Why Am I Not Receiving Emails On My Iphone +picture
When bodies see my iPhone they’re like, “My God, man, do you accept some affectionate of crazy buzz virus?” It’s got no web browser. No email. No Twitter, no Instagram, no Facebook.
This column originally appeared on Medium.
It looks like this:
But no, the buzz isn’t broken. I absolutely did it on purpose. It was declared to be a one anniversary experiment, and now it’s been months, and I don’t appetite to go back. I’ll acquaint you why I sabotaged my iPhone’s functionality, stripping it bottomward to what’s basically a absolutely adorned affection phone, and I’ll additionally acquaint you how to do it yourself, in case you get analytical forth the way.
It’s appealing accessible to try, and in my opinion, it feels absolutely great. I affiance not to get all preachy. Well, affiance is a big word. I’ll try, okay? Absolutely this is added about me and the glitches in my own brain. I anticipate best bodies can handle it. But for whatever reason, I don’t assume to accept the abstemiousness for a full-fledged avant-garde smartphone.
iPhones and Androids are wonderful. They’re amazing. It’s absolute advice in the approach of your hand! But here’s the thing: I don’t accept what you’d alarm the world’s greatest absorption span. It’s demography aggregate I’ve got appropriate now to accumulate accounting this and not cast accessible a new tab and analysis my email. Accepting the adeptness to analysis email–and a bajillion added things–any time at all, not aloof aback I’m sitting at a computer attractive at a web browser… I started to doubtable it was not such a abundant affair for me.
Maybe you can handle that temptation. Maybe you’ve got willpower. That’s abundant for you, but for me, discipline abandoned didn’t cut it. Blockage email, blockage Twitter, blockage news. Wondering if article absorbing was accident anywhere in the world. Wondering if anybody was cerebration about me. It started demography abroad my acknowledgment of what was activity on appropriate then, in the absolute world. Aback I got apathetic for aloof a moment I’d booty the buzz out. And anniversary time I was basically saying, “Gee, annihilation is bigger than this.”
I acquainted like my absorption span–not so abundant to alpha with – was accepting worse. My arch was affectionate of active about all the time. And for what? The things I apprehend on the buzz tended to accomplish me feel at best aghast (because there’s consistently added advice out there that I haven’t seen) and at affliction bootless and uncool.
Okay, maybe that was hardly preachy. My bad.
I absitively to try an experiment, aloof for seven days. I absitively to about-face off aggregate that I doubtable was giving me this awful buzzy-brain feeling. But what should I cut?
Here’s addition affair about me: I don’t advance the best alluring life. Of the aftermost 100 times I’ve eaten banquet from a restaurant, apparently 97 of those were the aforementioned takeout burrito from the aforementioned burrito place. It’s one block from my apartment. Boring, right?
So assumption how I feel aback I see your adorned aliment photos on Instagram? Assumption how I feel about your SXSW tweets aback I’m alteration diapers? Okay, I wasn’t absolutely blockage Twitter while alteration diapers–I’m not alike abiding that’s physically possible, or if it is, you’ve got way bigger childhood address than I do. Send me some pointers. But you see what I mean. This isn’t a atypical idea. Some bodies don’t feel so abundant aback they apprehend amusing streams. Added clear bodies than I accept accounting about this subject. 'Nuff said.
So I apprenticed the Twitter figure until all the icons started to jiggle, and I uninstalled Twitter and Instagram and Facebook. The iPhone warned me that deleting these apps would additionally annul all their data. Was I sure? God, was I? Those apps are absolutely cool. I hesitated. But what the heck, I figured. I could consistently reinstall them in 15 abnormal if I afflicted my mind. It wouldn’t annihilate me to re-enter my annual info.
Then, boom. Aggregate with a beck was gone.
The abutting accessible botheration was email. Blockage my email reminded me of all these tasks I had to do, but I’ve never been fast abundant at accounting on a buzz to compose a appropriate acknowledgment (as you can see, already I get started, I affectionate of go on and on). Aback I arrested mail on my phone, I became acquainted of actuality I had to do, but didn’t act on it. It aloof sat there, not accepting done.
Mounting bags of amateurish tasks were not advocacy my self-esteem any added than photos of adorned dinners I wouldn’t get to try for 16 years. And the alone affair worse than annual an email you can’t do annihilation about? Not accepting any new email at all. Because that, absolutely clearly, agency that I am a loser.
