Introducing: 75 hard (tech edition)
What if there was a diet for tech? Join me and finish this year off with a tech cleanse!
Tech detoxes are often all or nothing.
You detox by deleting social media and locking your phone away. But if there’s anything we’ve learned about dieting — quitting cold turkey does. not. work.
What if, like red meat, we consumed modern technology in moderation? What if, there was a diet for our relationship with tech? The answer isn’t always to unplug.
Introducing…
The 75 Hard Tech Challenge™
We all know and love the original 75 hard: abstain from alcohol, work out twice, drink 3 liters of water, read 10 pages of a book, and take a progress pic EVERYDAY for 75 days. The thinking goes, by keeping you active and integrating (manageable) learning goals into your routine, you can build discipline and healthy habits.
Technology is no different. It’s something we use and consume everyday.
So… what are the rules?
No multi-tasking
Enforced hours for social media (9am-6pm)
Ban AI search, spend 15 minutes actively surfing the web
Spend 45 minutes being physically away from your phone
Read 10 pages of a book
Log screen time every week
Quit multi-tasking
No passive scrolling, no listening to music while you fold laundry.
Focus on the singular task at hand. Let’s make mindful dishwashing a thing.
I saw someone raw dog an hour to heal their ADHD, this is a less extreme version. See my thoughts on healing through boredom here.
Enforce social media hours
Only allow social media access between 10AM — 6PM
What if social media, like a bakery, had operational hours? If everyone logged off at 6pm, could we have social media and still connect with one another?
I’m only allowed to access social media between the hours of 10AM — 6PM. While it may still be a long time to be online, I’m making my boundaries explicit. This way, when I’m off, I can truly be AFK.
Ban AI search, surf the web
No more asking ChatGPT!
The internet is not necessarily cancerous. It’s our mindless reliance on the algorithm that’s killing curiosity. I’ve long been preaching the importance of surfing the web and going for walks on the internet — making active decisions on what to consume, making your own logical leaps between searches, turning off AI summaries…
Think of surfing the web as an exercise of intention when you’re online.
Following Elan Ullendorff’s guide to escaping the algorithm could be helpful here.
Be physically away from your phone
Chain your phone to a wall. Leave it at home while you go for a walk. Anything!
After anchoring my phone to a wall for a week, I realized it is OKAY to not have my phone on me at all times. Even if it’s leaving it in another room, it’s really out of sight, out of mind. How would doing this for 45 minutes a day make me feel?
Read
This is fairly self explanatory. Give yourself time to actually read the articles, Substack posts, books that you’ve saved for later. I’ve been trying to catch up with dazy chains’ reading recommendations.
Log your screen time
Like a gym selfie, I want to motivate myself by tracking my progress. Though screen time may not be the most comprehensive way of measuring the effects of this cleanse, as Ian Bogost lays out in his sharp Atlantic essay on Screen Time, it’s a place to start.
Starting today, I’ll be publishing an update on my challenge each week.
There are an infinite number of self-help books, diet guides, fitness hacks on improving our health. It’s time we considered technology as part of this equation.
This idea came about when there was exactly 75 days left in 2025. With the year inching closer to an end, I want to accomplish something. Join me on this journey.
Picture this, but for your attention span:
As the original 75 hard markets itself…
THIS IS NOT A FITNESS CHALLENGE.
THINK OF THIS AS AN IRONMAN FOR YOUR BRAIN.
This is how to take complete control of your life in only 75 days!!!!!
This inspired me to do my own version of 75 hard tech edition! My parameters are:
- My phone lives on my entryway table when I'm at home (similar to your post about chaining your phone to the wall)
- I can check it only every 90 minutes (it's on loud so I can hear it if someone calls me). The timer starts when I wake up, so I have 90 mins of phone-free time every morning.
- I get 45 mins of dedicated couch-scroll time a day (haven't felt the need to use it yet)
- When I'm out my phone has to live in my bag as much as possible. Can't check it while im in a waiting room, I have to observe life.
-No phone while eating alone.
- Only one screen at a time. Can't scroll on my phone while watching TV, I have to pause it to look at my phone. I also am trying not to scroll while watching something on my laptop.
**** I work from home on my laptop and still listen to podcasts, music and have access to the internet. Without this caveat this challenge would be almost impossible.
I LOVE your work and am asking for a snail mail subscription for my bday <3. I love how you are into keeping tech part of our lives and finding ways to live with it without it destroying us.
It's been 3 days and I have so much to say about this. I am hoping this 75 hard challenge turns into my general relationship with my phone forever. Making my phone into a landline has been incredible.
I’ve been following your work for a little while and have been on my own cyber celibacy journey/struggle for a bit - definitely going to participate in this! (With some light modification for my specific brain needs - I WILL be listening to music/watching tv while doing house chores, but otherwise no multitasking!).
Staying off the internet after 6 pm is going to be interesting 👀