I went almost a year without real phone service.

While I have never spoken publicly about this before, 2022 was a difficult year for me. After my Pixel 7 broke, I found myself without a phone and with many family expenses mounting, I also didn’t feel like I could run out and buy one. What I did have was a collection of older work devices from OnePlus and a few other brands that worked fine as Wi-Fi devices, but no longer supported the bands needed to work properly on any US network.

During this time, I saved up for a new device and relied on a combination of my home network, public Wi-Fi networks, and a hotspot from my wife’s phone as a way to handle the situation.

It’s true that for some people it is technically possible to get by without phone service today. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. The adjustment period was tough, but I must admit that the experience was not all bad.

Life without phone service is not impossible, but it certainly requires adjustments to the way you use your phone. This means using alternative methods of calling and texting, as well as planning your day and week so that a lack of phone service doesn’t slow you down.

I opted to use Google Voice at the time, as it allowed me to make phone calls and receive text messages without needing dedicated phone service. Of course, this had its own obstacles. The biggest problem with most VoIP services is that two-factor identification support is usually inconsistent at best, and many times you will find a complete lack of support. For most things, I was able to fix this by setting up an authenticator app as a fallback, but I also had to use my wife’s number in some cases where there was no support for other methods.

Another big problem is navigating from your phone using GPS. As someone who is naturally anti-directional, I rely heavily on GPS to get around larger cities and places I’m less familiar with. The good news is that it is possible to use google maps offline as long as you download local data for your area. You can only store a limited amount of map data and it expires over time, but it’s certainly a useful workaround.

However, you don’t get live traffic updates or redirects, which meant I actually had to pay a little more attention to where I was going rather than relying solely on the GPS gods to get me there.

Now I admit, it was probably a lot easier for me to live without phone service than it was for the average person. After all, I work from home, I live in a smaller community, and there are plenty of public Wi-Fi networks at the vast majority of businesses and entertainment venues I typically find myself at.

For the times when I knew I wouldn’t have Wi-Fi? I also made sure I had plenty of time wasters on my phone. Not only gaming apps, I also learned how to use apps like Kiwix to download parts of Wikipedia for offline use, and Pocket (no longer available) to save articles at home to read at times when you didn’t have Internet access.

At first, the transition was a little scary for me. At the same time, I felt a certain level of peace once I got used to the situation. After all, I was no longer constantly bombarded with text messages, emails, and app alerts 24 hours a day. It was a level of peace I hadn’t experienced in decades.

The end result was that my digital life seemed more intentional. It was my choice when to check in and when to ignore it. The more time I spent away from constant connectivity, the less important social media and other parts of my digital life became. Over time, I started spending more time on new physical hobbies like rock climbing, kayaking, and just living my life.

I also found that because I was forced to use my brain over the power of GPS, my own navigation skills improved quite a bit as well.

Now, it wasn’t always great either. Sometimes I would miss a semi-important call or want to find the best restaurant. I couldn’t just do that from anywhere; I had to plan for access to hotspots. Still, I feel like without this transition period, I probably never would have rebalanced my digital life the way I did.

About nine to ten months later, I finally purchased a new flagship phone and re-activated phone service. My digital life became easier, but I also never forgot what I learned.

Even today, I tend to keep my phone in a room. I don’t carry it with me every time I go to the store. I chose intention over constant stimulation. I don’t bring a phone to the table and spend more time doing physical things and not just digital things. Some of this might have happened anyway, but the habits I formed during my time without a phone plan certainly stuck with me.

Does that mean I recommend others abandon their phone plans? At all. Sure, some people could probably get away with it, especially if you work from home and have relatively ample access to Wi-Fi when you’re out and about.

Still, I think many people could benefit from a short period of time without constant access to their phone. Leaving your phone at home when you’re out with friends or simply keeping it in another room for parts of the day can help alleviate the usual need to constantly be in touch. For most, a few days are more than enough.