When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing. Sometimes you just need to relax, breathe, let go and live in the moment. – Unknown
If you are a driven, ambitious, go-getter, the idea of taking a rest day, going unplugged and slowing down can feel baffling, counter-intuitive and well ain’t nobody got time for that. What if I told you that giving yourself a break every once in a while on a consistent basis can improve your productivity, would you do it?
I can hear you telling me “You have so much going on and not enough time in the day to get it all done, let alone take time off!” Yet you are right now walking the tight rope of crash and burn. You are getting sick more often than not, you are experiencing mood swings and your body is on complete exhaustion. Then its time to take a break from technology and your online life and shift the focus back to the things that matter- you and your wellbeing!
Going Unplugged: The Counterintuitive Way to Increase Your Energy
Baby steps – Unplugging…
Instead of banning technology altogether from our life what I want to share is a few simple baby steps that you can incorporate into your daily life that will increase your productivity, your mood and overall feeling good.
Implementing Morning Ritual
If the first thing you do in the morning is pick up your phone to check your email, Facebook and other notifications then it’s time to spice things up a bit. What if you pause for 20 minutes? Use this time to perhaps focus on your beauty routine or read the paper or nourish yourself with tea and free-writing. Those first 20 minutes in the morning can set the tone for the rest of your day.
Notice that by allowing to focus on you and taking an action that nourishes mind/body and soul will allow you to find strength and courage to face the rest of your day with grace.
Social Media Unplugged
During my working hours, I limit my Facebook newsfeed time-suck to only 10 minutes per day. It started out an experiment on how would I feel if I spend less time online and more time offline. I felt refresh, rejuvenated and more present into the things that matter.
Believe it or not, our constant level of “engagement” is completely draining us our energy. It is time to give it a rest for a bit!
Brief Midday Walking Break
If you work in an office and you are sitting in front of a computer all day, then taking a 10-minute break is needed. Your eyes need a rest, your body needs movement, and well you need a bit of sanity, I encourage you to take a short 10-minute break and go for a brisk wall around the office or perhaps go outside and walk around the block.
Moving your body allows for endorphins and other happy hormones to be released. It also creates space for new ideas and solutions to come up.
Implementing Computer Free Zone Evenings
In order to ease ourselves into sleep mode, we have to disconnect ourselves from technology. phones, and other media that activates our brain by 9/10pm at the latest. We need to stop lying to ourselves that we don’t need sleep. Trust me you need it! You can see and feel the difference when you don’t get enough sleep.
Use your evenings to spend time decompressing. Allowing yourself to just be. Relax. Yup rest! Allow your mind/body/soul go into active recovery phase.
Weekly “Vacation Mode” day
As I noticed the benefits of going unplugged more and more, I knew that adding one weekend day as my designated unplugged day was just in order.
In my case this tends to be Saturday’s as my vacation day. I focus my attention on nourishing my offline life. This may mean I will sleep in late, meet up with friends for lunch or a walk in the city. This is my day to go to the farmer’s market and come up with my weekly menu. This is the ultimate restorative day that allows me to reconnect with the things that matter.
As you implement different daily baby steps to go unplugged, I encourage to notice what changes come up. Notice if your energy and productivity does increase? Check in if you need that extra cup of caffeine boost?
Do you feel happier or more stressed out?
Photo Source