Did you know that today is marked globally as a 24-hour respite from using technology? The irony of this is that by reading this, I’m already encouraging you not to observe this but what about if you’re aware of it, you can part-observe it or at least think about it going forwards?
What’s the point?
Well, it raises our awareness of steps we can take to achieve a healthy life/tech balance and increase our human interactions and connections and we all know this is good for us and our mental wellbeing.
Taking Time Out
Many of you will know, because I've mentioned it a few times recently, I took a long weekend in February and went to Snowdonia with my partner. We’re both self-employed and we both experience some of the drawbacks
associated with this – never fully feeling like you can ‘switch off’, feeling as if you need to be available to customers whenever they want to speak to you, waking up at stupid o’clock because you’ve thought of a great idea that you need to research right there and then! It can feel pretty relentless at times.
We arrived at our accommodation to discover no phone signal. For me this felt like a blessing and the perfect excuse to ignore everyone. Tom struggled with it more and immediately activated his Wi-Fi calling. He was also at a loss as to how local people cope with it which amused me no end. But this is the thing about switching off… it won’t kill you, the world isn’t going to end and your business won’t go down the pan if you’re not there for a couple of days. Sometimes these things need a little planning but a clean break from the daily grind can almost always be successfully achieved. And that’s not to say that I find my work a chore by the way, it’s just that it can feel challenging at times and I can find myself at the tipping point occasionally where I wonder if the whole thing is really worthwhile.
For me, personally, I felt like I benefitted hugely, I felt restored, re-energised and I topped up my creativity levels. I noticed improvements in my productivity post-break and was able to launch two new successful design ideas in the second half of the month directly as a result of taking time out.
Just one small change
If the idea of totally unplugging for 24 hours fills you with horror, then maybe try just a couple of small changes and see if they make a difference. For example, instead of aimlessly scrolling during your morning coffee, why not try writing down 3 things you feel grateful for and make a mental note of any changes to your overall feeling of wellbeing.
You can find out more here https://www.nationaldayofunplugging.com/
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