I Need A Digital Detox... How About You?

How to declutter our digital lives...

This voiceover is an audio version of my Slow Sunday Letter below. It is unedited, so may have some stutters, imperfections, and background noise. (Book Lovers Chat is not included in this audio). I hope you enjoy listening to it anyway!

Welcome to Generosity of Spirit, a space to share my slow and gentle living philosophy. Please do subscribe to join me on this gentle journey of discovery and receive my Slow Sunday Letter straight into your inbox.

Welcome back to another Slow Sunday Letter! I hope you have had a slow and gentle week.

Don’t forget to scroll down for my latest Book Lovers Chat video! I’d love to know what you think as we build this community together.

I have slowly become more and more aware of my digital consumption and how much screen time I have day to day. My day job is at a computer, but outside my job- I write daily on a computer, I watch TV and I use my smart phone – way way too much. I started to wonder how much of my life I was spending just staring at a screen?

I need a digital detox, and I don’t know where to start. So – I thought I may not be alone and maybe some of you may feel like this too? In this week’s Slow Sunday Letter we are going to explore how to do a digital declutter and reduce our screen time. So grab a cuppa, get cosy and let’s free ourselves of these digital chains!

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How Do We Get Started?

Do you feel overwhelmed by your digital life? Engulfed by notifications and emails? Do you feel constantly available and in demand? Is your smart phone always within arms reach? Do you need to rethink your boundaries with your devices?

The way we feel about our devices and digital consumption can really impact our lives, how we feel and our mood. If we can streamline our digital use, we could gain more control and intention over how we spend our time. We could create space in our lives for day dreaming, creative ideas, our own thoughts and real connections to those around us.

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Digital: Journal Prompts

As always, one of my first step when gravitating towards a new idea is to journal some thoughts down. Below are some journal prompts to help you reflect on your relationship with technology and how you use digital devices throughout the day.

What do you grab first thing in the morning?

What do you do last thing at night?

How would you describe your digital life?

Which area of your digital life is causing you the most stress?

How quickly do you reply to texts/WhatsApp/emails?

Do you feel time pressured when you reply?

What aspects of your life do you feel are reliant on devices?

Do you feel overwhelmed with your digital life?

How do you feel when you use your devices?

What are your top three wishes when it comes to your digital life?

Digital Detox Challenge

1)       Social Media

Take the time to think about what you use your social media for… is it connection? Learning? Inspiration? Is it in line with your interests and how you live your life now?

Our lives constantly evolve as well as our interests and where our attention gravitates. On social media we are constantly accumulating noise, in the form of a follow or algorithms shoving new ideas into our faces.

A good first step is to try and declutter/unfollow on your social media account to create a space that is a little calmer, more joyful and a little more reflective of you.

You can unfollow or mute accounts to try and streamline what you are seeing every day. It may also be worth blocking or restricting certain accounts – perhaps news or marketing accounts that are overwhelming your news feed. I also think after this declutter, adopting a one in one out approach could help manage your space gently as you move forward.

2)       Emails

My emails are a mess … I don’t think I am alone, but I have subscribed to so many emails over the years that my emails are constantly full and day after day a new heap of emails lands in my inbox. Some are genuinely important, a lot are advertising and marketing, some are calls to action, some are personal, and some are work based.

I think learning how to categorise and prioritise your email inbox could be really helpful to feel more organised, and in control. But I think more importantly to create some boundaries in your availability and how in demand you feel.

Manually unsubscribing takes a lot of time… but there are so many unsubscribe apps to help the process. I had a quick google and found the top eight apps out there including mailstrom, leave me alone, sane-box. Taking the time to filter your inbox is a relatively easy way to gain back some control and feel almost instantly better knowing that the volume of incoming emails is going to be reduced.

In order to help tidy up my inbox, I have thought about creating more folders to organise emails as they come in. In the short term this takes a fair amount of time, but moving forward it should really help prioritise and not lose important emails in the main inbox.

3)       Apps

I counted how many apps I have on my phone – and it was nearly one hundred! Some of these apps came with the phone, but a lot of them I had downloaded.

A lot of these apps I didn’t even recognise, some were doubles or very similar, and plenty I had either never used or had downloaded and used once or twice. I think spending some time deleting apps that you do not use is so important and turning notifications off on your phone.

I hadn’t realised, but nearly all my apps had notifications turned on, so before I even opened my phone, I had a massive list of notifications. I had absentmindedly got in the habit of deleting the notifications – never even reading them rather than actually taking the time to turn the notifications off or delete these unwanted apps.

