PDF Summary:Unplug, by Richard Simon

Do you feel like you spend too much time on your smartphone? Does it seem like no matter how hard you try to break away from it, you keep coming back? You’re not alone. In Unplug (2025), journalist and digital strategist Richard Simon explains that this problem plagues countless people and reveals how to get past it. He argues that breaking up with your phone requires radical action—complete detachment from your smartphone. Detachment feels uncomfortable at first but pays dividends by helping you build a more peaceful, fulfilling life.

In this guide, we’ll explore Simon’s ideas in two parts. First, we’ll discuss why you need to detach from your smartphone, explaining why you use your smartphone too much, the problems that result from doing so, and the benefits of breaking that habit. Then, we’ll discuss how to detach from your smartphone in four concrete steps. Throughout, we’ll add context about smartphone addiction from other experts and explore alternative routes toward healthier technology use.

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Purposelessness Versus Productivity

Simon says that by making you more distractible, your smartphone also stops you from making progress toward greater work-related and personal pursuits. Because your phone—and your impulse to check it—constantly interrupt you, you never achieve what author Cal Newport calls “deep work” in his book of the same name. Newport defines deep work as focused work on a task that pushes your cognitive abilities to their limit—a stretch that allows you to hone your skills and make progress toward your goals.

When your phone prevents you from working deeply, Simon explains, it keeps you stuck in a state of purposelessness; you’re too distracted by trivial notifications and tasks (like answering nonurgent texts) to build momentum toward meaningful achievements. Newport focuses on how this affects your career, but Simon says it also gets in the way of your hobbies. Say your hobby is whittling—to shape a block of wood into something recognizable, you need time and steady concentration. But if you interrupt yourself every few minutes to check your phone, you lose the meditative rhythm that makes whittling fruitful and fun. Instead of watching the form gradually emerge in your hands, you find yourself disappointedly staring at half-finished scraps.

Simon’s interviewees reported that detaching from their smartphones helped them move from a state of purposelessness into an era of greater productivity. They advanced in their careers, and they took up and mastered new hobbies that brought them a greater sense of fulfillment. Simon adds that most of his interviewees’ new hobbies were hands-on, nature-based activities, like beekeeping, that engaged their senses in ways smartphones never could. These activities allowed them to feel textures, notice colors, hear natural sounds, and smell the outdoors—all experiences that created a heightened sense of presence and satisfaction.

Deep Work and Flow

Newport says deep work is necessary because it’s more fulfilling than what he calls “shallow” or unfocused, surface-level work. Shallow tasks—like responding to routine emails, scrolling social media, or juggling minor chores—give the illusion of productivity but rarely produce lasting results or a sense of accomplishment. In contrast, deep work allows you to create something meaningful and generates a sense of progress and satisfaction that shallow activity can’t match.

Further, Newport clarifies, deep work is fulfilling because it creates what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow.” In his book Flow, Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as a mental state in which you become fully absorbed in an activity, losing track of time and self-consciousness. In flow, you have the skills to meet challenges, allowing you to perform at your best while experiencing intrinsic enjoyment. This combination of focus, skill, and reward makes deep work deeply satisfying.

Csikszentmihalyi argues that flow can be found nearly anywhere: in your relationships, at work, in your studies, and in leisure activities like yoga, cooking, and sex. Like Simon, Csikszentmihalyi emphasizes the immersive value of hands-on, nature-based activities; these activities engage your senses, require focus, and provide immediate feedback, making it easier to enter a state of flow. This helps explain why Simon’s interviewees found activities like beekeeping so satisfying—and research affirms that beekeeping induces a state of flow, among other benefits.

