4

DIGITAL WELLNESS: UNPLUG TO RECHARGE

Almost everything will work again if you unplug
it for a few minutes... including you.

—ANNE LAMOTT

Tech has revolutionized the business sector, and you're likely feeling the effects of less humanity and more technology. Of course, tech and business go hand in hand, so I'd be remiss if I didn't include the subject of digital wellness. So many of us are feeling the effects of constantly connected business life. Working at the pace of technology is not sustainable. Mindful breathing is the antidote. Science is showing that our cognitive and social behaviors are negatively affected by our habitual screen time. In some cases, our devices are controlling our lives. We've developed unconscious reflexive habits, and sometimes they can occur dozens or even hundreds of times every day. I'm familiar with experiencing a false sense of productivity from my reflexive check-ins on everything from email to texts to banking, social, and news feeds. I was by far more distracted than productive. We're connected more than we're not. There are less chunks of time for getting into the creative zone and too much bobbing and weaving with multitasking.

That's crazy fast. We've hit the tipping point of living in the fast lane. It's time for a market correction, a recalibration for our digital wellness. Don't sacrifice your human life for digital life. You can't live at the speed of wireless data. Of course, I'm not saying that we need to completely rebel; I'm just suggesting that we should go for a more strategic and conscious connection with our screens. Manoush Zomorodi, an expert on the human relationship with tech, jokes in her TEDX talk, “A UX designer astutely pointed out during one of our conversations that the only people who refer to their customers as ‘users’ are drug dealers—and technologists.”³³ Uh-oh. It's no mistake that we are literally feeling drawn to our screens way more than necessary. Let this chapter serve as your friendly digital intervention (should you need one). Take a deep breath for a moment.

Close your eyes and think about your digital habits:

• Should you consider being more structured with your connected lifestyle?
• Is your connected business lifestyle getting in the way of your productivity? Creativity? Time management?
• Has your attachment to constantly checking email or apps become a vicious cycle of mental fatigue?
• Have you lost a little control of your time, energy, and positivity?
• When was the last time you consciously unplugged to literally rest your brain and clear your mind?

Did you surprise yourself with any of those answers? I didn't realize the extent of my digital attachment and distraction until both of my sons pointed it out—at different times, more than once. And they were teenagers. It seems that most of us could likely use tweaks in this department. The long-term effect of our connected lives isn't yet fully understood, but medical experts and scientists have been talking about the impact of technology on our health for several years already and it's been falling on deaf ears. We may not have been ready to listen yet, but we're getting there. It's reminiscent of the 1960s and '70s, when smoking was found to be dangerous for our health but people didn't (or wouldn't) listen because they enjoyed smoking and were likely addicted. What's old is new again.

RESPECTING OUR BRAIN

Eyeballs are the new currency; we are living in the “attention economy.” Brands want our attention and we have to sift through emails, ads and notifications to figure out what's worth our time and effort. The vetting can be exhausting and unproductive. Deciding where your attention goes is an important decision that you make over and over all day long. Those decisions can quickly add up to situations that you won't like to find yourself in: running late, not doing your best quality work, and not able to fully tap into your creativity or focus. Our brain wasn't made for the extremes that we subject it to in the form of screen time, multitasking, and distractions. Some negative side effects of round-the-clock connection are interrupted sleep patterns, taking attention away from real-life engagement, anxiety, depression, posture issues, brain fog, and decreased productivity. It's not all rainbows and butterflies as we live life in front of our screens. Digital life can feel depleting. Until it's not! You can choose to stop the madness once you become self-aware of your tendencies. You are in charge of your digital decisions. Your brain probably needs more Savasana, right?

Just as you applied self-awareness to take a good look at your negative thought patterns and emotional habits, self-awareness comes into play to assess your cognitive function and level of, let's say, digital discontent. Business goes much more smoothly when your mind is clear and energized. Chances are that you spend more time than you think connected and/or distracted. The good news is that once you become aware of which digital habits are holding you back, you can interrupt that behavior and Breathe Like a Boss to stop, get quiet, reorganize, and recharge. Even for little bits of time, it makes an impactful difference. Consciously think about resting your brain while you take some deep breaths, and you'll begin to see the brain fog clear out.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF WITH ONE SWAP THIS WEEK

I began making a small digital shift by challenging myself for a week to call a client or business colleague instead of emailing. Even for a simple business issue, pick up the phone to place the order, ask the question, confirm the answer. I started with my printer and realized that it may have been a year since I spoke with him last, and I adore my printer. Things can easily become transactional via email. The “Hope you're doing well” salutation doesn't come close to asking and listening. It was eye-opening because I realized that I had built up a dislike for talking on the phone because it's time consuming and it can feel awkward and bothersome; you don't know what the person is doing when you call, and, well, email is faster and feels efficient. That's where we've headed—away from connection and conversation and toward transactional behavior. When I hung up the phone each time, I was literally smiling. Lesson learned.

