I’ve spent a lot of time talking about ways to detox mentally and physically in 2015, but have you thought about detoxing digitally? As someone who is surgically attached to my IPhone, this seems like a scary prospect; after all I rely on my IPhone for everything from communicating with my family and friends in the UK, sharing posts from this blog to listening to my headspace app.
Yet I’m always up for a challenge, so when I was invited to take the Tech Time out pledge and review their timeout device I knew I couldn’t say no! So let me to introduce you to the device I trialed!
The device allows you to lock your phone away for a period of time (ranging from 15-60 minutes) It’s a great comic gift as when you pop your phone in it declares that you have been deemed ‘guilty of disruption, interruption, distraction’. (I must admit I’m definitely guilty of those; I’m constantly half-listening to my husband while tweeting away!)
My husband and I agreed to do this for a week, and although we couldn’t fit our laptops in there we decided to switch them off too. We really enjoyed the chance to wind down before bed without tapping away at our phones, and although it did feel at first as if we were cut off from the outside, it was really refreshing to sit down and actually have a proper conversation! While I am still a bit of a phone addict, I definitely realised the importance of a breather.
If you fancy taking a tech-time out with me, you can head over to the website and take the pledge to turn off your devices for one hour a day for the next week. Otherwise I’ll leave you with this image to prove my point. 🙂
I really enjoyed this reminder about taking intentional breaks from technology. It’s amazing how much mental clarity and calm we can regain simply by stepping away from screens for a while. Even small “tech time-outs” can improve focus, sleep, and overall wellbeing.