Overwhelm Versus Calm

The final drawback of smartphone overuse that Simon explores is the sense of overwhelm you feel because you’re constantly connected to other people. This constant connectivity is one of the smartphone’s main selling points—you can get in touch with anybody at any time, which we appreciate in case of emergencies or urgent work communications. But Simon argues that we overvalue constant connectivity—emergencies are rare, and for most people, work-related issues rarely require a truly immediate response. Still, you feel pressure to always be available and to respond instantly when someone contacts you. This leaves you feeling mentally exhausted, anxious, and perpetually behind.

Detaching from your smartphone helps you restore your sense of calm by making life feel less demanding. If someone truly needs to get in touch with you, they’ll find another way—for example, by showing up to your house to inform you of a family emergency. In the meantime, you enjoy a more peaceful day-to-day existence without constant intrusions from the outside world. You can also pace your information intake in a way that empowers you rather than stressing you out. Simon explains that he detached from his phone during the Covid-19 pandemic, choosing to read a daily newspaper instead of constantly checking real-time updates online. This helped him stay aware of important developments without becoming overwhelmed.

Smartphones and the Illusion of Urgency

Smartphones are invaluable when emergencies happen; people found ways to communicate urgent messages before cell phones were invented, but these systems were often slower and relayed messages with less precision. In contrast, your smartphone allows you to call or even text emergency services and receive immediate help, no matter where you are. In dire situations, this capability can mean the difference between life or death.

But smartphones also make it easy to blur the line between true emergencies and everyday notifications, creating an illusion of urgency that pressures you to respond instantly to nearly everything. Business experts note that false urgency is endemic to the modern workplace: Tools like email, Slack, and text messaging foster a culture of constant availability, where every ping feels mission-critical—even when the message could easily wait.

False urgency may define other parts of your life, like your relationships with friends and family. A friend’s text about weekend plans or the meme your partner shared can feel like it demands an immediate reply—because smartphones collapse the boundary between urgent and casual communication. If you don’t respond right away, you may worry that you’re being rude, inattentive, or even damaging the relationship. Over time, this pressure to always be “on call” can create anxiety, prevent genuine rest, and ironically make your interactions feel more transactional than meaningful.

Finally, as Simon observes, false urgency may compel you to always stay on top of the news, refreshing headlines and scrolling social media feeds as though every update demands your immediate attention. But most news stories don’t require real-time monitoring, and consuming them this way often amplifies stress without increasing understanding. As Simon suggests, this harms your mental health: During the pandemic, more news exposure translated to worse mental health, and in general, studies find that excessive news consumption is linked to higher anxiety, anger, hopelessness, and depression.

Part 2: How to Detach From Your Smartphone

Now that you know why you should detach from your smartphone, let’s talk about how to do so effectively: According to Simon, you have to stop using it entirely for at least two months. This may seem radical, but psychiatrist and addiction expert Anna Lembke says it’s necessary. In Dopamine Nation, Lembke explains that abstinence helps reset your brain’s dopamine system (the same system that, according to Simon, compels you to use your phone too much). If you try to modify your behavior without this total reset—for example, by setting limits on how long you use your phone each day—you’ll fail. This is because if you keep feeding your brain the dopamine that comes from looking at your phone, it’ll never get over its craving for more dopamine.

(Shortform note: Lembke writes that it only takes two to four weeks to reset your dopamine system, and other experts say it can take up to three months. Since everyone’s brain is different, the exact length of time varies—but the principle is the same: You need a substantial break from the addictive stimulus to reestablish balance. However, some experts disagree with the idea that you have to stop using your phone entirely to detach from it. For example, some argue that you can simply set time limits that prevent you from overindulging—so, you might only use your phone for 30 minutes a day. Some studies also suggest that abstaining from social media is enough to significantly reduce your smartphone dependency.)

Simon explains that going two months without your smartphone isn’t easy—you might suffer some psychological discomfort and even physical withdrawal symptoms as you adjust. But you can overcome these challenges and successfully detach from your phone by following four straightforward steps; let’s explore those now.

Step 1: Get Ready to Detach

Before you stop using your smartphone, consider how doing so will affect your life and the lives of people around you. Specifically, Simon recommends clarifying what you hope to get out of the experience and planning for any practical challenges you might face.

