Battling through the psychological aspect of ditching my smartphone for the Mudita Kompakt!

So I have just received the Kompakt! What a stunning device it is, the size and weight is perfect. Phones have got so big! However I am in 2 minds and letting the smartphone go is difficult. Do I just take the plunge and make it work. I remember using a Nokia as a teenager and we never had any issues but the world has changed. I guess I need to change how I view it! Anyone else had this same dilemma?

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There seems to be 3 favoured options by many Mudita owners.

Use as is and adapt to what the Mudita can do as it is

Use the device with occasional use of a smart phone

Sideload most of the apps that were on the smartphone that preceded the Mudita

It isn’t an easy transition, as other factors like work requirements, and the willingness of family members to use other means of contact play a big role. I tend to move between the first and second myself

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I kept my smartphone around with me for the first couple weeks, mostly for GPS (necessity) and to send photos on WhatsApp (nice to have). It did take almost two weeks of tinkering to get the Kompakt to meet all my needs and I forgot all about my smartphone. It’s been months now and it’s been great.

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Yes I have so far side loaded whats app and Spotify. whats app as it is the primary messaging app for my work. I am thinking of giving it a good go. Change takes time

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Ok thank you, I won’t get rid of the smartphone just yet. Need to tweek the Mudita to work for me. I had already ditched wallet, email, shopping and banking apps on my smartphone to make the switch easier.

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Unfortunately my wife and daughter insist on using WhatsApp to send pictures and messages, despite me repeatedly asking them to install signal. So I end up using the iPhone to view and respond, which isn’t ideal. I refuse to put anything Meta on the Kompakt I also use Apple Maps when driving and hotspot the Mudita for a signal, as it has no sim installed now.

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Yes that is the problem everyone uses Whats App! I hope in time I can encourage my family to change. I had a Punkt MP02 but couldn’t make it work because of this same reason. It’s so engrained in people’s life now that it isn’t easy to break free! Can you send a picture on the SMS app? I haven’t tried

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Can you send a picture on the SMS feature?

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Yes, you can

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I am using the Kompakt for nearly 10 months now and sadly I did not manage to battle my digital addiction susuccessfully. I am now using the Kompakt alongside with my old iPhone.
I have sideloaded a new launcher (inkOS), a new keyboard with cyrilic aphabet for my needs and Viber for communication. It still works good enough, but my monkey brain just wants distraction - doom scrolling on facebook, or obsessively playing around with my banking apps, looking at things like crypto prices, watching dumb stuff on YouTube and stuff like that.
I don’t want the distraction, I just “need” it. It’s kind of hard to just let go.

Otherwise - the Kompakt does everything I need from it to do and I can manage with it as a daily driver, if I can get my addiction under control.

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This thread actually highlights one of the reasons I appreciate the Mudita Kompakt so much.

To me, Kompakt is what we, at Mudita call a flexible minimalist phone. You can use it exactly as it comes out of the box and already get a calm, distraction-free experience. HOWEVER, at the same time, you still have some room to customize it within reason, depending on your needs.

That balance matters. Some minimalist phones are extremely rigid, which works for some people, but can feel unrealistic for others trying to transition away from a smartphone.
Kompakt gives you the option to start simple and then gradually shape the device to your lifestyle, rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.

In other words, it’s minimalist, but but still practical enough for everyday life. It still supports everyday tools like maps, notes, or music, so it works in real life instead of just in theory.

I totally get it that for many people, the psychological shift away from a smartphone takes time. For me, it’s kinda been very easy (I still have a BBQ10) so I was doing sideloading since 2014 :slight_smile: when many android apps were not available on the blackberry system, so we had to be creative.

Having a phone that allows a little flexibility during that transition can make the process much easier.

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I used the Light Phone II for about two years and I did that cold turkey and I really enjoyed the experience! I had to get my ducks in order before taking the plunge though. The main things were GPS so I used my car navigation system and then looked up addresses until Light released a directory tool. I switched to Mudita and I didn’t side load apps for months. I eventually slowly started to customize it with Ink OS launcher and essential apps that I needed. I haven’t used social media in months though. The one thing I struggled with was google maps though and because Mudita is degoogled (which I appreciate) I wasn’t able to install GMaps without rooting the phone itself. I bought a HiBreak Pro online for a good price and I removed all the stock apps, stripped it down to the bare minimums including google maps and I am now very happy with my setup. I still post in this community because I had a MK and I will probably buy one again in the future. I would say the biggest thing to watch out would be increasing laptop usage because the monkey mind is always looking for a way to distract itself rather than being present. I have cold turkey installed to mitigate that for the most part … If you need any advice, feel free to msg me!

