Top 8 Digital Self-Care Habits (digital detox tips)📱💻

    There are more ways to create a better relationship with technology, and online world. Some ways we can practice a little bit more self-care and create boundaries around technology, and social media. These definitely have an impact on our mental health and our self-esteem. So we need to do a bit of a digital detox often on regular basis. 

1. Screen time 

    Determine how much time you are spending on your phone, computer, or social media. You can do this on your own by tracking yourself, a setting on your phone called screen time that allows you to see how much you are spending on apps, and how many times you are picking up your phone. Once we were able to become a little bit more aware of that, we can start to set those boundaries for ourselves and you can do this to set phone usage or app usage limits on your phone as well. 

 

2. Turn off notifications 

    Turning off all push notifications that all beeps and vibrations. Shutting those off, don't even have those enabled on your phone. If there is a time in a place where you do actually want to make sure you receive notification in which case that's perfectly fine but in general on a regular basis if we have those push notifications turned on, then we are so much more distracted. So you can do is set your own schedule for when you are going to be checking notifications. This can help you to stay away from your phone as much as possible.  

 

3. Start your day tech-free 

    Try to have a tech-free morning by refraining from checking your phone, email, and social media when you first get up. It really can make a difference and how you feel mentally and emotionally. It can influence your mental health when that's not the first thing that you check. So allowing yourself to set the tone for your day in a totally different way by getting up and giving yourself some time to enjoy your morning even if 20 mins before you check your phone. 

 

4. Take intentional breaks 

    Take breaks whether this is a couple of days or an entire weekend leave your phone at home and not feel the need to bring it with you everywhere you go. When we take breaks were able to do other things that are available to us getting outside and getting creative writing or doing cooking, reading is such a great way to bring people together. In today's world, we need more human-to-human connections.

 

5. Document mindfully

    This is the other habit is to not feel the need to take photos of every single thing you are doing to document, and record things but we can get caught up in this. When we need to document or share what we are doing that it takes us away from the moments that we could otherwise be fully enjoying and being present with people. Be intentional about putting them away and being present with the people that we are spending time with and the activities we are doing.

 

6. Adjust what you're exposed to 

    Adjusting what you are being exposed to might be deleting apps that you don't need or you want to take a break from or rearranging apps on your phone, so it's less automatic for you to click on them. It encourages you to pause a little bit before opening up an app. 

    It can be quite addicting, we feel the urge sometimes to check and we have to be aware of that. Then we have to break free from it a little bit and not constantly get in the habit of feeling like checking up on things all the time. Unfollow people who don't make you feel great because it will help you not to compare other people with yourself.

 

7. Protect your eyes

    Protecting your vision from blue light that comes off of our screens can negatively affect our eyes especially if we are exposed to it continuously. There is a couple of things that you can do, wearing blue light protective glasses are really useful if you are on your phone or computer in the evening. Another thing you can do is to turn on the night shift or dark mode which adjusts the color of the screen to a warm one. So it's a little bit gentle on the eyes.

 

8. Switch tasks to your laptop 

    Switching certain tasks from your phone to your laptop. Not only is it better for more ergonomic but it's also better for your posture and body alignment. It is also more productive. When you are doing things on your desktop, you are gonna be able to do them faster. If you're always opening your phone checking for emails and trying to respond, it takes 10 times longer than it does on your laptop.