Try one hangout with the phones face down. You’ll remember that one.

Half-attention makes a whole afternoon evaporate. Everyone is present and also somewhere else, and afterward none of it is distinct enough to remember. This is not really about willpower or being against phones. Conversation needs a certain depth before it goes anywhere worth being there for, and it never reaches that depth in thirty second pieces.

Try one hangout where the phones go face down on the table from the start. Say it out loud so it belongs to both of you instead of being a rule you enforce. Two hours like that will outlast a month of the other kind.