Email doesn't nurture relationships, and in some cases, it can hinder a situation because things don't always translate well via email. Human connection can reduce the risk of misinterpretation and misunderstanding that could cost you business. A New York Times article about Google's Mindfulness program–turned-book called Search Inside Yourself, developed by former Google engineer Chade-Meng Tan (more on Tan in Chapter 6), mentions this very issue. Writer Caitlin Kelly says, “One of its tenets is mindful e-mailing. Mr. Tan says it's too easy to focus on the message we're sending, and not on its recipients and the possible impact on them. When recipients don't know the intent behind the email—as is often the case—they tend to assume the worst, like anger or frustration on the sender's part. Tans says, ‘We frequently get offended or frightened by emails that were never intended to offend or frighten. If we are emotionally unskillful, then we react with offense or fear, and then all hell breaks loose.’”³⁵

Nurturing relationships is a big part of success in business, and it requires effort. Think about picking up the phone a few more times every week. It's refreshing. Back to basics feels good. I've seen the value of talking and the value of “pounding the pavement” firsthand since I launched my business, before our lives became fully immersed in tech. I literally pounded the pavement in search of manufacturing in the garment district in Los Angeles. Now, every resource is at our fingertips, but it's not quite the same. It's wonderful in a different way, but talking with people, meeting with people, seeing things in person makes a world of difference even if only on occasion now. It can be inspiring and can lead to new opportunities too. That little challenge turned into a whole new perspective that lasted way beyond that week. What can you challenge yourself with this week to lessen your digital connection and deepen your human connection in even some small way?

IT'S NOT JUST THE YOUNG'UNS

If you assume that digital addiction applies only to millennials, you'd be wrong. Data show that it's the Gen X'ers (born in the early-to-mid 1960s to the early 1980s) who can't seem to separate from tech. That's me in there. Social media engagement, digital marketing, email, customer relationship management, and sales and cash flow are all key elements of business that keep us constantly connected for up-to-the-minute status. But would it really kill us to peek only, say, three times a day instead of dozens? And speaking of that, you might want to consider scheduling your email checks when you're in a strong state of mind, because the act of reading emails can be stress inducing for many people. Have you heard of “email apnea”? It's holding your breath while checking email. Do you subconsciously do this? Alex Soojung-Kim Pang Pang, a researcher at the Institute for the Future, a Silicon Valley think tank, and author of The Distraction Addiction, explains: “This reflects the anxiety many of us feel as we check for new messages in our inbox, not knowing what new fires we'll have to put out or what problems we'll have to solve. Connection is inevitable. Distraction is a choice.”³⁶ Choose wisely. If you're checking email frequently, that means you could be subjecting yourself to a constant low-grade state of stress.

As if that's not enough, chronic stress also affects many other systems of our body, including the heart, immunity, weight, pain, and aging. Breath is the antidote. The entrepreneurial journey and business as a whole is tough; in a very real sense, our journey is similar to professional athletes in the way that we frequently push our body and brain to the limit with exhaustion and stress. But athletes are super focused on their health and recovery from overexertion because it's their body (rather than their product or service) from which they derive success. We (the collective business sector) need to consider health, wellness, and recovery as a more integral part of success in business for ourselves, our teams, our colleagues, and employees as well. We need to commit to spending time recovering from tech by unplugging to recharge—and reconnecting with ourselves and one another. The more you begin to unplug in small increments, the better you'll feel. Don't look at it as punishment to be away from your screen; consider it like you would a workout or having a healthy meal. It's a much needed part of your wellness routine that always leaves you feeling better.

