No personal smartphone, laptop, tablet or TV for the whole year. Not even a Kindle, and no movies.

Incidental and everyday screens don't count: a billboard, a menu board, a microwave or thermostat, a concert a few times a year. I still avoid them as much as I can. There are two exceptions: tests that need a screen (brain tests run by a neuropsychologist a few times a year; my scale and blood pressure cuff), and changing a camera preset once a week or so when nobody else can. I never watch my own footage.

Why not 100%? That would take solitary confinement. This is about running a unique, livable experiment, and 99% elimination is enough. What I'm cutting out is the worst of today's tech. A few brief moments at a grocery store checkout screen are nothing like hours a day doomscrolling on a phone or laptop.

No. It's one person, measured closely for a whole year, with some baseline data gathered first.

Nothing else is held perfectly constant, but I try to keep most things steady and log what changes. I also track sleep, activity and more alongside the tests to get the full picture. Nothing in life happens in isolation: screens shape how we sleep, move, work and connect, so taking them away ripples into everything. Those ripples are part of what I'm measuring.

And an N of 1 is how bigger questions start. If something striking shows up in my blood, sleep or brain scans, it may be worth a closer look, with more data and more people. More in the disclaimer.

I have a small team that helps post for me. For everything else, there's my screenless phone.

I built the phone myself. There's no screen: I write on cards and scan them in, and replies come out on a receipt (phenol-free paper, so no BPA). It calls, texts, emails and posts on X (I don't see the replies to my posts), and it does a lot more than communicate. It's slow, but it works for the five to ten essential tasks I need it for each day.

No, it's part of the point. I love technology; it's given me everything. This isn't about going back to the past. It's about a future where technology works for us instead of the other way around. I'm measuring the cost of what we're doing right now, while using a very minimal alternative.

So I still post, make videos, and keep this site updated, just without a screen myself. A couple of people do most of the screen work for me, like editing, posting and updating this site. My screenless phone handles the rest, and it's a working version of that future: nothing to scroll, no feeds.

For most footage, I record on a camera setup I can run without a screen. When I'm done, the SD card goes into my screenless phone, which copies the footage, sorts it by keywords I say on camera and sends it to my editor.

I never see the raw footage or the edits. I give my editor direction, and friends give me feedback.

Yes, this isn't a year off. I've always been an entrepreneur, I never stop working, and I don't expect that to change this year. Right now this project is my full-time job. There are a lot of moving pieces, and running it without looking at a screen takes most of my time.

Whether it's this project, consulting work, or something else, I'll be working all year, so if my stress changes, it won't be because I stopped working.

Yes. I recommend cutting back wherever you can, even if it's nowhere near a year: phone out of the bedroom, one app gone, a walk without it. Start wherever you are.

If you want some structure, I created a free week-long version called 7 Days Unplugged. There are two ways to do it:

• Core: no feeds, on any screen.
• Hardcore: your phone is just a phone. Social media, video, news, games and the browser are locked, and someone you trust holds the passcode.