Six questions Free. Print two.

TheSlowerLivingWorksheet

Six questions to answer with a pen, before you change anything about your phone.

This one belongs to

slowerliving.club/printables/

How to use it

Nobody switches phones because of an argument. People switch because one day they can see the trade clearly: this many hours, for that. These questions are the ones that make the trade visible, and they only work written down. A thought you have and then lose is not an answer.

Do one page a day for a week, or sit down and do them all at once. Write badly. Nobody reads this but you.

A pen, not a notes app. The whole point is that this part happens off the screen.
Guess the numbers if you have to, then go and check them. Being wrong on paper is useful.
Answer what is true this month, not what you would like to be true.
Keep it somewhere you will find it. The last page asks you to come back.

the six

Where the hours go
The reach
What comes back
What you would miss
Who has to reach you
The one change

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 2

01

Where the hours go

the number is the number

Open the screen time number on your phone and write it down before you argue with it. Put the daily average at the top, then the apps that make up most of it.

Then do the arithmetic nobody does. Daily average, times seven, times 52. That is the year, in a number you can look at.

Daily average, this week

AppHours a weekWould I pay for those hours?

Times 52, that is about

If the number looks low, check whether your phone counts the browser.

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 3

02

The reach

catch yourself doing it

Most phone time is not decided. The hand goes out in the gaps, and the gaps are everywhere.

For one day, note the times you pick it up without choosing to. Write where you were and what you were getting away from. The pattern is usually one thing wearing five hats.

Where I wasWhat I was getting away from
1
2
3
4
5

Boredom counts. So does the email you have been avoiding.

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 4

03

What comes back

vague plans stay wishes

Say you get two of those hours back this week. Not the year, just the two hours. What happens in them?

Write things you could start this week with what you already own. “Read more” is a wish. Name the book and it turns into a plan.

The first hour

Five more, smallerWhen
1
2
3
4
5

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 5

04

What you would miss

the fear is usually real

This is the honest page. The list of things you would actually miss is shorter than it feels, and it is rarely the apps you spend the most time in. Name them, then name what could do each job instead, even if the answer is worse or costs money.

If there is no replacement, write none. A phone you resent within two weeks is a more expensive mistake than an honest list.

What I would missWhat could do it instead

The one with no replacement

Camera, maps, banking, parking, boarding passes. Those come up most.

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 6

05

Who has to reach you

keep the short list short

A phone that only calls and texts reaches almost everybody. The trouble is the few people who live inside one app, and the job that assumes a screen.

List them. Then write how each one would find you if the app were gone. Most of it is solved by telling people, once.

WhoHow they would reach me

Work, honestly

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 7

06

The one change

one, with a date on it

Pick one thing off the pages behind this one. One. It sticks for people who change a single thing and leave it alone for a month. It does not stick for people who change everything on a Sunday.

Put a date on the start and a date on the look-back. Then sign it, which is a silly thing to do and works anyway.

I am going to

Starting on

I will read this page again on

Signed

If nothing has changed by the look-back date, the change was too big. Halve it and set another date.

Come back to this in six weeks. The pages you were least honest on are the ones worth doing again.

six weeks from today

slowerliving.club/printables/ · 8