Clarify Your Goals

Your goals are the things you hope to achieve by detaching from your smartphone. Simon recommends thinking about these in terms of activities you’d like to spend more of your time on. Write out a list of activities that covers as many aspects of your life as possible—for example, you might have artistic goals like finishing a long-abandoned painting and fitness goals like trying a new sport, learning goals like mastering a new coding language, and social goals like reconnecting with a friend you haven’t seen in months. This ensures that you have plenty of options to choose from when you feel tempted to go back to your phone.

Set Goals With an Experimental Mindset

In Tiny Experiments, neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff argues that traditional goal-setting advice sets you up for failure. You’re supposed to decide what you want, make a plan to get it, and execute that plan with discipline and determination—but during that process, you often find that the goals you settled on don’t actually match your evolving interests or circumstances. This mismatch can leave you unmotivated, stuck, or guilty for not following through. So, instead of overcommitting to specific goals, Le Cunff recommends running “tiny experiments,” or small-scale, purposeful commitments that help you explore possibilities by taking on minimal risk while still gaining meaningful insight.

This approach to goal-setting may be especially valuable when trying to kick your smartphone dependency—since detaching requires radically transforming your life, you may not yet know what kinds of screen-free activities will feel fulfilling. By experimenting—say, trying an art class for a week, spending afternoons at the library, or testing out a new workout—you can discover which activities genuinely sustain your interest and provide natural rewards. Over time, these experiments can evolve into long-term habits that make it easier to maintain your distance from your phone.

Simon also urges you to focus on screen-free activities rather than screen-dependent activities as you create your list of goals. Because the point of detaching from your smartphone is to reset your dopamine system, you need to prioritize activities that provide natural, sustained rewards rather than quick, digital hits of dopamine. (Shortform note: When trying to reset their dopamine systems, some people take abstinence to an extreme. For example, they might avoid not only digital devices but also food, exercise, and pleasurable interactions with friends. Experts say this extreme form of abstinence is both unhealthy and ineffective—it doesn’t actually have an effect on your brain’s dopamine system.)

Plan for Practical Challenges

Once you have an idea of what you want to achieve by detaching from your phone, start strategizing how to manage practical challenges. Simon explains that planning ahead reduces anxiety and prevents surprises that might lead you to use your phone again. For example, say you usually use an app to check public transit schedules. If you find a replacement method ahead of time—like a printed schedule or a website you can access from your computer—you can avoid the urge to reach for your phone the next time you plan a daytrip.

Communication is the most important practical challenge to address. Simon says that since you’re the one making a change and doing something out of the ordinary, the onus is on you to proactively communicate your plan to friends, family, and colleagues. Let them know when you plan to stop using your phone, how long your break will last, how they can schedule a meet-up or phone call, and the best ways to reach you for urgent matters and emergencies. Clear communication reduces misunderstandings, prevents frustration, and ensures that detaching from your smartphone doesn’t unintentionally disrupt your relationships or responsibilities.

Think of Your Life as a System

Applying systems thinking to your life can help you strategize around daily challenges like navigation and communication without your smartphone. Systems thinking is a way of understanding how different parts of a system interact, focusing on the relationships between elements rather than each element in isolation.

To understand your life as a system, Donella Meadows (Thinking in Systems) recommends observing how it works and drawing a diagram of it. For example, you might map out your daily routines, noting where you rely on your phone for transportation, social coordination, reminders, or information gathering. Then, plan alternative solutions so your day can function smoothly without constant smartphone use, and consider how these changes would affect each part of your system. Meadows recommends planning around complications such as delays and disrupted information flows:

Delays: Notice whether going without your smartphone introduces new delays or shortens existing ones. For example, your bathroom breaks might become shorter since you’re not scrolling. How will that affect the rest of your day?

