergency contact calls, accessibility tools, caring arrangements, work, and essential travel you need. Set it up so crucial messages are loud enough to hear from another room and mute everything else. Decide what can wait. And tell whomever needs to know ahead of time so they’re prepared when you take the phone “off the hook” and disappear for a while.

If you can only manage a block of the day, instead of the whole day, that still counts! No one is handing out brownie points for being the best at Mobile Free Mondays (except maybe the perfectionist in you).

Missed a Monday? No worries, there's another one next week.

Add to iCalAdd to Google

On a phone? Copy the Google link and paste it into your browser (like Chrome or Safari), rather than letting the Google Calendar app open it.

Copy the Google link

Personal plan

A few arrangements beforehand.

Remember, no one is grading you. Try out different approaches, if it doesn’t work it’s not a moral failing. Aim for a perfect phone-free day or a modified version; if just a morning, afternoon, or evening is more achievable, start there.

Deciding to use your phone less is a start. If the first attempt doesn’t stick, adjust and carry on.

Set yourself up for success with these tips.

Some handy tips.

1. 1
   Think ahead. Walk through your Monday. Does your phone wake you up, hold your train ticket, or keep you in touch with someone who needs you? Work out what needs to stay and what can take the day off.
2. 2
   Do a little detective work. Before your first Monday, spend a day noticing what you use your phone for. Separate the essentials from the habit-checking, and look for things another tool could do.
3. 3
   Give your hands something else to do. Reach for your phone with your morning coffee? Between tasks? Put a newspaper, crossword, or notebook within reach instead.
4. 4
   Set yourself up on Sunday. Set the alarm clock, sort your travel ticket, and check that essential calls can get through. Monday morning isn’t the moment to discover your plan needs a plan.
5. 5
   Keep what works. Found you prefer a book on the train or breakfast without the scrolling? There’s no need to save it for Mondays. Take the useful bits into the rest of your week.

What can be analogue?

We’ve already mentioned giving an old school alarm clock a go…

Here are a few more you can swap out for analogue alternatives.

• Calls

  A landline, if you have one. Give the number to anyone who may need you.

• Notes and reminders

  A pocket notebook and pen for shopping lists, things to do, and thoughts.

• News and reading

  Read a book, newspaper, or magazine.

• Photos

  You can pick up a disposable camera or get polaroid cameras now for fairly cheap.

• Music and listening

  A radio, a walkman, ipod, or a CD or record player. For podcasts, check whether you can listen on a separate player.

• Write a letter

  Got something to say? What if you wrote a letter instead? It doesn’t have to be a memoir, try leaving notes or doodles for housemates.

• Dates and plans

  A wall calendar, paper diary, or pocket planner can work. Copy across the appointments and details you’ll need for Monday.

• Payments

  Use your debit card instead of your phone’s wallet. Or even experiment with cold hard cash.

Can’t go full analogue? There are still digital alternatives that are less addictive than your phone. Set up Alexa to play music on a schedule, use your smartwatch for contactless payments, your Kindle for reading, try a digital calendar, or rely on your desktop computer for scheduling and planning.

Keep the essentials working.

You should be able to come away from a Monday having spent less time (or no time!) scrolling, casually browsing, shopping, playing games, refreshing the news, or checking messages simply because there’s a gap.

Work can make putting the phone away more complicated. Harvard Law School’s Sharon Block points out how technology has blurred the boundary between work and personal time. Disconnecting isn’t always something an individual can decide to do on their own.^⁠[1]

If your job needs you on the phone, keep that in the plan. Agree with colleagues or your manager when you need to be reachable, which tools you need, and what can wait. You don’t have to vanish from the working day to take part.

If you need your phone for part of Monday, give the other apps the day off. Start with the controls already on your phone: Screen Time on iPhone or Digital Wellbeing on Android.

For a little more help leaving them alone, try an app blocker. Some add a pause before an app opens; others block selected apps for a set period. Choose what suits, and check that the calls, alerts, and tools you need still work before Monday.

