Digital Detox
We all know how important and useful technology can be in our lives. We can easily connect with our friends and family across various social media platforms, manage our health goals, seamlessly find and purchase that item we need for our home, and find out the answers to nearly anything we can think up with the simple action of typing into a search engine.
The number of digital tools we have at our fingertips can sometimes be overwhelming! Too much time on our devices can be harmful and lead to a gauntlet of negative effects from poor sleep and anxiety to loss of productivity.
So, what can we do to manage our devices effectively and how can we appropriately limit our time interacting with them? And most importantly, why should we do it?
Let’s start with a few good “whys”!
You’ll boost your productivity.
According to reviews.org an average American checks their smartphone every 4 minutes! Decreasing the frequency in which you check your phone will lead to more focus on the task at hand, improved critical thinking, and create fewer distractions.
Your sleep will improve.
In a recent study done in the US, 95% of adults admitted to using some type of screen that emits artificial blue light within one hour of going to bed. This increases alertness and suppresses the hormone melatonin that negatively impacts sleep.
Increased human connection.
Less time on your phone equals more time for friends and family, fostering better relationships through uninterrupted face-to-face communication.
Of course, we all want these improvements in our lives. Let’s have a look at some best practices that may work for us!
Establish a tech-free morning routine.
What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Don’t feel bad if you thought, “reach for my phone”. You’re not alone. Most of us use our phone’s alarm to wake up which immediately leads to checking the weather...then the news...then the floodgates of information open.
Before you reach for your phone try creating a tech-free morning ritual. This could be an activity such as stretching for 10 minutes or a mindfulness exercise. It could even just be enjoying your coffee, tea, or breakfast alone with your thoughts before checking your phone or email.
Think about a morning ritual that works for you to kick off your day with clarity.
Stop to smell the roses
Schedule some time in the day to connect with the real world without your device and benefit from the timeout while appreciating your surroundings. Look for some green space or blue space near your place of work to reconnect with nature.
Be the boss of your phone. Don’t let it be the boss of you.
Do you instantly need to check a message as soon as you hear the alert or is it an absolute emergency that the email just sent needs responding to within the next few minutes?
Dramatically increase your productivity by setting a time barrier to checking your phone. Similar to deep work techniques, set these constraints, disable your push notifications, and rid yourself of the distractions to get the important work done and at the same time, limit your device use over the course of the day.
Device-free dinners
Have you ever been guilty of looking at that work message during dinner or glancing over to another table in the restaurant to see everyone at that table on their devices?
This is an all too common occurrence nowadays and can be a missed opportunity when it comes to really connecting with the people that matter most.
Going device free at dinner and giving that little bit of extra attention that may be needed in a conversation could make all the difference in that person’s day and have the same effect on you.
Even starting with just one dinner in the week is a great start to cutting down on your average screen time per day and creating stronger, healthier connections.
Winding down
Just as we started our day tech-free, we also look to bookend our day the same way.
Reflect on what you regularly do one hour before bedtime and if any of those actions involve your devices. If so, consider creating a bedtime ritual that excludes your phone. Pick up a paperback book or add a meditation routine. An activity that works for you and helps calm your mind before sleep will cut back on your daily device usage and lead to much better sleep.
When it comes to a digital detox, the intention isn’t to throw our phones into the ocean, never to be seen again. It is rather to manage the use of our digital tools in a healthy way and bring balance to our lives, benefiting from the helpful aspects our devices have to offer while improving and protecting our positive state of wellbeing.
References
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/digital-detox/
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/technology-social-media.pdf
Reviews.org- Proprietary Survey conducted December 2021
Mayo Clinic in collaboration with Mandarin Oriental- Brochure on a set of wellness tips and technology guidelines for a digital detox.