Disabling email on an iPhone took a little added work. I uninstalled my Gmail app, but the banal Mail app was still sitting there, appetizing me, and the iPhone won’t let you uninstall it. So I went into Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Gmail > and I deleted the account. It was adamantine to cut email–my feel was afraid aback I apprenticed that red “delete” button”–but already I did, I was on a roll.
Then I accomplished that the best absolute allurement of all was… the internet itself. I mean, you apperceive how it is. It’s the internet. You accept to be a little adroit to attenuate the internet on your iPhone, but you can do it. I was motivated. I poked around. I poked about some more.
Finally I went into Settings > General > Restrictions and I angry restrictions on. I set up a passcode. And afresh there it was. A agglomeration of nuclear options to use on bodies you don’t trust. I am a actuality I don’t trust. I angry Safari off.
How adamantine were those seven days? You can apparently assumption area this is headed: Not as adamantine as I had expected. I didn’t alike apprehension aback I hit day seven, because I was already admiring my new butterfingers iPhone. I still foolishly accomplished for it aback I got briefly bored–in actuality I still do, months later. But afterwards an absolute accumulation of anything, I aloof put it aback in my pocket.
Being apathetic angry out to be, well, array of pleasant. Some of the apathetic moments are absolutely appealing sweet, like actuality at the amphitheater with my adolescent son. If you don’t accept kids of your own, the honest accuracy is that blind out at the amphitheater can get cool boring, and I don’t begrudge anyone blockage their phone. But sometimes I’m animated I can’t, because I can aloof watch him bearcat about in the sand, or I can beam off into space. It’s affectionate of nice.
And benumbed on the bus or the train, I don’t accept annihilation to read, so I aloof get to beam at the added passengers. Fascinating! It’s additionally the alone time I get to accept to music afterwards aggravating to do article abroad at the aforementioned time, which is appealing enjoyable.
Astute readers will agenda that all of the things I did to attenuate my buzz can be calmly undone. You can reinstall apps, you can set your annual up again, you can conciliate restrictions. Things appear up area I accept to use the web, or I accept to analysis an email. Surprisingly, accept to situations don’t absolutely appear up all that often, at atomic not for me. I assumption that’s how I was able to survive for so continued afore smartphones were invented.
When article analytical does appear up, like I charge a flight acceptance cipher or a buzz cardinal active in an email, I re-enable the all-important app and use it. Because the re-enabling takes some effort, I don’t bother accomplishing it if I’m aloof bored. It’s like BJ Fogg’s hot trigger/cold activate stuff. I’ve angry those apps into algid triggers, so I accept to be cool motivated to use them. Aback I’m done, I attenuate the app again. Because I adore the distraction-free buzz so much, it’s consistently a relief.
Okay, I wrote this on column Medium, so you apparently ample out I’m a tech nerd. I adulation all of the actuality I’ve been accusatory about. I’m abnormally one of the aftermost bodies who should be dissing email. I adulation email, and in fact, I acclimated to assignment on Gmail. On my laptop, I apprehend Twitter and email and the annual in abundant the aforementioned distraction-provoking address declared above. Maybe I’ll eventually appear up with an agreement for that, but I haven’t yet.
Some bodies accept asked why I alike accumulate the iPhone. Maybe anytime I’ll accord it up altogether, but I absolutely don’t anticipate so. There’s so abundant I adulation about it. I accept to music on it all the time. The camera is amazing. Google Maps, location-based reminders, the acclimate forecast, Acquisition Accompany to clue bottomward my family, Uber… all these things accomplish me feel like I’m active in the future. In a acceptable way. It’s not that I don’t adore the iPhone, it’s aloof that I alone appetite bisected of it.
Full disclosure: I haven’t had abundant luck acceptable bodies to do this. My accompany mostly anticipate it’s aloof weird. My wife says disabling email is not for her, although she does acknowledge that I’m added alert aback watching afterwards our children.
I do anticipate it alone takes a day to acquisition out if you feel bigger distraction-free. So if you’re on the fence appropriate now, accord it a shot. Attenuate those apps. Afterwards all, you can consistently disengage it.
The distraction-free iPhone | Medium
Jake Knapp is a architecture accomplice at Google Ventures. Follow him on Twitter @jakek.
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