Being in the IT world, I know a thing about unplugging (or shutting down) systems and restarting them. It’s one of the first things I ask users: Have you restarted your computer? It’s a line they hate, but the step also frequently works.
Author Anne Lamont once wrote:
Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
Photo by Daniele Colucci on Unsplash
When I read that, I think of rebooting workstations or servers. It’s a brief unplugging and coming back up. But…
Lamont recognized that we need to unplug for a period of time. It is hard to unplug in this high-tech world of always on, always connected.
Yet unplugging is vital to our health and relationships. We must be willing to disconnect from the world before we crash, burn out, or destroy our physical or mental health.
4 Ways To Unplug And Recharge
I’ve found that unplugging recharges me. I come back refreshed, renewed, and ready to tackle challenges that had hassled me for days, months, sometimes even years.
Have you been there? Have you felt the power of unplugging in your life? When you plug back in, there’s a sense of newness, of having been away, of being refilled.
Sometimes, we lack the understanding of how to unplug from our regular daily grind. Let’s look at 4 ways to unplug and recharge.
1. Use those vacation days (actually use them):
Most of us have vacation days that go unused. We then complain that we’re sooooo tired. We’ve reached a point of exhaustion we feel we can’t come back from.
Duh!
It’s because we’re not unplugging from our work. We let those valuable vacation days go into the recycle bin. We lose out on time away from the office.
Even when we take vacation days, we often aren’t unplugged. We allow the pings of email, Teams chats, and more to follow us around. We feel like we must answer and respond.
Guess what?
That’s destroying your vacation days and keeping you plugged into the grind of work.
Unplug completely. Turn off notifications on your phone. Ignore those incoming emails. Allow someone else to handle the load while you’re gone.
You can’t unplug if you’re always connected to the office. Disconnect and use those vacation days.
2. Leave your technology at home:
Do you remember a time before being tethered to your cell phone or laptop? There was a time. It was a time of corded phones that couldn’t leave the house with you. Of desktop computers far too heavy to lug around as you traveled.
Technology is great. I love it. It’s allowed me to share thoughts like this online and around the world.
However, technology can also be a curse. A crutch.
Unplug a little by leaving your technology at home. You’ll be surprised by what you discover and see around you.
3. Remove social media from your cell phone:
I can hear your gasps through the internet as I type seven words. Remove my social media apps?!? Are you crazy?
Our social media apps ding, ping, and alert us to all of the latest activity from our friends, people we follow, and even our enemies. Our lives are being bombarded by information we didn’t have access to until just a few short years ago (though it does seem a lot longer).
By removing social media from our phones, we must use an antiquated web browser to get the information. We have to type a web address manually. We have to take deliberate action to see the latest social media activity.
But think of the freedom you’ll have. You won’t have to worry about Sally, Bobby, or Billy. You can focus on those around you. Your face won’t be stuck to your phone (you know, like those darn kids we’re all complaining about but act just like them).
Consider removing social media apps from your phone, even if it’s for a week at a time. Consider it a social media sabbatical.
I promise you’ll find yourself feeling a sense of relief.
4. Use an app to track the time spent on your phone:
Do you use any apps to track the time you spend on your phone? I know Android phones will tell you how much time you spend using your phone a week. There’s also something similar for iPhone users.
Some apps can help you keep track of or break the habit of spending too much time on time-wasting apps. Consider apps such as SPACE, one sec, of OffScreen. These apps will challenge you to face the fact that you spend too much time on your phone and are not unplugged and connected to others around you.
