My Nexus 5′s power button stopped working about a month ago (a common problem, it seems). After a quick call to Google CS and reminder that I’m out of warranty, I decided to take the opportunity to try living without a phone.

It’s been… actually really easy. I use Google Voice for my phone number, so I can get texts and calls from any device that I’m logged in to. But the other reason I think it’s been fine is that I realized that there a few major “categories” of my time:

1. When I am near my computer or iPad with internet
2. When I am with other people who have phones
3. When I’m not near internet or people I know, but don’t need to be in communication
4. When I’m not near internet or people I know, and I do need to be in communication

The first is most of the time when I’m at home or at work. The second starts the moment I encounter the first person I’m meeting with outside of number one. The last two are what surprised me. 

Everyone thinks that being without a phone is an impossible task because we use it so much in our idle time. That was me a month ago, browsing the internet or chatting as I walked to the car or between sets at the gym. But after an incredulously short time, I stopped missing having my phone for these moments. Although there are still things that are put into the fourth category (largely when driving in case of an emergency), I found that almost everything not in the first two can fit into the third.

(I’d say that being phoneless has contributed to posting on here more often. I read more and have more time to think and come up with stuff I want to talk about)

That said, I got a backup phone (thanks, Tesia!) and have some replacement power buttons on the way to try to fix it myself. It looks like a fun little project, but I am going to rethink what role a phone has in the small moments of my life.