OOPSIE DOOPSIE

Well, that week certainly ran away from me – in a big way. And because I didn’t get my Thursday Thoughts post up on the actual day, I thought I would take the time to do it today. No harm in a two-day tardy post, right? 🙂

During the past week, something became very apparent to me – the level of screen attachment I have is RIDICULOUS. A quick and dirty calculation of my time spent with my eyes on a screen is roughly 68 hours (give or take), which is basically 50% of my week. (GROSS.) And I’m willing to bet that it’s not just me that has this type of digital time, but also you and you and you and you and you. Not to point so many fingers, but the way we place dependency on our technological screens is crazy…and exhausting.

Although I would love to hold true to a promise that I could take a month, or even a week, away from digital devices, that’s just not realistic. And I bet it’s not realistic for many of you. Many of us depend on this technology because of our careers. And the other part? To keep us connected to friends, family, or provide that quick 15 minutes pinning-fix. Whatever the case may be, it’s part of our lives. Here to stay. And I’m struggling with how good and/or bad that is for my life.

Although when I come home from work, where the majority of my daily digital screen intake occurs, and try to devote 3-4 hours to my family, you can bet that when my night starts to wind down, I’m checking my work email on my phone, sending that last tweet, responding to a text message, and pinning ideas for my darling’s first birthday. Whew. Yeah. And is it worth it? Do I need to have those extra digital moments in my day or could I hold off, take those extra moments for myself, decompress in a non-digital way, and go to sleep without my head buzzing?

Of course I can! So, now I’m starting to integrate this into my routine – digital-down-time. I won’t call it a “challenge”, because I don’t want this to be seen as something that is difficult or tedious. I want it to be a welcomed change of pace. Something that will make me a better person.

Here is my new routine – *drumroll please*:

Two nights out of the week, I will not touch a digital screen once I walk through my front door. Friday nights do not count as I am always “digitally unavailable” on Fridays.

These two nights will belong to me, my friends, family, and most importantly to my daughter and husband. Sure, some of you out there might think this is silly or wonder why I’m integrating this into a routine. But think about this – how often do we just “check our phone” for 5 minutes on Facebook or respond to work mail right before we hit the pillow? It’s done without a second thought.  I’m going to take a second and remember it’s okay to be without a screen for a moment. And relax.

Sound good? If you are willing to join, let me know! I would love for us to make sure that we take time for ourselves, for our family, for our friends, and just unwind – reconnect – live without technology, even if it’s just for a little while. What do ya say??