Information flows: To make good daily decisions, you need access to the right information at the right time. Not using a smartphone can disrupt this—for example, you might not know about a road closure your city announces on social media. How will you deal with having less immediate access to information?

If your friends, family, or coworkers are reluctant to accept the changes you’re proposing, Simon recommends sharing the goals you clarified earlier—explaining your motivations for detaching can help you win others’ buy-in and support. Having their support is important because when they understand your goals, they’re more likely to respect your boundaries, offer encouragement, and avoid unintentionally pulling you back into constant phone use.

(Shortform note: If you need to persuade someone to support you, try to create a sense of connection. In Pre-Suasion, Robert Cialdini argues that people are more likely to go along with your ideas if they feel connected to you. There are two ways to create a sense of connection: First, you can bond over a shared identity—for example, you might point out that you both value family time or productivity, which makes your goal of reducing phone use relatable. Second, you can highlight shared experiences—like times you’ve supported each other in the past, or the increase in quality time you’ll share in the future without your smartphone distracting you.)

Step 2: Detach From Your Smartphone

Simon explains that once you’ve planned adequately, you can start your two-month break from your smartphone. He recommends doing this in one of two ways:

First, you can simply power off your smartphone for the duration of your break. This means you’ll be completely reliant on alternative tools for communication, information gathering, and whatever else you used your smartphone for in the past. For example, you might install a landline phone and buy a pedometer to count your daily steps. The benefit of this approach is that your smartphone is still there if you need it to do something urgent, like call an ambulance during a medical emergency. But Simon warns against using your smartphone for conveniences, like ordering takeout because you forgot to thaw tonight’s dinner. Doing so undermines the purpose of your break.

Your second option is to switch to a “dumbphone,” a minimalistic mobile phone that allows you to call, text, and perform other basic tasks like setting alarms. Dumbphones lack the features that make smartphones so addictive, like apps, and they’re not as intuitive or pleasant to use as a smartphone. Their screens are smaller and simpler, their physical keypads are harder to use than digital keyboards, and their hardware doesn’t support complex apps or constant communication. So, they’re far less likely to hijack your attention. The friction keeps you from reaching for your phone out of habit and helps you reserve it for true communication needs. As a result, you’ll naturally be less attached to it than you are to your smartphone.

Option Three: Digital Minimalism

The two options Simon offers—powering off your smartphone or switching to a dumbphone—may not be realistic for everyone. You may rely on your smartphone for something essential that there’s no suitable substitute for, like a co-parenting app a judge has ordered you to use, or a live translation app you need to navigate daily life in a country where you don’t speak the language. If totally detaching from your smartphone doesn’t seem feasible, there’s an alternative—what Cal Newport calls “digital minimalism.”

In his book Digital Minimalism, Newport argues that technology is a useful tool, but their addictive designs rob you of your autonomy to decide how and how much to use them. To reclaim that autonomy, you need only embrace digital minimalism: a philosophy centered around eliminating digital clutter, optimizing your technology use to support your values and priorities, and taking control of your digital habits.

Rather than totally detaching from your smartphone for two months, Newport advises a 30-day digital declutter: First, decide which technologies are optional and ban them from your life. “Optional” technology is any app, website, or digital tool that you can ignore for a month without wrecking your life. Once you’ve identified these technologies, the next step is to spend 30 days without them. Like Simon, Newport recommends filling this time with more meaningful activities (like the list of goals we discussed earlier). Finally, after 30 days, reflect on your experience—decide whether any of the technologies you banned are worth reintroducing and, if so, what limits to set on your use of them.

Whichever route you choose, Simon suggests that it’s helpful to find a quit buddy—someone who will give up their smartphone at the same time as you. Having a partner in the process makes the challenge feel less isolating and more motivating. Because you’ll each understand what the other is going through, you can vent and strategize about challenges and celebrate successes together. You can also spend time together in person—time you’d have spent separately on your phones before—which will help satisfy your need for connection in ways your smartphone never could. These benefits make it more likely that both of you will stay committed to detaching from your devices.

