Your No-Stress Guide To Digital Wellness: Unplugging Made Easy

New month. New year. Opportunities abound.

Especially if you’re experiencing the same ol’ same ol’ digital stress. 

Are you overwhelmed and frustrated with your tech?  Is it sucking the lifeblood out of you?  Are big swathes of time disappearing into the tech void?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Honest.

I know from experience.

Picture taken in Antelope Canyon.

I’m writing this on a chilly day in the desert where a load of family recently gathered for the holidays, including one of my kiddos. 

I don’t mean to brag (hmmmm) but I managed to raise two fabulous kiddos who are bright, articulate, keen observers of human behavior, and wildly creative.

So when one of them said I was too distracted by my Apple Watch I got to thinking.

And thinking.

And thinking.

Then I set about.

I gathered some data.

I looked at the average screen time for him, myself, and his dad (my partner).

Turns out my kiddo and my screen time are about the same.  

Note: If you have an iPhone you can go to settings and then screen time and poof, the deep dive into your screen time will appear, including what apps you’re on most and for how long.

I realized my kiddo’s consternation came mostly from me checking my watch’s notifications.

Well, that and taking his photo, but that’s another blog post. (In my defense we don’t see each other often because we live on different continents.)

Then I thought of you.

And I decided to share three ways to nab some digital wellness, based on how much time you have and what your needs are.

Here’s my toe, dip, and dive recipe for some ease.

Toe

If you have a scant few minutes, don’t worry, you can still accomplish a lot simply by putting your toe into your digital wellness.

For me, that meant looking at my iPhone apps..  I realized their placement on my screen was an important symbol of my life priorities.

As I access my apps all the time, I’d be reinforcing my priorities.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.  It took me about five minutes to rearrange my apps.

Hint: I put my health and wellness apps, like my Insight Timer meditation app and my Apple Fitness app first, in the upper right-hand corner.

Action: prioritize your apps by their placement on your home screen.

Dip

If you have a bit more time to focus on your digital wellness, then consider a dip.  Consider going up to your digital waist.

It takes a little more time but the results are bigger as well.

Based on my kiddo’s frustration with me checking my watch notifications I realized it was ages since I’d paid attention to my specific notifications.

I dug into my settings and turned off a ton of notifications – mostly on my Apple Watch but I could have done the same on my phone as well.

Action: if notifications are nabbing your time and attention when you don’t want them to, then go to your notification settings and … wait for it…. turn them off. See.  Told you it was easy.

Dive

If your digital wellness is a big, hairy, hot priority for you at the moment and you’ve got the time, first off kudos and congrats.

Second of all, here’s an idea to take a deep dive.

What’s one area that is a huge time suck for most people?

Wait for it.

Email!

Does this resonate for you?

If so, consider putting aside some time in the next few weeks and working towards email zero inbox.

A couple of years ago, I embarked on a goal – inbox zero.  It’s actually not what it sounds like – a completely empty inbox.  Rather it’s an inbox that typically has a small number of emails in it rather than a cringe-inducing, pull-your-hair-out, overwhelming number.

I’m happy, relieved, and somewhat amazed to say that while it did take a deep effort and a total dive into the subject, I’ve been able to stick with it.  

I wrote a whole post about it so check it out if you’re ready for this deep dive.

Action: if you have the time and emails are causing you migraines use my blog post above to achieve inbox zero.

As the new year starts to unfold, if your digital wellness is on your mind, if you’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, then decide how much time you have to dedicate to this key topic.  Toe, dip, or dive.  Each one is very valid and has its own payoffs.

Then go for it.  

Now go on and learn, laugh, and lead

Learn

• Pick your pleasure – toe, dip, and/or dive. Then go for it. Make your plan.

Laugh

• Speaking of notifications, that time when your phone rings during a live concert.

Lead

• Implement implement implement. Don’t just think about it, do it.

P.S.

• Have you nabbed your spot in this week’s Learning and Development Roundtable on how to create a learning plan that fits you to a T?  No?  Whatcha waiting for?  More info here.  Register here for the free workshop now.