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Unplug

How to Break Up with Your Phone and Reclaim Your Life

Coming Soon

Contributors

By Richard Simon

Formats and Prices

Price

$20.00

Price

$26.00 CAD

Turn off your phone and turn on your life with step-by-step instructions and success stories from dozens of people who’ve set healthy boundaries with their devices.  
 
The average American spends the equivalent of a full 60 days a year looking at their phone. It can become an all-consuming addiction that puts a strain on virtually every facet of our existence from the way we sleep, eat, and exercise to our ability to focus and make new memories. Most importantly, it takes us away from our lives, our relationships, and the real world. But although it may seem impossible, there is always a way to overcome digital distraction: you can always turn off your phone. 

In Unplug, Richard Simon lays out a plan to detox from your phone, including different breakup styles, things to do with your newfound time, lightly reintegrating a smartphone into your life, and finally, helping others quit. These tips and strategies are interspersed with success stories, including Simon’s own story of turning off his phone for a whole year, plus those of 29 others, including a professional baseball player (Nick Castellanos), bestselling authors on digital usage and addiction (Cal Newport and Ed Spector, respectively), physicians who specialize in digital wellness, as well as ordinary folks including a principal, a pastor, and a couple who quit their phones together.

  • “Diving deep into the growing community of people who radically re-invented their relationships with their phones, Richard Simon identifies a roadmap for the rest of us to achieve a less distracted and more meaningful life." 
    —Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author of Slow Productivity and Digital Minimalism
  • “Richards Simon’s Unplug is a practical, down-to earth guide to untethering yourself from your phone.
    Simon describes the steps that successful people have taken in the past, and presents several models for “breaking up” with our phones, culminating in a catalogue of the virtues of unplugging. As Simon explains, life is richer and fuller the less time we spend mindlessly scrolling and staring at our phones.”
    —Adam Alter, New York Times bestselling author of Irresistible and Anatomy of a Breakthrough

On Sale
Jun 17, 2025
Page Count
224 pages
ISBN-13
9781523527564

Richard Simon

Richard Simon

About the Author

Richard Simon is the senior director of online strategy at Georgetown Law in Washington, D.C., and is a former multimedia reporter at Baltimore’s The Daily Record, where he won numerous awards for his use of interactive media. He is a fourth-generation Baltimorean, where he lives with his wife and three children.
 

Learn more about this author