#OffMode: 9 Reasons Why Now is the Best Time to Disconnect & Cut Back

#OffMode | Business | Digital Lifestyle | Experience Design | Featured | Field Notes | Lifestyle | Management | Performance | Personal Development | Social Media

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The largest contributor to personal and professional burnout, anxiety and depression currently overwhelming you is in your pocket, on your desk, and in your bag. And there’s a simple little practice to keep it all in check, stay balanced, and operating optimally. It’s called #OffMode and doing it right can get you back to your high performing self again.

In part 1 of this 5 part series, it’s worth noting these 9 really big problems dragging down your performance and happiness at work and at home.

Think about the big, hairy, ugly factors driving up anxiety over the past few years. Here are 9, off the top of my head:

Trying to discern useful information from a sea of noise and operate on it, juggling the faux performance of entrepreneurship and business with the realities of running a practice.
Once upon a time, social media used to be a safe place for you to connect with your friends. But then one day, your parents, grandparents, relatives, and boss hopped on, they had you use it to uphold their standards and watched your every move. Whether for work or to maintain face, the overarching engagement changed into a #fakespace where you feel pressured to be vanilla and not offend anyone, and chase fake Internet points.
People are more fake, reserved, unhappy, disengaged, disingenuous and self-absorbed than ever before. And people includes you. If you look at literacy rates, they’re even getting dumber by the minute.
Every aspect of your digital social life is now subject to be politically correct and requires a public relations manager or HR approval.
Even leisure & entertainment have been hyper-politicized. Pick your movie series, sports league, clothing line, musical talent, movie star, or CEO. Chances are, you can’t see, hear or read about them without feeling more anxiety as to their angle or underlying message.
Staying quiet and polite about all of it creates its own anxieties. For example, are you silent for the right reasons? Do you feel pressured or intimidated by an overwhelming force (mob/boss)? Is that bullying? Is silence the best response to that pressure?
The news media and clickbait kingpins have found their way to ratings and clicks by maximizing your #outrage porn to keep you mad and divided.
To top it off, all the #hustle porn that pressures you to work around the clock, and if you don’t then you’re worthless.
Your caffeine habit is helping to keep you in a heightened state of anxiety you now confuse for being busy and/or productive. This, in turn, keeps you in a self-reinforcing feedback loop of anxiety, and busyness to feel “normal or secure”.

Think about it. How much of this artificial noise is bogging you down? Does it really have or bring meaning to your life? Is it serving you?

ENOUGH.

At least enough with all the noise. The caffeine habit you can kick later, but surely if your digital lifestyle has overrun your life, you need and deserve a break. Get in the habit of taking structured, strategic low-fi breaks, so you can run optimally. Cultivate an OffMode discipline to maximize your OnMode performance.

Check Out The Rest Of The Series