Digital Detox

Howdy all!

As the saying goes online, this isn’t an airport you don’t have to announce when you’re leaving (or arriving in this case). But since I know most here are tech nerds like me, I thought I’d annou…share this to get feedback, recommendations, and any ideas from others that are in this digital tech space. 

Phone

I try to take a digital detox once or twice a year. This consists of deleting every app from my phone except ones that are important. So a couple financial apps, the default iPhone apps, and GroupMe because this is how we communicate with my son’s BoyScout troop. This time I went extra hard core and delete any music and podcast apps, yikes!

I also nuke any app or social media accounts. Sometimes I’ll do the download my data they offer. But usually there’s nothing important there that I’d want to reference later. I keep certain ones that I know I’ll want to come back to like thurrott.com :). 

I try to make a concerted effort to stay off my phone as much as possible. When I’m working from home or at the office I leave my phone on my desk. When I go to lunch or take a coffee break. When I’m at home I leave it in the kitchen just incase I need to take an important phone call. 

Phone Texts

I also delete all my texts. I save any pictures, links, specific texts to Photos or a specific note in Apple Notes if I think I’ll need it for later. This can be hard to do but it’s such a relief once they’re deleted and have a “clean slate” in Messages. 

Computer

I delete any apps that fall into the “that’s cool I’ll install it and check it out later” category. Which is a lot…ugh. But this helps to keep me from being distracted and doing productive things on my computer versus wasting time “checking software and websites out.”

Browser

I export my bookmarks to an HTML file that goes to into my iCloud backup, iCloud > Personal > Bookmarks “Safari Bookmarks October 2023”. I also delete my entire browser history on my MacBook Air, iPhone, and iPad. I figure if a site was important to me I’ll remember it. Or if I can’t I can reference my archived bookmarks.

Subscriptions

I don’t renew any entertainment subscriptions if they come due during this detox. My Thurrott and Spotify membership expired during this time. 

The results for me.

It’s like a yoke being taken off my back or a fog being lifted, seriously. I can focus more on a singular task without FOMO hitting me. I can do yard work without my silly looking AirPods in my ear and spending 10 minutes “having to” queue up podcasts, YouTube videos, or the perfect playlist to do work. I just go to work. Like people used to do back into pre-smartphone days 00’s and 90’s.

I go to the library and check out those things we used to read call books 🙂 lol. I can read without my mind wondering thinking about what’s on my social media feeds, my RSS feeds, what notifications I’m hearing on my phone, sending funny memes to my friends, etc. I read a ton of saved articles in Omnivore. And many I was like way did I save this lol? I wrote more in my journal. Spent more time doing the proverbial “touching grass.” Watched a lot of movies and shows with my wife and kids. Nothing amazing but good memories laughing and eating. 

But now I’m jacked back into the Matrix. I slowly jump back into the socials. Installing the time waster apps and games. The tech wave is just hard to resist. 

So do any of ya’ll do anything like this? Take digital breaks from your devices and apps. Do you have any tips or recommendations? This was my longest break October/November till this month, March. Sorry if there’s any miss-spelling etc. really just a steam of consciousness post here. Great to be back on Thurrott.com!