Digital Detox: Making Broad Goals

 So I have my 3 reasons to do a digital detox. Time, Stress, and Family. Each one on its own is enough reason to make a change, but each reason leads to different actions to help reach my goals. Today I will work through my goals and steps.

1. Time

Time is pretty simple, the less stuff I need to do with tech, the more time I have to do better things. This is my biggest reason because it affects every part of my well-being. Every action I can do to detox will give me more time and energy back into my day. So I won't make many goals specifically off this one, as they will overlap heavily with the other reasons. 

    A. Fewer notifications on my phone - This won't be so much reducing things I'm following or caring about, but rather prioritising what things I get notifications for. Do I need an email for every tweet made or can I change preferences to only get 1/day with a group of notifications? What are the little tweaks I can make to reduce the load of the notifications I do get and want to get? 

2. Stress

    B. Spend some time organising and simplifying programmes and apps - I know, I know, this takes time. But if I can properly organise and simplify what I have, I am cleaning my environment. When people talk of having a clean and effective work environment, they think of sorting drawers, cleaning the general room, and having all the tools you need to work at the ready in a central location. The actual tech often gets overlooked in this process. I want to not only organise and back up my digital files so I have peace of mind, but also simplify what I use so my computer works faster and lasts longer. I want a clean desk and a clean PC desktop to match. I want to be able to sit down at my computer and not be distracted by anything physical or digital when I need to get some work done. And when I play a game to relax, I want to enjoy it without any distractions or worries. Part of this will also be organising my bookmarks, which have been out of sorts for ages.

    C. Fewer things giving me notifications - This is where I want to actually reduce how many things I'm paying attention to, how many things give me notifications, and how many ways I'm trying to split my attention. In my case, Twitter and YouTube are my biggest offenders. As much as I love certain channels, there's a number I just don't watch any more for lack of time, things that are still enjoyable, but not as much as other channels I watch daily. While my desire to support them all is strong, the truth is being subbed but never watching is actually worse to the algorithm than just not subbing at all. I also have watch later and other playlists I want to go through and cut down as much as I can.

    D. Emails - This doesn't affect my time much, as it's currently at such a point where I basically ignore emails unless I'm expecting something. But I also tend to miss important things being sent because I wasn't aware they were being sent. I want to not only clean the horrendously full email inboxes I have but also go through and start unsubscribing to any emails I no longer or never needed. This is just one of those things that gnaw slowly at the back of my mind. This will take a lot of time to do, but once it's done, it will make a significant difference.

3. Family

    E. Routine and Family Time - I get in this bad habit of doing housework, getting stressed by the kids, giving up, and taking a break to relax, but not really relaxing because the kids are still bothering me or I'm thinking of the chores I haven't finished. So I don't really enjoy my relaxing time, I'm not recharging my batteries and eventually, give up on relaxing. Then I'm still stressed, not relaxed, not able to get work done, and so frustrated and overwhelmed that I'm not properly taking care of the kids either. I'm by no means abusive or neglectful, but I've been known to use the tv to distract instead of actually spending a good time with my kids. To solve this, I need routines. I need the kids to pitch in with housework as they are able. This will reduce my workload and the time and stress needed. I need to set aside time that is specifically family and kids time. I need to better address their needs while still setting aside time for myself later where I can actually relax without interference. I need to have times when I just don't look down at my phone and ignore the world around me. And I need to properly communicate these needs to my wife and kids so they know when it's time to be silly with daddy and when it's time to play with toys and give daddy a minute to breathe.

My next posts will be taking each of these broader goals one by one, breaking them into little chunks and smaller tasks. I will slowly create my fully detailed to-do list so I can start making these drastic changes and begin my Digital Detox.

With love and insanity equally,

J.M.