(Shortform note: What if no one you know wants to quit with you? It may sound counterproductive since the point is to get away from the digital world, but you may be able to find support online. Many online communities are devoted to helping people detach from technology that’s worsening their lives, like Internet and Technology Addicts Anonymous, Media Addicts Anonymous, and Reddit forums dedicated to digital minimalism, mindful internet use, and dumbphones. These spaces offer accountability, encouragement, and practical tips for detachment—Simon would only caution you to use them mindfully and not too often.)

Step 3: Find Your New Normal

Simon writes that after spending two months without their smartphones, most people never go back. Instead they tend to stick with whichever option they chose in Step 2, prolonging their detachment from their smartphones indefinitely. But others find reintroducing smartphones to their lives a necessity. Let’s explore Simon’s tips for navigating each of these options.

Option 1: Never Use Your Smartphone Again

Simon says there’s a good reason never to use your smartphone again after detaching from it: You might become addicted to it all over again. When people struggling with substance addiction re-encounter the substances they’re addicted to after a period of sobriety, it can catalyze physical processes that reignite cravings and quickly undo years of progress. Researchers haven’t studied whether this is true of smartphone addiction, but Simon recommends exercising caution anyway. He also notes that one of his interviewees completely regressed into smartphone addiction after detaching for over five years, suggesting that the device’s allure is so strong that even long-term abstinence may not guarantee lasting freedom.

Deciding never to use your smartphone again is a safe way to avoid becoming re-addicted to it. But without your smartphone, you lose access to several tools that make everyday life easier and more enjoyable. To cope with this, Simon recommends investing in alternative devices that don’t have the same addictive pull.

For example, if you miss using your smartphone to listen to music, he recommends buying an MP3 player or another dedicated music device. These might feel more cumbersome to use, but this can make your listening experience more enjoyable. You won’t constantly have music that you’re barely paying attention to playing in the background as you go about your day anymore. Instead, your listening experience will transform from one that’s passive and absent-minded into one that’s active and intentional. You’ll set time aside to choose the music you want to listen to and savor it as it plays, without other distractions competing for your attention.

How Long-Term Abstinence Can Enhance Your Life

Simon warns that if you decide to use your smartphone again, you might become re-addicted to it. In Irresistible, Adam Alter refers to this as a relapse and explains why relapses happen: They’re driven by memory. When you find pleasure and emotional comfort in something, your brain forms strong, positive, subconscious memories of that thing. Those memories don’t disappear when you stop using the object of your addiction (in this case, your smartphone). Instead, they remain dormant until something reminds you of them—for example, you start using your smartphone again, play the mobile game you used to love, and get sucked back into the addictive cycle you worked so hard to break in Step 2.

For these reasons, traditional addiction recovery programs recommend lifelong abstinence from the object of addiction, whether that’s alcohol, cannabis, gambling, or your smartphone. When abstinence is the goal, experts recommend finding healthier ways to recapture the pleasure your object of addiction used to bring you—much like Simon recommends finding alternative devices that can replace your smartphone’s utility. For example, an alcoholic who misses the social aspect of drinking might visit a sober bar, and you might replace your music app with an MP3 player.

Simon notes that switching to an MP3 player doesn’t just help you avoid re-addiction, but also enhances the pleasure you take in music. In I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explains why this is: Paying attention to music as you listen to it helps you appreciate it better, since you notice how elements like melody, rhythm, harmony, and different instruments interact together. Paying attention can also activate the Default Mode Network (DMN), brain regions associated with mind-wandering and self-reflection. With the DMN engaged, your mind drifts to personal memories and emotions evoked by the music, helping you form deeper, more meaningful associations with what you’re hearing.

