The Siempo phone has me super intreagued, and I backed it on Kickstarter.
I heard about it through my good friend Matt Smith who helped design the UI.
The whole concept of the Siempo phone is that it’s meant to be just smart enough to be useful, but not so smart as to become a distracting black hole and time sink. Plus, there are some custom features built-in to help you be more mindful and present in the moment, etc.
Here’s how they describe the phone:
Many have tried to accomplish what Siempo does, but as thousands of phone users have told us, apps and willpower alone don’t lead to lasting behavior change. And those who have downgraded to a dumb phone find that it takes away too much of what they rely on.
You can, of course, check out their Kickstarter page for more details. But quickly for context…
These are the apps and functions it will include: Texting, phone calling, calendar, maps, notes, MP3 player, camera, weather, reminder, web browser.
Some of the cool customized features include a Mindful Morning app that helps with your morning routine, an intention field that helps you start with the action you want to do rather than first get to the app, and more.
According to the FAQ, Siempo is running on a customized version of Android and it will be GSM only, which means AT&T or T-Mobile.
I backed the phone because I’d love to see something like this come to life. And I’d love to check it out and use it.
…but I cannot imagine switching to a non-iPhone phone. I have several apps that I use and enjoy every single day (Simplenote, Overcast, Instapaper, Todoist, iMessage, Basecamp, 1Password, et al.).
However…
I do like the idea of switching to a more “simple” phone during date nights, weekends, etc. (Which is what The Light Phone is all about.)
What I find fascinating about the Siempo phone is that it has a strong emphasis on reducing to the essentials. Plus it has some clever, built-in ways for helping reduce distractions.
So I was thinking about how I could take some of Siempo’s ideas and implement them on my iPhone…
Time to Pause
On Siempo, Time to Pause is like Do Not Disturb but with a physical button and a timer. So you can double-click the pause button and the Siempo phone will go into do not disturb mode for 30 minutes (or whatever).
I already keep my iPhone in Do Not Disturb mode for a big chunk of my day — it turns on automatically at 9pm at night and stays on until 11am the next morning.
But I would love to have some increased granularity about the scheduling of DND, but that’s an article for another day.
One way to bring “Time to Pause” to your iPhone would be to keep your phone in Do Not Disturb mode all day long. (Why not!?) You could manage expectations with friends and family by telling them to call (rather than text) if it’s a time-sensitive issue.
A Focused Morning
A morning routine is very helpful to having an awesome day. And I love that the Siempo phone caters to this.
There are some great iOS apps which can help you do this as well, such as Calm, Productive, and Day One.
Temp (Batch Processing Incoming Messages)
This sounds super cool, though I’d be curious to see it in action. It says that it saves all your icoming notifications for later and then you can batch process them once every 15, 30, or 60 minutes.
I realize that I don’t exactly sound bullish on the project, but that’s only because it’s got me thinking about how I can implement their ideas into my iPhone usage.
You should definitely check out their Kickstarter page. There are some awesome ideas behind the Siempo phone, and that’s why I backed it.
