The bliss of not bringing your phone out with you

A blog post from my summer in London (2021)

I am growing increasingly annoyed with my phone. Yes, I have read atomic habits. Behaviour change is a powerful tool.

I decided to go for a run in north London. I brought a music player (early 2010s Ipod) with me and bluetooth earphones, and just ran. I thought if I got lost, at least it would be an adventure. Sure enough, I got lost.

I learnt two things that day. #1 Titanium by David Guetta is a good song to get running - starts off slow and by the time you get to the chorus you are ready to give it everything. #2 You forget you are in a bubble all the time. Getting disconnected was a breath of fresh air, I felt so untethered and free to think and do anything that interested me.

Looking around got me to think about the different suburbs in North London and to remember a map. Park benches are everywhere and many shops are easily accessible to the habitants of suburbs such as Finchley in Greater London. Having developments such as these are illegal in the US due to zoning. I suspect this is what gives American suburbia its distinctive feel. I am definitely doing more blog posts on cities as I find them fascinating!

The one downside to not bringing your phone with you is that if you get lost, you are really lost! This realisation only set in after I spent a while looking around a random church that caught the interest of my little brain. Alas, I had to retrace my steps but could not find the right turn to bring me back to the path I took. So I just took off due south.

After some more running, I asked some kind people for directions and headed home. Sometimes, we just need to inject that bit of randomness into our lives to see that the world is much bigger than we think.