The Digital Detox - 8 ways to reconnect with yourself

I'm not convinced that January 1st is the best time to set lofty goals bathed in aspiration, potential and potentially life changing.

Why?

Coinciding your life goals shouldn't reflect on the changing of a yearly calendar.
However, I understand why people use January 1st for this.
To each their own...whatever helps and motivates you, go get it.

Phones and devices are still an integrated aspect of our lives. I’m not saying to abandon them. Rather, it’s to be mindful of quantity and frequency of use and our dependency on them.

Here, I'm outlining ways you can digitally detox at any point in the year and the importance of doing so, as the pandemic has had many of us experiencing consistent elevated screen times.

Adjust Notifications
Ding, ding, buzz, beep, ding, beep, buzz...
In a world of immediacy, consider turning off non-essential notifications.
Once you open your phone to look deeper into that notification, chances are you'll scroll for a couple of minutes once you're there.
Social media will still be there later today, tomorrow, next week, next year.

Set Sustainable Boundaries For Daily Use
Self-imposed limitations are easier to type than engage in; I certainly understand.
However, strongly consider setting up a certain time when you want to stop using your phone.
The iPhone has a helpful feature called Downtime that only phone calls and apps that you choose to allow are available.

Toss Unused Apps
My rule is if I haven't used an app in six months, I toss it. I can always reinstall it if down the road I end up needing it.
It creates additional space on your phone and reduces clutter.

Move your media
It's easy to lose track of how many pictures and or video can accumulate on your device.
Once you've purged what you don't want/need, moving your media to the cloud or an external hard drive let's you hang onto them and creates space on your device.

Deliberately Disconnect
Another easy to say but difficult to do as the modern world has our phones/devices as what feels like an appendage.
Small steps tend to work best. For example, have 6 meals a week without your phone.
Then flip to watching a movie without your phone, to wait 30 minutes after you wake up before touching your phone, and so on.
Keep trying various methods until you find something sustainable and right for you.

Unfollow & Unfriend
One of the perks of having your own social media accounts is that you can curate it exactly the way you want it.
So if you don’t want to hear about how flat the earth is, the “Plan” Demic, or just how wonderfully the pandemic was handled, with a few clicks, you can change that.
I’ve had to both unfriend and unfollow people for a variety of reasons and there’s no problem with that.
If it were in person and someone was shouting something you didn’t want to hear or offended/hurt you, you’d simply walk away. This is the digital version of that.
Worried about possible consequences from the other person for unfollowing/unfriending them?
There’s a bigger issue at hand that needs to be addressed.

Do Without Documenting
Go for a walk, run, bike ride, hike, jog…anything but do so sans-phone. Not everything you do has to be documented.
If you do need to bring your phone for whatever reason, (security, calling for a ride when you’re done, for example) commit to keeping it in your pocket and simply enjoy being.

Secure Your Security
With a plethora of important personal and professional information on our phones, enable higher security settings, such as two-factor authentication.
Yes, it’ll take some time but that small investment of time today can help prevent headaches tomorrow.

Additional reading on easy ways to avoid screen fatigue can be found here.