A full day away…
When was the last time you took a day off? Like a real day off. A whole day without checking your email, a day without responding to fourteen group texts, some of which have some fun memes, but most of which you could really live without.
I just had my first real day off in years. It began on Friday at sundown. I put an automatic response for texts letting people know I was going offline, turned my phone on ‘do not disturb’ mode and put it in a drawer where it remained until Saturday at 5pm. I spent a full 24 hours without any screen use at all, which felt like a truly radical act in this 24/7 world. My kids were a little less enthused by the idea than me, but were good sports. They played hide and seek, board games, and built Legos. We even had two middle school aged boys at our house for most of the screen-free Saturday, and since I had to kick them out at dinner, I’m going to wager the day was a success.
My plan is to unplug every Friday night through Saturday at 5pm from here on out. I just read Tiffany Shlain’s book 24/6, The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week, which gave me the idea. I had major FOMO reading about how she was able to take a practice thousands of years old into the present, which helped her family be more “present with each other, appreciate the small things, daydream and get a different viewpoint on living”. Prior to reading this book, I had been looking for more ways to have boundaries around phone use, other than just for 30 minutes or so each evening.
I was a bit nervous to tell the kids about this idea, and unsure as to how my husband would participate. To ensure success, I allowed everyone to watch the Michigan football game together, as a family. This was the only exception for the kids (I didn’t care to watch). My husband is moving slower toward tech reduction, as it is more difficult for his work-life. He did have his phone away for the Friday dinner, which he described as a ‘revelation’. I’m not interested in perfection; I’ll let him come around to the practice on his own.
To prepare for this first ‘Tech Shabbat’, I had a landline installed and wrote down important phone numbers in a book. We invited our best friends over for Friday’s dinner and explained the premise of the evening to them. They were thrilled to be the first invites to this special event. The whole evening felt like a holiday, as we were focused on the conversation, the food, each other, and nothing else. I can’t wait to do it again this weekend.
If you feel like screens rule too much of your life, taking an occasional hour or day off offers a way to reclaim your attention and focus. Taking a whole day every now and again offers “a ticket to a richer life that coexists with technology in a more balanced way…I see Tech Shabbat as part of a solution to a modern human problem. It breaks up the constant disruptions and rejects the status quo. Unplugging for a full day each week is a punk-rock reaction to our always-on, 24/7 world. It makes the world wait while we do what we want. It’s totally freeing, and totally free.” (24/6, The Power of Unplugging one day a week)
What do you think? Want to try? Or want to come to ours? Let me know. We’d love to have you.