One phone-free day. More presence. Better decisions.

2 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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0:37

In this conversational YouTube segment, Donald Burns shares his habit of leaving his phone in a hotel safe during vacations and committing to at least one phone‑free day to be fully present with his girlfriend. He describes the initial nervousness and sweating that arise when the phone is absent, interpreting these physical reactions as signs of a phone addiction. Donald reflects that everyone has some form of addiction, noting that his phone habit feels less harmful than his past alcohol use and acknowledging that addictions can range from unhealthy to relatively benign.

Chapters

Getting better. When I go on vacation, I usually will put the phone in the, in the safe in the room and I'll leave it there. That's smart, man. Yeah, I've gotten better about that. Like, I usually try to do at least one day, and I usually make it a rule, like, one day no phone at all, and I'll leave it in the safe. Yeah, I totally hang out with, you know, with my girlfriend and just like really be present, you know?
Yeah, like really, really be present.
And at first you're gonna be nervous. Trust me, when you try this, you'll be like, you'd be sweating.
That's your default, you know?
Well, actually, it means that when you get nervous like that, it means you have a little bit of an addiction to it. Yeah, 100%.
We're all addicted, you know? We're all addicted to something.
It's a matter of, you know. It's better than all the booze I used to do. There's worse addictions, I guess. Yeah, I mean, there's some healthy addictions, there's some—
Not so healthy addictions. Not so healthy, exactly. Yeah.