Do You Need a Digital Detox?

Do You Need a Digital Detox?

Podcasts are a relatively new addition to my lifestyle.   Life gets very busy with family, work and play.  As a result, reading time begins to get reduced so podcast fill a bit of this void by keeping me current on nutrition, exercise and wellness. But this does add to how much I am ‘plugged in’ every day.

I recently listened to a timely Chris Kresser podcast on a ‘digital detox’.

Why detox?

• Do you often have difficulty sustaining attention in tasks?
• Do you often have difficulty listening when one is speaking to you directly?
• Do you often have difficulty organizing tasks and activities?
• Do you often avoid or dislike or are you often reluctant to engage in tasks that require really sustained mental effort?
• Are you often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli, like an email coming in or a text message or something like that?  Does that often distract you from what you’re doing?

Answered ‘yes’ to any or many of these? Unfortunately, those are essentially the diagnostic criteria for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).  Sounds like its definitely time for a digital detox!

Watching and listening to podcasts and videos, allows me to keep up with recent research and findings in nutrition, exercise and healing the body.

Although integrating digital resources with home life becomes a challenge.  Multitasking often creates inefficiency.  This is an area that I work on daily.

How do we unplug?

Make a habit of having one day per week with no interactions with any type of screen (no checking email, text, social media, browsing the web or undirected searching).  Another option is to decide on a time in the afternoon or evening  to cut off all screen time for the day. Getting rid of reminders or alerts on devices is also a must to unplug and decrease daily stress.

Now you have time you never knew you had to do any of these:

• New hobby
• New instrument
• Hang out with family and friends
• Engage your other senses
• Journal
• Meditate
• Plan your week, day, month, year, etc.
• Plan a vacation
• Physical activity: walking, lifting weights, gardening, swim, bike, run, class at the gym
• Have someone else check your emails with permission to call or text if emergency that you personally have to deal with
• Do what you love
• Have fun and laugh
• Learn breathing techniques
• Sleep 8-9 hours/night
• train you Heart Rate Variability

(Thanks to http://edjudo.com/the-power-of-a-positive-digital-footprint-for-students.html for image)