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Digital Detox Experiment: Leave your phone in the car

It’s been a really busy time in the life of the Wise Geek. Lots happening in both the business and personal sides of my life.

During one of these super-busy days, the week-day started like any other: Alarm at 6:30am, hit snooze, hug my cat who jumps onto my bed, proceed to ignore snooze alarms until 7am… and then a frenzy of activity until I leave the house at 8am. In all of this hurried activity I forgot my phone. I only noticed this once I had arrived at the office car park. I parked in my usual spot and opened the center console/armrest where I keep my phone while driving.
Shit. No phone.

Now what? I can’t drive back as I just got here and my office is 20 miles away. Oh well, lets just remember it tomorrow…
However, something interesting happened in my mindset that day. I just felt more chilled, less anxious, relaxed and was able to focus on my day-to-day work much more effectively.

I also noticed a change in small habits like not reaching for my phone to check emails and stuff during toilet breaks and tea breaks. Not walking everywhere with my head lowered towards the screen like some kind of zombie. Instead I was able to “look up” and breathe deeply a bit more that day. I just felt more human and less on-edge.
In short I had experienced an involuntary “digital detox”.

A digital detox is a concept where-by you willingly give up checking things with a screen for some time, eg. a phone, laptop, computer… The idea is that it lets you get some balance back by stepping out of the digital bubble created by WhatsApp, email, texts, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.

A bunch of hippy-dippy nonsense? Maybe. All I can say is that it worked for me 🙂

So much so that the next day I decided to keep my phone in the car at the start of the day and then only check it at 5pm when I finished work for the day.
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That day and the following days I felt the same chilled, relaxed sense of calm. I really did.

So, I would encourage yoiu – nay, I would challenge you to try it. Leave the phone somewhere inaccessible at the start of the day and see how you feel. Try to keep it up for 5 days in a row and monitor your feelings and moods before and after.

I think you might be surprised at the results. If so, what does that say about modern life and how everyone seems to be glued to their screens these days?