As you begin to see how energizing it feels to step away from your screens and begin to treat your brain like the muscle that it is, you'll probably begin to schedule longer chunks of disconnected time—even if you can't imagine that right now. Would you consider not checking your smartphone while you take a ten-minute walk outside or meet a friend for coffee? Rather than holding your phone, could you possibly put it in an unreachable distance away or actually turn it off whenever you're with someone to whom you should be paying full attention? Could you charge your phone at night in a room other than your bedroom or bathroom? The more you do these little hacks, the easier it becomes to experience little digital detox breaks. And believe it or not, the more protective you'll become of your energy and the more strategic you'll become in figuring out your new balance. If you need a structured program, journalist Catherine Price wrote an insightful book titled How to Break Up with Your Phone: The 30-Day Plan to Take Back Your Life.³⁸ It's chock-full of strategic advice to help you build a healthier relationship with your phone. Oh, and it's even more effective if you read the book while taking some deep breaths!

MY LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH TECH

I've had an ongoing love/hate relationship with tech for many years. I've written about it, talked with friends and colleagues about it, and read lots of articles about it, and I had begun to admire people who were not attached to their screens—like my friend who frequently doesn't know where her phone is because she's not “digitally delinquent.” She's in the moment most of the time—quite an aberration compared to almost everyone I know—and it's refreshing. I was the opposite. (I still can't imagine not knowing where my phone is . . . at least not yet.) I had an automatic reflex that kept me constantly connected, and it was exhausting. I was working harder, not smarter, and who wants to do that?

It took a little while, but I began to use my breath to rewire my brain and work smarter digitally. I slowly made progress, and the baby steps began to add up. Think about the amount of time that can add up if you are habitually connected to a screen, and yet it's not always attached to productivity. Depending on your habits, it very well may be a substantial amount of time. Can you imagine if you used that time instead to work on a passion project? Or a side gig that you've always said you don't have time to do? Or spend more time relaxing with a quiet mind that's open to your own new ideas? Use your deep breaths to give you inner strength to step away and reorganize. What would you want to do with that extra time that adds up over a week? A month? A year? Work toward rewiring your habits to make some extra time for that.

OVERCOMING FEELING NAKED WITHOUT MY PHONE

A couple of years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of leaving the house without my smartphone. I wouldn't get more than one and a half steps out the door before realizing that (for some crazy reason) I left it inside. Oh, the panic I once felt when I was walking into a meeting and then realized that I left my phone in the car. I dashed back outside so quickly you'd think I had left a baby unattended on a hot summer's day. I knew everything I needed to cover in the meeting, but the thought of not being able to check the notes on my cell was just too uncomfortable. I literally couldn't bear it. I could no longer ignore the string of constant red flags popping up, like my recurring nightmares of losing my phone. In reality, the nightmare is what's actually happening when I don't “lose” my phone every now and then! I definitely had “nomophobia.” Seriously, it's a thing; it stands for No Mobile Phone Phobia. Apparently, I'm not alone. These numbers from a January 2018 article by Arianna Huffington titled “The Great Awakening” are staggering:⁴⁰

• There are 2.6 billion smartphone users worldwide—a number expected to climb to 6.1 billion by 2020.
• The top ten users of smartphones touch their phones an average of 5,427 times each day.
• The rest of us clock in at 2,617 touches per day.
• Between midnight and 5 A.M., 87 percent of participants in a study checked their phones at least once.
• Over 70 percent of Americans sleep next to or with their phone.

That's a heck of a lot of phone activity. This next fact may help reduce the amount of texting that you do. Have you heard of “text neck”? It's a spine ailment from, you guessed it, overuse of the cell phone.

ARE PHONES MAKING US LOSE OUR MEMORY?

Another habit I wanted to change in regard to my phone came after hearing Dan Harris's “10% Happier” podcast with guest Manoush Zomorodi. Zomorodi mentioned that photography has changed the way we use our memory and I found this kind of scary. “When you take constant pictures, you're outsourcing your memory to your phone. By doing that, we may not actually remember ever having been in the moment. There's less than a second of a moment where we to decide to get out our phone or not. Ask yourself, Do I need this? Will it help me? Am I having a good experience that doesn't need to be captured? It's about being smarter with tech and choosing your moments in real life.”⁴²

That was a powerful example of how easily we can change our brain chemistry with technology and not even realize it. Taking ourselves out of a meaningful moment? That hit me hard; that's the opposite of what I always try to do. Self-awareness is a great place to start to sense the digital overexposure, stress, habitual behavior that may be innocently occurring in your life. Taking your “tech temperature” will help you begin to notice if you've got the fever.