Option 2: Use Your Smartphone Less Often

Simon observes that never using your smartphone again doesn’t work for everyone. Special circumstances might make re-adopting your smartphone necessary—for example, if you have a disability like blindness, you might rely on accessibility apps like Be My Eyes to help you navigate the world safely. If you find that you need a smartphone after your initial detachment period ends, use strategies that allow you to get what you need from it without slipping back into compulsive use. Here are a few strategies that worked for Simon’s interviewees:

• One person kept their phone on silent, setting time aside once each day to respond to messages. That way, they weren’t constantly distracted by notifications.
• Another person created multiple focused home screens so they could focus on one task at a time without being distracted by other apps. For example, all their shopping apps were on one home screen; all their social media and messaging apps were on another.
• A third person was issued a smartphone for work and left it at their workplace when they weren’t using it. This allowed them to maintain clear boundaries between their work and their personal life.

Temperance Is a Virtue

Although traditional addiction recovery programs recommend complete abstinence, some research indicates that moderation is a viable path to recovery. In the context of smartphone dependency, moderation means using your smartphone less—for example, by checking it only once a day and keeping it on silent the rest of the time. While Simon focuses on practical strategies for moderating your smartphone use, Stoic thinkers offer a different approach: developing your capacity for temperance, or self-control.

As Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman explain in The Daily Stoic, Stoic philosophers believed that temperance was one of four cardinal virtues that can help you live a good life. It might also help you manage your smartphone use effectively. Here are two ways to cultivate temperance, according to Holiday and Hanselman:

First, distinguish between what you can control (your thoughts) and what you can’t control (everything else). For example, you have no say in global politics, but you can control how much mental space you give it. Keeping this in mind can help you avoid negative behaviors, like constantly checking your phone for news updates, that exacerbate smartphone dependency and worsen your mental health.

Second, notice your tendencies and account for the way they affect your view of life. For example, say you usually log onto dating apps for validation when you’re feeling bad about yourself, but then the interactions you have there don’t make you feel any better. Noticing this can help you break this self-destructive cycle.

Step 4: Help Others Detach

The final step Simon recommends is helping others detach from their smartphones by sharing your journey and encouraging them to experiment with their own screen-free practices. This step is important because it helps normalize more mindful phone use. Think about how using your phone too much has made you feel in the past—that’s exactly what the average person struggles with every day. By opening up about how detaching has changed your life, you make the idea of detaching less intimidating and more relatable, showing people that change is possible and worthwhile. You might also make new friends this way; since minimizing your smartphone use is unusual, people will notice that you do this and want to talk about it.

(Shortform note: Helping others detach from their smartphones might turn you into a servant leader—someone who prioritizes the growth and well-being of others. In Servant Leadership, Robert K. Greenleaf argues that the best leaders lead by serving first: They model positive change, empower others to follow, and measure success by whether people around them become healthier, wiser, and more independent. Sharing your detachment journey does exactly this, since it supports others in reclaiming control over their lives.)

To illustrate how this step can bring people together, Simon discusses how musician Jack White approaches it. White doesn’t use a mobile phone at all and doesn’t allow phone use at his concerts. To enforce this rule, he contracts with a company that provides secure pouches for attendees to lock their devices in before entering the venue. If fans need to use their phones, they can step outside to unlock the pouch. By removing smartphones from the experience, Simon explains, White creates an atmosphere where people are fully immersed in the music and more present with one another—an experience fans enjoy.

(Shortform note: White got his first cell phone (a smartphone) about a month after Unplug’s publication. In a social media post, he explained that he’d been struggling without one for a while, since the world is increasingly tailored for smartphone users; still, he described himself as “reluctant” to use his new phone. White hasn’t said whether this will change his anti-device policy at his concerts, and experts are split as to the policy’s effect: On one hand, at a neurological level, removing smartphones helps concertgoers connect more deeply to the artist and their music. On the other hand, that deep level of connection isn’t always what concertgoers are seeking—sometimes they just want to have a fun night out, and using their phones is part of the fun.)