A week or so ago I was listening to a tech podcast and I realised I had little interest in what was being discussed, I stopped and realised listening to others had become a habit. I had over 15 shows in my list and I’d stopped being able to just have peace and quiet. It’s ok to be bored and have some headspace to digest and think about things. Having a job where I drive a lot it’s good to have some podcasts to listen to but listening at home when I’m not doing something else has become a bit excessive.

I’ve decided to reduce my podcasts down to about 4 shows and I’m only going to use them for driving or out walking.

It’s been nice the last few days not reaching for my headphones and just being present in the moment.

When I started working on an iPad full time I was sold on the flexibility of the device but as time has gone on I’ve started to find issues with RSI. When I’m doing something heavy like updating my productivity app, editing images and editing a podcast I found I ran into shoulder issues. The constant need to keep moving my arm up to do actions have become an issue. It’s got me rethinking my entire setup, well for a bit anyway. For consumption the iPad was much better than my laptop but using it full time has had me struggling a little.

I’ve decided to make a change and switch back to using my MacBook for a few months for some of the heavy lifting to see if it helps. I’ve also noticed that using the iPad without the Smart Keyboard cover and just the glass on my lap helped so I’ll be adjusting my use a little to start using that method of input or the Apple Pencil.

Along with some shoulder exercises and general getting out for daily walks I’m hoping to move forward positively and address this.

So I’m back to the MacBook probably 70% of the time for a bit and I’ll report back on how it’s going.

Anyone else run into these issues?

Inspired by the Center for Humane Technology I've decided to take some control back and adopt some of their suggestions for using my iPhone less. The first stage to this was to implement the greyscale filter, not only does it give you more battery life but makes your iPhone screen seem less playful and in turn less likely to play around with too much.

Here's how to enable this

• Tap Settings
• Tap General
• Tap Accessibility
• Tap Display Accommodations
• Tap Colour Filters
• Tap the toggle and make sure Greyscale is selected

You can easily disable when you want to take a photo or view images by adding a shortcut in control centre like this

• Tap Settings
• Tap Control Centre
• Tap Customise Controls
• Tap the + next to Accessibility Shortcuts

Now when you want to get some colour back simply swipe down from the top and tap on the Accessibility Shortcut button.