What keeps breaking
- One blocker that is easy to bypass
- Deleting everything before protecting essentials
- Relying on motivation at the hardest moment
- Treating one slip as total failure
A practical 30-day book · Simon Renlow
Reduce screen time without losing what matters.
In The Dumb Phone Reset, you get a practical plan for replacing automatic checking with a personal phone system—while keeping work, maps, banking, 2FA, family, safety, and accessibility within reach.
- 30 days
- 14 chapters
- 4 phone setups
- 62 source notes
Coming soon on Amazon. Read a free sample while you wait.
The real problem
Your phone still does useful work. The problem is what happens before you choose.
01 You open one app without deciding to.
02 A quick check becomes time you never meant to spend.
03 You delete the app, reinstall it, or bypass the limit.
04 You still need the phone for work, maps, banking, and people who rely on you.
You do not have to choose between endless scrolling and disappearing from modern life.
Not another detox lecture
Build around real constraints, not an imaginary phone-free life.
What this book builds
- A map of useful and automatic sessions
- An essential-functions inventory first
- Friction paired with a finite replacement
- Dry runs, recovery rules, and revision
The method inside the book
A system that still works when motivation is low.
- 1
See
Separate useful minutes from automatic ones. Notice the cue, the session, and what it displaced.
- 2
Protect
List what must remain available before you restrict, delete, or replace anything.
- 3
Design
Make the unwanted path harder and put a specific replacement within easier reach.
- 4
Revise
Test the setup. Treat slips as information and adjust the system instead of starting from shame.
What you get inside the book
A 30-day build, not a one-day detox.
The book takes you through each stage and leaves you with something concrete you can use, test, and change.
- A baseline and automatic-session audit
- An inventory of essential phone functions
- A notification and access redesign
- A replacement menu and offline landing pad
- A choice among four operating models
- Dry runs, recovery rules, and a personal phone constitution
Four valid setups explained in the book
Choose the setup that fits your actual life.
Dumbed-down smartphone
Keep one device, but redesign its home screen, access, notifications, and high-risk paths.
Scheduled internet
Use full smartphone functions during chosen windows instead of carrying constant access.
Two-device system
Separate daily communication from occasional banking, work, navigation, or media tasks.
Full dumbphone
Move only after a dry run proves that essential functions have safe alternatives.
A full dumbphone is one valid model. It is not the admission price for changing your habits.
Built for tradeoffs
Keep the life your phone supports. Change the part that keeps taking over.
This is for readers who need their phone and still want more control over attention, time, and automatic checking. You can work with observable behavior without calling yourself an addict or accepting a diagnosis.
62
Evidence with limits
Evidence-led. Practical. Honest about tradeoffs.
The book includes 62 source notes and distinguishes stronger evidence from promising ideas, practical inference, and personal experiments. No inflated neuroscience and no invented certainty.
Questions before you begin
Keep the essentials. Change the default.
Do I need to buy a dumbphone?
No. A full dumbphone is one of four setups. You can redesign your current smartphone, schedule access, or use a two-device system.
What about banking, 2FA, maps, and work apps?
The plan begins with an essential-functions inventory. You test restrictions only after deciding how those functions will remain safely available.
What if limits and blockers never worked for me?
The method does not rely on one switch. It combines observation, friction, finite replacements, environmental changes, dry runs, and recovery rules.
Is this a digital detox?
It is a 30-day system-building process. Short phone-free periods may be experiments, but disappearing from modern life is not the goal.
Does the book diagnose phone addiction?
No. It works with what you opened, what happened next, what it displaced, and what you want to change—without requiring a diagnosis.
Where can I buy the book?
The book is coming soon to Amazon. In the meantime, you can read a free sample here.
The Dumb Phone Reset
Get the 30-day system inside the book.
Read a real Chapter 1 excerpt now. When the Amazon edition is live, the purchase button will lead directly to the verified book page.
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