TAKE YOUR TECH TEMPERATURE

If you haven't taken an official inventory of your time spent with eyes glued to your various screens or gotten a true idea of how many times per day you habitually reach for your smartphone, begin to notice these and other digital habits for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Ask yourself these questions and then start to take notice. Hint: Write things down so you don't lose count!

• Do you have an automatic reflex that reaches for the phone the minute you finish a task or the minute your mind could be still and quiet for a nano second?
• Are you mindlessly skimming feeds for what you thought was 10 minutes but you're approaching an hour or even longer?
• Is your phone turned on and close to your bed when you go to sleep? Does this lead to checking email during your 3 A.M. trip to the bathroom?
• Are you feeling brain fog at the end of the day from not taking conscious digital breaks to recharge?
• Are you constantly distracted by app notifications?
• Are you paying full attention to people when you're with them, or are you multitasking with your phone?
• Are you becoming less productive but feel like you're always working?
• Do you do everything electronically and rarely have work or business conversations in person or via phone?
• Are you known for being a “fast responder”? We all have colleagues who we know will answer our text immediately. Is that you? (It was me!)

All yes answers are red flags. Again, like with the self-awareness testing in Chapter 1, be nonjudgmental. Look at this as research. Once you've seen your habits, think about what surprised you and exactly what you want to change. Draft some ideas about a possible new structure of your time that you can turn into a new routine or at least some sort of new boundaries. That's what it is: boundaries. Become more protective of your time. (More on this in Chapter 5.)

In an Entrepreneur article titled “All Business Is Personal: Employees Need Human Connections at Work,” writer Harry West says, “Employee engagement starts with meaningful relationships. Companies that don't support those interactions will see productivity tank as their best talent walks. Engaging a workforce is a company-wide effort that must start at the top for any real change to occur. Digital initiatives already have revolutionized how companies interact with external stakeholders. They'd do well to apply the same techniques in their relationships with internal stakeholders.”⁴³ Can you initiate something within your office for a collective time to unplug? It may seem counter-productive but it's not! Connecting with colleagues can lead to brainstorming, shifting perspectives, and the desire to collaborate.

CREATIVITY REQUIRES UNPLUGGING

You can't use up creativity.
The more you use, the more you have.

— MAYA ANGELOU

Creativity is a huge part of success. There's nothing like the feeling of creating something from nothing. Whether it's a business, a book, an article, a product, a service—in whatever form it materializes, it came from an idea while you were in a mindset that was conducive to creativity. If you're not making time for your brain to rest and your mind to be free, clear, and open for creativity, then you are limiting your success. Sounds harsh, but it's true. Plus, being creative feels fun and youthful, right? It takes me back to the days where a fresh pack of colored construction paper was like being handed 100 opportunities to create something new and exciting. (Or was that just me?) It made me giddy to think about how I'd fill each page. Think about each day as a piece of that construction paper, an opportunity to create something that's uniquely yours, and that will help you accomplish your goals. Yes, occasionally my artwork didn't appear as beautiful as I'd hoped, so I'd crumple up a page and toss it. That'll happen with creating your opportunities as well, but instead of calling them trash, think of them as lessons, mistakes, and failures that you can move on from to create something new. There's more paper, there's another day, another opportunity to get creative again. Breathe. Whatever that creative process looks like for you, it begins by making the mental space of creating a blank canvas.

When was the last time you had an amazing “aha” moment while at your laptop or phone? As science will tell you, probably very rarely. We need space and a wandering mind to get our creative juices flowing. Some need quiet; others need music. I get my most creative thoughts when I wake up in the middle of the night or when I'm on my yoga mat or taking a walk at the beach. Do you know where you need to be to get into your creative zone? If you don't know where that place is, find it and make at least one weekly date with yourself there to be unplugged and let your mind wander free, enjoying the scenery and opening your mind to nurturing creativity again. Schedule unplugged time to open your mind and be present. Deep breaths. Let your mind take a walk and see where it goes.