Getting in the habit of regularly deleting apps that you do not use, or similarly apps you use all the time maybe out of habit or boredom- is a powerful way to take control back and create some space and clarity.

4)       Digital Swaps

Is there a part of your digital life that you can return to physical form?

I love journals and notebooks and use physical notebooks a lot. I use a programme call notion that is a digital organiser and I love it, but sometimes there is real value in using physical notebooks for certain things. A wall calendar is useful, a book journal, a birthday diary, or a small notebook that you have with you at all times, can help move your focus from screens.

This year I have started to use a physical diary for the first time in years. I still rely on my google calendar but having a real diary and crossing things off has been really nice and weirdly satisfying! It is something I want to do more of as I move away from screens as much as possible.

I also recommend having a book to hand throughout the day. Instead of carrying my phone around I want to start having my book within arms reach instead. I have also put a basket of books by my bed so rather than staring into blue light and doom scrolling before bed, and as soon as I wake up in the morning, instead I reach into my basket and grab a book. Sometimes it is my current read, but I also included some poetry books and some short stories in the hope it would feel easier even if I don’t have much time. So far so good! And I love how I can change up the books in my basket according to mood or season.  

5)       Photos

My phone is always packed to the rafters with photos, screenshots, and videos. Our visual data is so important, we have so many photos and memories stored on our phones. But you don’t need all your photos on your phone. I think the most valuable thing you can do is to create a back up, using an external hard drive, Synology or cloud based and then you can regularly clear your phone down.

My Husband recently helped me do this, and I cannot tell you how good it felt to mass delete images/videos I had held on to for years in my phone. I could still easily access the photos (on another app – swings and roundabouts!) but they weren’t adding up day after day in my folders and overwhelming me.

Something I used to do regularly, and would like to do again - is getting photos printed and creating albums. Physical albums are such a lovely way to pull those memories from digital form and ground them in your life.

I think a good aim, is to review your photos every season and print some or create albums. It is just a lovely habit and again helps streamline how many photos you have stored in your phone.  

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Claim Back Your Time

Not only do I hope this digital detox will help me quieten the noise, quell the overwhelm, give me back some control and help me use devices in a way that serves me rather than being a slave to them – I also think it could create more time.

When I looked honestly at how much screen time I had, through my day job, writing daily and then additionally with my phone use, and watch hours on YouTube and TV in general - I was actually shocked and a little embarrassed.

I was making myself time poor. I want to change this more than anything.

We do have time – it just depends on what and where we are choosing to spend our time. I needed a little shake and a reminder that I have the power to direct my focus and make better decisions.

We have all had that moment, when you grab your phone start scrolling and then blink and 20 minutes, 30 minutes or more has just flown by.

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Fun Things – Digital Free

Let’s create a list of fun things to do that are digital free! I have included my own list here, but write your own and then post it somewhere you see often. Next time you feel like you are gravitating towards screens, or digital distractions look at your list, pick one and do it!

My Fun Digital Free Activities

• Reading

• Going Outside – walking or just sitting outside in the fresh air

• Nature Journaling

• Cooking or Baking

• Puzzles

• Doing some artwork

• Chatting with a friend or family member

• Making a heart-warming drink

• Knitting

• Helping someone

• Gardening

• Shopping or window shopping

• Going to a bookstore or the library

• Create a cosy space to relax in

• Have a bubble bath

• Have a nap

• Pottering

• Learning something new

• Go to a Café

• Meditation or sound-bath

• Spending time with family or friends

• Indulging in a sweet treat

• Playing a game

• Colouring-in

• Journaling or Writing Prompts

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Book Lovers Chat

Welcome to this week’s Book Lovers Chat! This week I finished Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree and started my second ever Emily Henry book - Happy Place.

Legends & Lattes was such a fun and quick read. I loved the main character Viv - but the supporting characters are all wonderful. I felt like I was right there with them in their coffee shop in Thune - smelling the coffee and fresh pastries from the oven. It is a solid 3 star read, and I will definitely be picking up the prequel Bookshops & Bonedust!

Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

Good Reads

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Be Digitally Free

Writing this Slow Sunday Letter has really helped me make sense of my thoughts and feelings around my digital overwhelm, and I genuinely feel like I have got a better plan in place now to start this detox, declutter and reduce my screen time. Living in a digital world has so many benefits, but we must make sure that we remain in control of our consumption, so that our digital tools are helping us and benefiting our lives not overwhelming them and losing us time.

I really hope this has been useful to you too? If you have any tips or suggestions yourself, I’d love to hear in the comments…

Thank you for being here,

With Light & Love

Emily xxx

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