Digital Detox 2

Two steps forward, one step back

A couple of weeks ago I announced I’d be doing a digital detox and trying to stay offline on June 21^st. The plan was turn off all my devices and not turn them back on again until the following day.

“So how did it go?” is probably the question on no-one’s lips. I’m going to tell you about it anyway 😉

Offline Friday

I was actually really surprised at how well this first attempt went. From the moment I woke up in the morning I felt better than usual. Knowing I was not going to check anything online all day left me more relaxed and more aware of my surroundings.

I got a huge amount done, and even managed to clear up my office (after all, I had nothing else to do during the lunch break!).

I had a couple of hiccups as my phone decided to turn wifi on automatically every time it found a known network, but I quickly turned it off again once I noticed.

Unfortunately I had to send an urgent email so I ended up going online briefly in the evening, but otherwise sticking to the detox was surprisingly easy.

Once I was back online the next day, I actually had about fifteen minutes’ worth of new content to deal with (across email, Facebook, Feedly, etc.), but that content would easily have eaten up half my day if I had allowed the usual internet cycle to kick off.

Lingering effects

Even more surprisingly, the benefits of the offline day persisted for the next few days. I found myself using the internet more deliberately, closing browser tabs and even not opening them in the first place.

This slowly wore off though, so by the middle of the next week I was pretty much back to my old habits.

Going forward

Unfortunately I just started playing the latest Niantic game, Wizards United (basically a Harry Potter themed version of Pokemon Go). So far it is kind of fun but not very helpful in terms of using the internet less…

I’m going to try to have most mornings offline, so I will stay off the internet until lunchtime. I have found mornings are probably the most productive times of day for me, and working on paper at the beginning of the day allows me to think about what I want to do.

Offline Fridays worked so well for me that I am also going to try to keep doing those, staying offline until 16:00.

I just read a really inspiring quote from Peter Thiel (it was in Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans book): “If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?”

I have a couple of ten-year projects, but indeed, why can’t I just do them in six months and then reap the reward or move onto something else?

Getting my mornings and Fridays back might just be the boost I needed to focus on that.

Advice

If you too find yourself spending too much time on the internet, the following might help:

• Turn off all non-essential notifications on your phone and computer (I just have LINE left, as I only use it to communicate with family).
• Designate some time as offline, and turn off the internet (airplane mode on tablets, unplugging the internet cable on desktops).
• Turn off wife* and mobile data on your phone (that way you’ll only get phone calls). If you are really hardcore, get an old gara-kei and save money too 🙂
• Unsubscribe from emails, unfollow or mute people on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram, delete RSS feeds, set your browser to open on a useful website rather than the default search or a time-waster.

How about you? Are you also an internet addict or do you have this part of your life under control?

*this was a typo, but it’s too good to fix 😀