STUDIES ARE UNDERWAY FOR DIGITAL WELLNESS

The conversations are happening; researchers, scientists, journalists, and wellness advocates are all working on figuring out how tech is affecting our health. Help is on the way for us to be able to make informed decisions on the importance of managing our digital lives in business. The Global Wellness Institute is a nonprofit organization that educates people all over the globe on the benefits of preventive health and wellness. In April 2018, the Institute released a white paper titled “Wellness in the Age of the Smartphone” as part of its Digital Wellness Initiative. The initiative is led by Jeremy McCarthy (Group Director of Spa & Wellness, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group). I spoke with Jeremy about his research and agree with his cautious perspective on tech in the paper: “The problem with technology is not that it is bad, it is that it is too good. The allure of technology and all its many benefits draws us away from other aspects of life. Our modern devices are so tantalizing, in fact, that we sometimes don't realize the sacrifices we are making along the way. While enjoying technology, we choose sedentary activities over movement, we choose virtual relationships over real ones, and we choose to consume information rather than reflect or take action on the things we have learned.”⁴⁵

The white paper analysis is eye-opening and the mission “is not to denounce technology, but to fully appreciate and recognize the benefits while creating greater awareness of the associated opportunity costs.” Check out the paper if you want to read more. You also might consider your habits within the six areas where the “Wellness in the Age of the Smartphone” study found that technology negatively impacts our health: sleep; inactivity, obesity, and physiological health; mental wellness; social relationships and loneliness; distraction and safety; and productivity. Are any one of those sectors suffering a bit in your life?

In addition to the Global Wellness Institute, many advocates exist for living healthy, tech-centric business lives. One outspoken activist, author, and speaker for wellness in the business sector who clearly stands out is Arianna Huffington. She founded the Huffington Post in 2005, sold it to AOL in 2011, and left in 2016 to launch a new digital wellness platform called Thrive Global. She's a prolific writer about the topic of wellbeing after breaking her cheekbone while falling asleep at her desk, overworked and exhausted. Huffington has been a leading voice in workplace wellness and the importance of a proper night's sleep ever since. Thrive Global is a wealth of health-centric inspiration, content, and resources that covers a great deal for workplace wellness in both corporate and small business sectors. She has formed impactful partnerships recently with brands like SAP and Zenefits to use technology and innovation to help us all move from “surviving to thriving” as we learn to create a healthy relationship with technology and innovation. In Huffington's February 2018 article titled “The Great Awakening,” she described 2018 as the year of the “Great Reckoning”: “The year in which we're forced to decide what we want from technology and what irreducible parts of our humanity we want to safeguard and protect. The stakes are huge. . . . We need to be in control of our technology.”⁴⁶ Hear, hear!

Google recently launched a new initiative called Digital Wellbeing (https://wellbeing.google). It's not surprising that this occurs at Google (more on other mindful Googlers in Chapter 6). The new website describes the initiative as “Dedicated to building technology that is truly helpful for everyone. We're creating tools and features that help people better understand their tech usage, focus on what matters most, disconnect when needed, and create healthy habits for the whole family. We're committed to giving everyone the tools they need to develop their own sense of digital wellbeing. So that life, not the technology in it, stays front and center.”⁴⁷ The initiative was announced at Google's annual developers conference and is aimed at people focusing on JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) rather FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Former Google program manager Tristan Harris has been a passionate and vocal activist since 2013 about how digital products were “not being designed with the consumers' best interests in mind” and that technology in fact is “hijacking our minds.” His insights about technology needing a new set of morals led to a new role for him within Google: Design Ethicist. He left Google in 2016 to work full-time on building a nonprofit initiative called Time Well Spent; he also founded the Center for Humane Technology (http://humanetech.com) to work on “reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning tech with humanity's best interest.”⁴⁸ He is a man on a mission. It'll be interesting to see how the other tech giants get involved in this movement. There will definitely be some friction as the business models of the biggest social media platforms are based on the attention economy, and we will all be learning to better manage our attention. Let's stay tuned on this.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN DIGITAL WELLNESS

Unplugged is the new luxury. After years of total smartphone devotion, I'm craving my pre-tech days. It's too bad that kids today will never know that feeling of being completely free from devices. Unplugging is my new luxury and breath is my antidote to tech. None of my online behavioral tweaks feels as liberating as stepping away from my screens for a few minutes, a couple of hours, or even a full day. That's progress. There's a sense of freedom and connection back to myself and others that I was sorely missing. I was craving that Savasana stillness and quiet to slow my mind down, to feel calm and grounded. It's empowering to take back control of your time, focus, creativity, alertness, and productivity by forming new strategies for your unplugged life. Refresh. Renew. Recharge. Breathe.

