It seems daunting but so long as you give people adequate notice you can definitely take two work days off without everything breaking when you get back. Even if it doesn’t feel that way
Been meaning to give this a read this week. Always fascinated to hear others thoughts on their attempts at a digital disconnect. For about a year or so I actively tried to keep my screen time under 1hr/day. Worked well enough but certainly difficult to do permanently. This piece inspired me to give this another shot, perhaps on the weekends or something as a happy medium.
Absolutely, low screen time is already really good. The difference between low and zero for a few days is still meaningful but less compared to somebody who is on their phone a lot
Brilliant article! Digital detoxing is great and I encourage more people to at least try it once.
I did it once during exam season at university to 'lock in' and it kinda went into overdrive as I unintentionally did it for about 2.5 months. it felt bliss and was refershing as I'm not distracted by short dopamine hits - the range of thoughts one can come up with when not distracted by screens is amazing. Minimising distractions whilst not detoxing is hard, but one thing I have done is set hard limits on app usage, particularly for social media apps e.g. 30 mins per week or something but not as extreme as that.
Thank you for the kind words! Yeah I did the same before CFA Level III. It was probably about 2 months as well. Only checked my phone in the morning and evening for a few minutes before bed, total screen time was like 30 mins per day and I was studying and doing practice tests with the booklets. My brain never worked better, that’s what max capacity was but don’t think I’ll ever get that again unfortunately.
Wonderful article, Ben, and a wonderful experience. I agree about the high value of long periods of uninterrupted focus. It was with the advent of email that I first experienced a world of constant interruptions, where one learned to interrupt one's thoughts. I never went as extreme as you just did, but over time I've taken lots of breaks from such interruptions. That has made a difference.
Thank you for the kind words Paul! It felt very nice and it’s funny it sounds extreme when we think back to this is how we lived until rather recently. The tricky part is trying to minimize the distractions when not doing the digital detox
Great article, Ben! Would love to try this someday!
Thank you for the kind words!
It seems daunting but so long as you give people adequate notice you can definitely take two work days off without everything breaking when you get back. Even if it doesn’t feel that way
Been meaning to give this a read this week. Always fascinated to hear others thoughts on their attempts at a digital disconnect. For about a year or so I actively tried to keep my screen time under 1hr/day. Worked well enough but certainly difficult to do permanently. This piece inspired me to give this another shot, perhaps on the weekends or something as a happy medium.
Absolutely, low screen time is already really good. The difference between low and zero for a few days is still meaningful but less compared to somebody who is on their phone a lot
love this idea! definitely want to try this in the next month or so!
You definitely should! Please let me know how it goes
You have my attention.
What an experience!
And thanks for the mention.
Of course! Thank you for all the great content
Brilliant article! Digital detoxing is great and I encourage more people to at least try it once.
I did it once during exam season at university to 'lock in' and it kinda went into overdrive as I unintentionally did it for about 2.5 months. it felt bliss and was refershing as I'm not distracted by short dopamine hits - the range of thoughts one can come up with when not distracted by screens is amazing. Minimising distractions whilst not detoxing is hard, but one thing I have done is set hard limits on app usage, particularly for social media apps e.g. 30 mins per week or something but not as extreme as that.
Thank you for the kind words! Yeah I did the same before CFA Level III. It was probably about 2 months as well. Only checked my phone in the morning and evening for a few minutes before bed, total screen time was like 30 mins per day and I was studying and doing practice tests with the booklets. My brain never worked better, that’s what max capacity was but don’t think I’ll ever get that again unfortunately.
Wonderful article, Ben, and a wonderful experience. I agree about the high value of long periods of uninterrupted focus. It was with the advent of email that I first experienced a world of constant interruptions, where one learned to interrupt one's thoughts. I never went as extreme as you just did, but over time I've taken lots of breaks from such interruptions. That has made a difference.
Thank you for the kind words Paul! It felt very nice and it’s funny it sounds extreme when we think back to this is how we lived until rather recently. The tricky part is trying to minimize the distractions when not doing the digital detox