Step one: The cup and string

Step one: "Mobile phones clutter our lives with unnecessary features. Try talking to your fellow man rather than texting. If they are too far away, use a cup and string."

This was going to be hard. I review mobile phones for a living: how was I going to survive without one?

To my surprise, ditching the mobile was easier than I thought. It's incredible how much more you go off topic when you're talking to someone face to face -- and therefore how much more you find out about them. It also meant I had to stick to any plans I made, since I couldn't just text "sorry can't make it".

I began to realise that without a mobile, I had a lot more peace in my life. There were no text messages to check, or calls to answer in the middle of meetings. My non-mobile life had a more leisurely pace.

As for using a cup and string for long-range communication, it does actually work -- try it yourself -- but frankly you might as well just go and talk to the person at the other end. Until Vodafone sets up a customer-service rep behind my sofa, it's not much cop in modern life.