Just to add onto what @minimalist4life said: It’s called e-MAIL. There’s a reason why email icons usually depict an envelope and use terms like “mailbox”.
Checking your email over and over is the equivalent of going back and forth to your front door every 5 minutes to check your physical mail. Now imagine doing that all day every day. People would call you insane for doing that because it is.
Literally the definition of insanity…
100 percent and this is what I use to do lol, even on my laptop I had to install the freedom blocking app, its dopamine hits waiting for the excited of an email. Now I basically have a routine of checking my email (personal) at most twice a day, and right after I check it on my laptop I love myself out of it for 3 hours, I do the same for Linkedin. Luckily I don’t have facebook, instagram, twitter etc so it is only email I really wrestle with in terms of addictive tendencies
@minimalist4life I’ve NEVER has a banking app on my phone EVER. And somehow, I’ve managed to make it through so many years of my life without complications. I travel A LOT & cash and cards work fine for me 
Yeah there a lot of things we think are ‘must haves’ but lets be honest we really don’t. Convenience to me is very overated. I will take PEACE over convenience any day of the week and twice on Sunday
@minimalist4life It’s just sold to us as a convenience, however, only YOU can decide if it’s really a convenience (a need) or just something that’s pushed on us to make us think that we need it. I have no interest in Banking apps, entertainment apps, or any time syphoning apps.
Same, it is interesting I am finding now I crave silence, like even sometimes from music, I was at the gym and forgot my headphones and their music system was not working so I just worked out, and it did not bother me, I think after being a meditator for about 4 years now, I realize how underated silence is and just being with our thoughts, we are constantly trying to fill the void of silence whether that is through music and even podcasts for that matter, sometimes I believe we just need to be comfortable with silence.
Here is my Top 5:
There is Play Store ripper, so official source cant be considered shady
Vivaldi (browser)
Kupujem prodajem (local ebay, replace by ebay app)
Nothing Notes
Nothing Galery (great Google Photos replacement on NOS)
Dub Music Player
Since there is no App Store, how to you plan to keep the Apps Updated? If I remove an old version and replace it with a new one all my data / log in will be lost, right?
I gotta ask WHY? No judgement. I promise. But do we really want THAT much info in our pockets
Yeah I agree, if I had wikipedia on my phone I know I would go to that app the moment I was bored, and I would just start looking up random stuff lol
Good Q. Users will have to manually back that part app - apps will NOT update itself since there is NO play store and cannot be sideloaded. Either
a) Live with once sideloaded version until obsolete, replace, log in again
b) Find a way to backup data, sideloade updated app and bring data back - this is app dependent in my experience. Its easiest if its “clouded” - your data account stored on company cloud (e.g. Viber backup/restore)
@minimalist4life YES. That would totally me. Waiting in line at the store…let me check out that article on how an Octopus Sleeps…
There is nothing wrong with information, this is no Instagram doom scrolling but the dream of a digital Encyclopedia Britannica. If I am bored I have a Kindle with a lot of interesting books with me.
Since I work in Political Science having some context is oftentimes crucial, and traveling a lot I had so much joy using the GPS function reading all about an old church or building while sitting in front of it with a coffee. And what better way is there to read all that then an E-Ink display?
Hey if you can control your use more power to you, I am an addict so I know I would be on it all the time lol
Not later than yesterday, I went down a rabbit hole about Polish nobility. What’s disappointing, I manage to do that on a corporate laptop. 
Looking up Polish nobiliy 
@buiosu, your IT department doesn’t care about that- trust me. We had a person downloading porn games last year.
Oh wow… Best I could do was playing Minecraft. 
But anyways, this drops my productivity. Right now I’m moving my personal stuff to my son’s laptop (now it’ll be OUR laptop) to try helping myself separate job/personal domains.
All the “work-life balance” blend that was coming from BYOD or working remotely inflicted more harm than good in my case. Never fully at work, never fully with family.
Shared family computer is a fantastic idea! Reminds me of my childhood. I’m all for these ideas of different ways to cut back on tech and distractions. Might start a thread on it.