Most of the major downers driving depression, anxiety and hindering your performance exist or are strongly connected to your digital habits on the web, and they spill over into the real world. It’s time to address this with a disciplined practice of some strategic disconnects – we call it #OffMode.
You need and deserve to cultivate a personal and professional #OffMode discipline.
#OffMode – is a disciplined practice of strategic disconnects from your digital lifestyle. There are varying levels, depending on your need, so you can create a little breathing room from it all, to regroup and re-evaluate.
In case you missed it. This is 3rd instalment of a 5 part series on OffMode. Here are the previous articles:
- Part 1 – 9 Reasons Why Now is the Best Time to Disconnect & Cut Back
- Part 2 – When You Cut Out The Noise & Lights What You Hear & See May Scare & Excite You
If you’re as wound tight as I was, and your wife, friends, and therapist are concerned, it’s time to start unplugging, powering certain things down, at least for a little while. You need to take a break from the noise so that you can hear your own voice again and re-align with the real world.
I’m not a purist – I’m not going to tell you to give up or delete your digital lifestyle, but rather, refine it in a healthy way.
Your #OffMode Practice is as essential to your health as sleep or working out. We are to that point as a society.
A Solid #OffMode Practice consists of 4 broad elements:
- No or low tech – This means at most, screen time at its dullest, just you, your thoughts and a blinking cursor.
- No or slow Internet Access – It’s amazing how much more meaningful our behavior gets when the bandwidth is limited.
- Aware of and biasedly attentive to the real world – the space you’re in, your environment, the people you’re with or without, your own thoughts, feelings, and the needs of the moment. You know you’re really doing it right when the connection and engagement of the real world feel more rewarding and deserving of your attention, naturally than whatever you’re missing on the screen.
- Has a designated goal – call attention to what you want from your #OffMode and real-life experiences. This is what makes OffMode a strategic discipline. It has a meaningful goal. Maybe you’re joining an adult league sport to get healthy, develop better social skills and make some friends. If so, call it out. Write it down on a post-it note and tape it to your steering wheel in your car. Call out the purpose of what you’re doing. This will help you recognize how it is serving you – and by contrast, it will encourage you to question the purpose of other activities that may not be serving you.
Notice this gives you wiggle room. I’m no purist or minimalist. Keep it human. The pursuit of pure and perfect gets in the way of getting anything good done. I’m a growth-minded, meat-eating, life enjoying, adventurous health nut, and I know some of the things I enjoy, directly and indirectly, work against other goals I care about. Balancing things out is more manageable when you’re not resorting to extreme positions.
Check Out The Rest Of The Series
- Part 1 – 9 Reasons Why Now is the Best Time to Disconnect & Cut Back
- Part 2 – When You Cut Out The Noise & Lights What You Hear & See May Scare & Excite You
- Part 3 – The 4 Key Elements Of a Solid #OffMode Practice
- Part 4 – 4 Simple Ways To Help You Get Started With Your #OffMode
- Part 5 – #OffMode Options To Help You Reconnect With The Real World
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