My most millennial trait is that big purchases must happen in a big laptop screen.
You should just use a laptop. For most things.
Phones (and tablets, to some degree) are amazing because they’re a powerful computing device that is always with you, but they’re kind of awful for that same reason. When you can always pull out your phone to take care of a task, do your shopping, etc. you’re always trying to do multiple things at once. If you can do it now you never have the excuse to plan to do it later. This has two pretty crappy consequences:
First, you never have to prioritize things. You just do them as soon you think of them. Maybe you’re multitasking during dinner to get things done that don’t actually matter. If you can keep checking Slack for work, you never have to decide you’re done for the day. It can feel good to cram a little bit of productivity into gaps into your downtime, but sometimes it’s good to have downtime. Being busy is not a virtue.
And second, it’s harder to fully focus on your task. If you’re reading emails or doing your shopping while you’re out with other people you’re only half doing both things. The double edged sword of using your phone for everything is that it’s always with you, so you don’t need to go to a dedicated “work space” to do your tasks. The inconvenience of getting out a laptop and opening it up to work is a feature. I think there’s a lot of value in getting in the right head space to do non-trivial tasks and if you’re primary device for getting things done is optimized for convenience rather than focus you’re going to spend more time on the types of tasks that don’t require deep focus.
Phones are great tools for a lot of things. They are really well optimized for portability (obviously), simplistic input, and consumption. The fact that I can get map directions or watch a movie wherever I am is a modern miracle. I love that I can pull out my phone whenever I get a random song idea and record a voice memo before I forget.
But I don’t want to do the work of turning an idea into a finished song on my phone. For that I want to sit in a quiet place with instruments and a proper recording interface. It’s not just that the tools are better with richer input mechanisms and more screen space for powerful UIs. The act of deciding to be in a “songwriting place” helps get my head into the task. It means I’m focused on one task.
Sometimes I’ll even wait until I’m at a laptop to make non-trivial responses to text messages. Trying to type a paragraph or more on a phone keyboard feels like squeezing ideas through a straw, it just feels easier to type on a real keyboard with richer options for copying, pasting, and other text manipulation. Sure, if I’m out of the house and need to message someone, it’s great to be able to just send something from my phone, but it’s not an interface optimized for longer-form text.
Tablets are an interesting middle ground, but in many ways they still encourage more consumption than focused work. Attaching a keyboard can help. If you’re mainly trying to write emails, watch videos, and look at websites it’s probably ok, but you’re still using a device that is optimized for scrolling and tapping. There are some use cases where a tablet might be superior to a proper computer, such as drawing. If I were doing comics right now an iPad with Procreate seems like it would be the best tool for the job.
I don’t dislike phones (or tablets). They’re amazing and useful tools. I just think that the habit many people have of pulling out a phone to accomplish whatever tasks happens to come to mind creates a world where you’re always kind of multitasking and rarely sitting down to focus on things. Embrace the inconvenience of using a computer that might not be in your pocket at all times.
Just use a laptop. For most things.