With every common problem come opportunities to provide effective solutions. I'm excited to see new products and services that help us on the journey to digital balance, workplace wellness, and better overall health and well-being. It may take the act of paying in order for us to disconnect sometimes. There are retreats for digital detox where you pay to “surrender” your phone for the weekend while focusing on mindfulness and healthy activity. What if hotels or restaurants charged us a premium to take possession of our phone when we arrive so that we could fully enjoy the experience? Would you be willing to pay? Another idea is having contraptions or special pockets right inside our purses or briefcases in which we can lock our phones—to be unlocked in a special way and only after a certain period of unplug. I experienced something similar recently at a concert where we were not allowed to use cell phones during the performance. When you entered the venue, security guards put your cell phone in a case that could only be unlocked by them. (This was not done for the sake of wellness, though; it was done to keep the show off the Internet.) If you needed to use your phone, you could walk over to an area in the lobby to have it unlocked to make your call or check your email. Yes, of course, I was initially uncomfortable with the situation. I also have to admit that I found myself unconsciously reaching for my phone even though I knew it was locked up. It was a powerful experience because after a few deep breaths, I was in the moment and the concert absolutely flew by. I'm sure I remember a lot more about it because I didn't outsource the memory to my phone.

Numerous apps, products, and wellness services are emerging in this space, but there's still lots of room for more products to improve our digital wellness and enhance brain health, energy, posture, and sleep. I'm experimenting right now with blue light-blocking glasses, which help block some of the blue light that comes from our screens. I'm trying to commit to use tech now only if it brings value in the moment. I've made a list of priorities and time frames, and I'm managing my digitally connected behavior with breath and a heightened sense of self-awareness. By the way, it takes anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months for a rewiring trick to become a new habit, so be patient. Breathe. You can make the change. Sometimes it takes a village to help make these types of changes, so when you do decide that you're going to make changes, let your colleagues know. That way, you feel accountable to making the changes and they understand why you may no longer be responding to texts or emails within three minutes. Digital wellness can no longer be an afterthought; it's got to move front and center, top of mind.

IDEAS FOR UNPLUGGED TIME

Here are some simple yet impactful ideas for “unplugging”:

• Go old school: Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee at a cafe and don't touch your phone; put it out of sight. Do you remember the pretech days at Starbucks? You may have had a book or newspaper with you, or you may have just enjoyed your beverage. Rest your brain. Get comfortable with being confident enough to just sit and not be looking at a screen. We've come to feel odd if we're in public and just looking around. Breathe and relax. People watching is a lost art, and it's super entertaining.
• Buy some (real paper) books, magazines, or newspapers and keep them readily available and at your office. Enjoy the experience of unplugged reading where you won't be disturbed by notifications or Googling something while reading that leads you down a rabbit hole. That's my problem—clicking on links within articles that lead to more articles and links and ten minutes somehow become an hour.
• Redesign some of your lunch times to be unplugged. Don't eat in front of your screen. Schedule some lunches or business dinners around the idea of fully enjoying being unplugged and engaged.
• Get outside for even for ten minutes during the day. Go for a walk alone or with a colleague. Work doesn't always have to be done in the office. Take a business call or participate in a brainstorming session while walking outside. Nature is such a powerful rejuvenator. Fresh air is medicine for the soul. Sunshine is a vitamin. Breathe it in whenever possible!
• Find pleasure in being present in a good moment at work. See what happens to your mind and body when you heighten your senses by being present for a couple of minutes. The next time something great happens, soak it up. Breathe into it. Stop time to consciously enjoy and acknowledge an accomplishment.
• Turn off your phone for one hour a day. It's silly how empowering this can be.
• Think about what you used to do that made you feel creative and/or happy and completely in your element . . . that thing you did where minutes turned into hours while you enjoyed making, creating, tinkering, or doing. Go do that again . . . without your phone.
• Say goodnight to your electronics at least two hours (okay, maybe start with one) before bedtime, and don't even think of touching it if you wake up in the middle of the night. According to Larry Rosen, professor of social psychology at California State University at Dominguez Hills and author of iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us, “Exposure to the blue light from a device stops production of the sleep hormone melatonin, so it's harder to fall asleep.”⁴⁹ Keep your phone out of your bedroom at night. Breathe through that temptation.

We need to unplug so that we can experience more conscious connectedness and not lose precious minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or even years (it adds up!) of moments that we aren't fully experiencing. If the thought of having to reorganize your digital life has you clenching your jaw right now, relax. You'll figure it out. Baby steps. Start with 3DB and a positive intention to make little changes that will enhance your life. Remember, you're not taking something away but rather you're giving yourself something back in the form of time, connection, health, and ultimately more success.