1. Experiment:
A day without any electronic
communication
(Modifying The Environment To Reduce Stress)
Maurizio Calo Caligaris Stanford University

2. The Setup:
Put cellphone in drawer
Blocked facebook.com
Blocked gmail

3. Why?
I used to constantly check e-mail, FB &
phone multiple times every day.
This was creating unnecessary
stress, and I didn’t even realize it.

4. Why?
I wanted to experiment with changing
my environment & understand how
this changes behavior.

5. Why?
Making (temporary) radical changes
gave me a fresh new perspective and
allowed me to gain unique insights.

6. Insight#1
By not having the distraction of my
phone, my personal interactions became
much more meaningful and enjoyable.
I now avoid checking my phone when
I’m with other people. I also try to meet
in person rather than converse over
phone (whenever possible)

7. Insight#2
I felt much less stressed out by not
having to constantly check my e-mail,
but, as a Stanford student, it is highly
impractical to stop using e-mail.
I disabled e-mail push notifications on
my phone.

8. Insight#3
I realized Facebook really is a wonderful
communication tool, and is not worth it
quitting completely. At the same time, I
shouldn’t check Facebook every 10 min.
See more details here:
http://www.slideshare.net/
mauriziocalo/addicted-to-facebook-
get-ripped-instead
I redirected facebook.com to another
website that triggers me to do pushups
after every time I open FB in a new tab.

9. maurizio@cs.stanford.edu
I’m Maurizio Calo Caligaris
and I’m an aspiring
entrepreneur / CS masters
student at Stanford. I’m
interested in behavior design,
Thanks!
life design, self-improvement
& using technology to
transform people’s lives.