Check out some of these apps or tools, if you think they will help. You can usually schedule restrictions to repeat each week.

• Freedom

  Allows you to block specific apps and custom website lists simultaneously across iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows. It features a "Lockdown Mode" that prevents you from editing your blocklists mid-session if you try to cheat your own rules.

• AppBlock

  You can automate your blocks based on specific times, your GPS location, or even when you connect to your work Wi-Fi. Its "Strict Mode" makes it incredibly difficult to bypass or uninstall the app while a session is active.

• Opal

  Unlike basic timers, Opal can completely sever your access to distracting apps. Its "Deep Focus" mode cannot be cancelled early, providing a true software lockout.

• one sec

  Instead of blocking an app completely, it forces you to take a deep breath for a few seconds before the app opens. This intentional friction breaks the subconscious loop of tapping on social media out of boredom.

• Brick

  This is a physical, plastic square that stays on your desk or fridge. You open the app, choose up to 50 apps to block, and tap your phone to the Brick. The apps remain completely greyed out and inaccessible until you physically walk back and tap the Brick again to remove the block.

• Appstinence

  A Gen Z-led movement and student organization founded at Harvard by graduate student Gabriela Nguyen that encourages people to completely step away from social media, smartphones, and addictive tech.

Give your phone a home.

Ever picked up your phone before you’ve decided what you wanted it for? Seeing it can be a cue to check it.

In a study with university students, researchers compared an hour of studying with phones visible on the desk against phones tucked into a bag or pocket. Those with phones in sight made more brief checks and spent longer on them. It’s a small study, but it gives us a practical reason to keep the phone out of sight.^⁠[2]

Removing the visual reminder is more effective than asking yourself to simply resist. Try somewhere beyond an absent-minded reach: a drawer, another room, or zipped up tight in your bag.

Having to get up to fetch it gives you a moment to ask, “What did I want it for?”

Giving your phone a special place to spend Mondays means you don’t have to keep deciding whether to pick it up every time you see it.

If you’ve set your phone so only essential calls and alerts can get through mute or Do Not Disturb, test those settings before Monday. Ask one of your chosen contacts to call, and check you can hear the phone from wherever you’ve put it. Out of sight shouldn’t necessarily mean out of earshot. Keep it charged, with the ringer loud enough to reach you.

If you choose a timed lock box, sort out urgent contact and access to any health or safety tools before setting the timer.

Every Monday · #MobileFreeMondays

Make a personal commitment to try Mobile Free Mondays. No donation, petition, or proof required. Make the pledge.

A campaign by The Dead Good Club

Who’s taking part?

Just one quick look?

Tempted to look at your phone? If it can wait, jot it down and finish what you were doing. Try a few minutes before checking: have a drink of water, stretch your legs, take a breath, or chat with somebody nearby. Then see whether you still want to look.

If your hands are looking for something to do, a pencil, a puzzle, some knitting, or something to fiddle with might suit. You can also leave a spare moment unfilled. Look out a window and take in your surroundings. Give your thoughts a chance to go somewhere the algorithm hasn’t suggested.

Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist, makes a case for giving yourself the chance to be bored. With endless entertainment sitting in our pockets, he argues, we hardly ever let ourselves get there. His advice? Let yourself get properly bored to stimulate creativity.

Filmmaker David Lynch believed the same and advocated for under-stimulation, daydreaming, and intentional routine to foster creativity. In his book Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, he used fishing as a metaphor for finding ideas and allowing the mind the quiet space it needs. This is how to catch those ‘fish’.

Think of it as leaving a little room for your imagination. Let a half-formed idea wander about without immediately looking something up. Perhaps you’ll think of something to make, a different way around a problem, or a gloriously daft question. Follow whatever catches your interest.

And if Monday has other ideas?

Perhaps work got hectic or you picked up the phone and stayed on it longer than you meant to. That’s okay!

There will always be another Monday to try again.