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I transitioned myself away from smartphone addiction for about a year before the Kompakt came out. I find that going cold turkey in anything sets me up for failure. I’m much more likely to adapt to new behaviors if I nudge myself into them a little at a time and let them really sink in before I move to the next step.

For me, I started with “dumbing” down my smart phone. I uninstalled time-killer apps (reddit was difficult, but I discovered I’m less likely to doom scroll when I accessed it through a browser) and changed the screen to be greyscale. Then I started replacing some functionality with other devices to avoid distraction with the phone (got an mp3 player, purchased physical puzzle books to kill time without a screen). I found that boredom was my biggest problem, and so picking up little hobbies and physical activities to avoid boredom busting on a phone was really key. This also helped me be okay with being bored, something I hadn’t had to do since childhood!

I also started keeping my phone in my bag, and not my pocket. This was something that made it a hassle to get my phone out, and thus I was less likely to use it unless I really needed to.

Eventually, when I had gotten use to these new behaviors and habits and felt I was ready for the next big step, I got myself a flip phone that ran android go. Then I had to get use to calling people more, since texting with a T9 was horrible. GPS navigation was hard on a tiny screen, so I started planning my routes on my tablet/computer at home more (and then my job provided me with an iphone, and TBH I will use it for GPS off-the-clock, it’s my only “cheat”), only using my phone’s GPS when absolutely necessary. I kept track of my money through a pen&paper ledger, instead of checking a banking app. My collection of tiny notebooks grew, as I couldn’t just use a note app now! I got use to asking strangers for directions and recommendations in the area, chitchatting with older folks in grocery lines, listening to the world around me without a podcast playing all the time, being more aware of my surroundings.

When I finally got the Kompakt, it wasn’t much of a struggle to adapt to it for me. I think this is the best way to go about any major life change.

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This is soooooooooo true. AND I can’t stress this enough. Since we launched, I think the hardest part for people was when they went from a FULL-FEATURE smartphone straight to Mudita Kompakt.

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I would certainly consider the Kompakt a more “advanced” level of “dumbphone”, as in you need to be at some level of un-smartphoning your life before you attempt to use it as a daily driver. I would consider the punkt and lightphones in the same vein, and even elevate them above the Kompakt since their systems are so inflexible and you can’t sideload other apps.

adjusts monocle

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I solved the monkey brain doom scrolling on the iPhone, by giving my wife the code I had set for screen time limits to my wife, and asking her to change it, and write it on a piece of paper, which I’ve placed in our safe. All my doom scrolling favourites, Facebook, Pinterest, eBay, YouTube etc, are now not accessible on the iPhone. I can still open them on the pc, but I tend to do that less often and only for short periods of time. The Kompakt only has a few side loaded apps. I have an iPod with my music on it. I find myself reading physical books a lot more now, I’ve started drawing again, I also listen to audiobooks on the iPod. I bought a paper diary, which works better for me than the countless digital ones I’ve tried over the years. I didn’t really go full on cold turkey, but I did make it really difficult for myself to use the apps I’d decided I needed to seriously cut back on

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The main issues I have are that I need an actual full-fledged smart phone for my day-to-day job. I have to use specific apps for logging my time, submitting daily reports, looking at plans, submitting photos and videos . . . and several of these required apps have to be approved through Microsoft’s Intune Company Portal app that requires Google Play Services to function. So it is quite practically impossible for me to use my Kompakt between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM on weekdays. Because of this, I now use my iPhone as a business phone and my Kompakt as a personal phone with two separate numbers. The most difficult part is keeping myself from using the iPhone when I’m not working.

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I just realized I use my “car smartphone” mostly for 1-2 hrs of listening to Youtube conversations on the road + a bit of local updates via Facebook. Sometimes job calls on Teams. Bank app very rarely, same with navigation. If it wasn’t for the peace of mind with Revolut (and maybe gotta give Teams a try on MK), I’d get rid of it already.

But it may happen sooner than I thought. The phone started acting out so perhaps it will get rid of itself on its own. :wink:

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Could you log the hours on the desktop?

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@somastudy I was also wondering if any of those tasks @stephenshutters described could be done on a laptop.