Let’s face it— digital detox is being forced upon us more often now than usual, and it bears a lot of anxiety, especially from the recent major outage that happened in Facebook and its apps. Committing to an offline lifestyle requires some courage and preparation to reign in the social media itch, making our fingers reach out to all those apps like a reflex. So imagine when it happens again, what can you do instead to fill in your recreational needs?
An instance where you nor your peers can’t like, comment, share or click on anything indeed seems like a metaphor for the world to be on a grave stand-still. Taking cues from the latest outage, have you considered how one spends time effectively at work without the occasional 30-seconds to browse on your favourite social platforms as a mental palate cleanser? Personally, I feel we all need to devise our very own digital detox survival pack when we are forced to experience one. When it happened, I went to check Twitter to see if there was a hiccup, as one does, and surely enough, it was. What usually lasted a few minutes turned out to be hours, and grateful for my geographical location, I headed to bed while the other half of the world struggled for the next seven or odd hours.
It got me thinking about the digital detox I attempted several times for the health of my mental state. Our brains are so wired with tapping and scrolling these apps, so when a digital detox takes place, you will notice how your finger moves like autopilot to click on your heavily consumed apps. So the first thing I suggest is temporarily deleting or hiding these apps when a situation calls for them. Step one done, now what? Now that you have gotten rid of the “drug”, plan your new offline life strategically and somewhat treat it like a checklist of tasks to strike off as you complete, one by one.
We love a good list at GoTraining, so something in the decluttering nature topped my list. I wish I were an organized type-A person; however, one can dream. But in times of emergency (yes, social media crashes is an emergency), you will be surprised how resilient you can be with things you usually procrastinate with. I tasked myself to overhaul my phone and laptop folders for a massive decluttering. Just like how Marie Kondo taught us, I started with a “delete”, “keep”, and “organize later” folder for all my contents. This alone bears a lot of work, but it is a worthy task to conquer, even if it is the only task to complete for the day.
If decluttering device contents seem ambitious for you, you can try something more entertaining such as deleting unwanted contacts. I find this somewhat therapeutic because we often forget our contact book on our phones that stay updated with new contact numbers for years, but let’s be frank, how often do we go back to that random vendor we saved six years back from an event? Is the vendor even in business anymore? This applies to all your email accounts, too, as it is an ideal time to unsubscribe from a mailing list you no longer need. In the same vein, you can also tackle your messaging apps and delete all those spam and notifications messages eating away from your cloud storage. With every storm, you get a rainbow at the end, eating away from too, especially a rainbow which now offers you 1 GB worth of freed up storage for all your screenshots and selfies.
When was the last time did you back up your work? Although you are not entirely “offline” in the bigger picture, the offline lifestyle isn’t bad. It is simply an effective measure to furnish your productivity practices in check. Perform backups and inventories for all your intellectual properties, whether for your job or side hustle. Speaking of side hustle, I use this distraction-free time as an opportunity to put in hours into it that otherwise spent on mindless scrolling makeup and cat content. To take it up a notch, you can also consider this grace period as a call for something educated, like catching up on your reading or enrolling in a short course. GoTraining champions a lifelong-learning mindset, offering classes for your consumption at your own pace. Perhaps when a crash happens again, it could be a good idea to learn a skill?
