100-Day Gratitude Challenge
Day 36: Take a Tech Sabbath
Reflect
Every ping, every ring, every blasting decibel coming from a device is an intrusion on your day. How can you linger in a thought, focus on a dream, use your imagination to wonder, and observe your life unfolding in front of you if you are constantly distracted or interrupted? The past twenty years of technification have been hard on us. We’re never really alone if our mobile is nearby. We’re never fully present when we allow it to penetrate its way into our consciousness. Is all of this tech an enrichment, necessity, or addiction? The answer may be different for each of us, but we share a common distraction. Researchers Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman found that being bored improves creativity and problem-solving. Unscheduled and undistracted time isn’t wasted; it may be precisely when the mind becomes most alive to possibility.
Practice
Take a tech sabbath today. Step away from your phone and other technology for as long as you can today. Choose the whole day, a portion of the day, or schedule around other commitments. Experience an uninterrupted day. How did time feel different today?
Bonus: Upcoming Workshop!
Want to learn more about how living gratefully can help you step away from the screen, reclaim your time and energy, and enrich your connections? Join us May 12 for our 75-minute workshop, Reclaim Your Analog Life. Learn more and register here.