Clean Up Your Digital Life

Previously, in How To Break Up With Your Phone… I was about to embark on my first Digital Detox. Stay tuned to find out how that went and how it may have led me to a clean up of all things digital in my life.

This is the fourth instalment in the ‘How To Break Up With Your Phone’ Series. Click here to find out how the challenge has gone so far.

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22: How did the detox go?

It’s been a while since I last posted and some people (*cough* my mum) have been waiting to find out how the detox went. I had a 24-hour detox in mid-May, and there was a lot of preparation involved.

When it came to the actual day, it was a Thursday, and I ended up at work for most of the day. I have to use computers at work, and while I didn’t use them for personal use at all, it made me feel a little like I wasn’t fulfilling the detox properly.

This made the challenge a lot easier than it would have been had I completed it on a weekend or non-work day. In fact, I might even go so far as to say I enjoyed the separation away from screens. It was a little odd waking up and not having a screen in front of my face within minutes. Or to arrive home and not mindlessly binge watch a few episodes of The Office while I decompress from the day.

Instead, I spent the time I would have been looking at a screen, reading. Which was a lot of fun, but not very realistic in the long run. I think that was my main takeaway from the detox. How do I use this experience to inform my screen use in real life? 

^{I would like to do another detox soon, but for longer or at least for a full day without any screens.}

I found it harder to get myself motivated after work as there was just me, myself and I to pass the time. It felt quiet and lonely than if I was on social media or watching a favourite show. Without that familiarity and comfort, I was forced to face my thoughts and emotions.

Luckily, that day I was generally feeling positive, but as someone who struggles with their mental health, I do find myself relying on screens. I have spent the majority of my days in front of a screen since I was about 15 years old, and I do find them to be a bit of a comfort blanket.

If I’m feeling down, or anxious, or anything else remotely negative, I can reach for my phone, laptop, or TV remote, and find a distraction. Without that, it’s a little scary to think of how I would have coped in the past, or how I would cope in the future if I had no access to screens.

I would adjust, I’m sure, but for the moment, screens are my crux and I am fine about that. There are many positives to screens – socialising, entertainment, education… So I choose to focus on the bright side rather than the negatives. 

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23: Trying a ‘Phast’

Instead of an all-out detox, separated from all screens for a significant period of time, I am more open to trying a ‘phast’, (short for ‘phone fast’) Some regular short ‘phast’s may be a good opportunity to keep my screen use in check.

A ‘phast’ isn’t meant to be a punishment, but rather the opposite. Price (author of the book this challenge is based on) urges us to continue experimenting with ‘phasts’; “The more regularly you ‘phast’, the less you will be drawn toward your phone during the rest of your day.” 

I like the idea, and agree with it in theory, so shall start by implementing one ‘phast’ a day into my routine. So, I’m going to try ‘phasting’ before going to sleep, instead only reading is allowed.

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24: Manage Your Invitations

Day 24 of the challenge is about dealing with invitations. And no, not those lovely invitations you get to go to your friends birthday party, or an invite to drinks after work. These are the invitations that are sent by your own brain. That’s right, we all have them. Those niggling thoughts at the back of your head, that prompts you to check your phone. Whether it’s in the middle of a meeting or the middle of the night, these invitations seem to keep coming, consciously or not. And it can be a battle to ignore the call of the screen.

Today, Price wants us to try to notice some of the invitations (both phone and non-phone related) that your brain is sending. Then, make a conscious decision about how you want to respond. Instead of immediately reacting with your emotions, we need to take a second to decide how we consciously want to react.

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25: Clean Up Your Digital Life

This then leads to the last section of the week, which I think has been the most useful part of the challenge so far! Now we set about tidying up the other parts of our digital lives. 

This is in two sections: email and social media, as they tend to be the digital clutter that dominates our screen time. Here are some tips for cleaning up!

Email:

1. Unsubscribe! If that feels overwhelming can search for apps that “automatically unsubscribe you from email”.
2. Free yourself from your inbox. You don’t have to respond immediately to every email. You don’t even need to be aware of them arriving. Especially if the notification is distracting you from your main work purpose. There are plugins to restrict what times, or how many times a day, your emails can be accessed.
3. I’m sure you already utilise this function, but you could consider an ‘inbox’ for your inbox, by going a step further and creating a folder for those that ‘need response’, perhaps even sorted by importance.
4. Retail account. Set up an account that you only use to buy things, that way you can keep this separate from important emails.
5. VIP List. Your boss, best friend, your mum… there are people whose emails you don’t want to miss. Add these to a curated VIP list. Consider turning on notifications only for these senders. Or to a dedicated VIP folder which you check first.
6. When you return from a break away from emails you can end up with a major backlog. Important deadlines can be hidden by spam, so an idea is to create a dedicated new account. This account can be added to your Out of Office as a way of contacting you when people need an urgent response, or it is particularly important to catch up on when you return.

Social Media:

1. Whether you’ve decided to keep social media on your phone or not, your accounts may still be in need of pruning. Unfollow accounts you don’t care about and/or make you feel negatively in any way.
2. Create lists focused on different areas of your life. For instance, on Twitter, you can make one list of your industry, one of friends and family, one of a subject you’re interested in etc.
3. If you use social media for work, consider a separate professional profile.
4. It is a good idea to add somewhere on your profile how often you check the account.
5. Explore the account settings for each social media account. Check you are happy with them and keep your privacy and data settings up to date.
6. Many websites give the option of signing in with a social media account. Unless you absolutely must, do not use this option. It is best to keep accounts separate as much as possible. Not only is this better for security reasons, but it can be mentally better to keep accounts separate too.

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Next time: Join me very soon for the very last instalment of the challenge. Have I broken up with my phone? Find out next time!

Disclaimer: Excerpts have been quoted directly from the book, ‘How To Break Up With Your Phone’ by Catherine Price.