5 min read
Last year I listened to “The unplugged hours” by Hannah Brencher. (The book made it into my top ten reads of 2024!)
I imagine it has occurred to most of us that too much time on our phones can have negative impacts. Our concentration gets fractured, we’re constantly distracted, our relationships and our children suffer when we constantly pick up and stare at our screens and we miss out on being fully present for life’s big and small moments.
How to unplug
However, it’s difficult to come up with a practical solution. Delete all social media? Throw away your smartphone and replace it with a landline? Commit to communicating by postcards and morse code?
I am exaggerating but for most of us, completely opting out is neither possible nor desirable.
Hannah Brencher suggests a different approach. You keep your devices and your Instagram account but for a few hours every day you switch off your phone.
It doesn’t necessarily sound revolutionary but when was the last time you powered down your phone?
The freedom of disconnecting
I haven’t been as consistent with it as I would like to be, but I am trying to get into the habit of cultivating daily unplugged hours.
Especially when I am with my girls I like putting my phone out of sight, to give them my full attention and to fully enjoy my time with them. Really notice them and memorise their features and what they get excited by. There is something so special of sitting with my three year old and watching her colour. Without also checking my email or the recipe I want to make for dinner. These moments are precious to both of us.
Also, I have found it extremely freeing to switch off my phone when I am done for the day. The girls are in bed, the dishes are done and I am sitting down on the sofa with my book or knitting. It’s lovely to just enjoy my me-time and not answer texts or quickly pay that bill or scroll social media.
Building unplugging habits
As I have mentioned, I haven’t been super consistent with these habits. However, I have tried a few things and here are some habits I would love to build into my life:
Leave my phone outside our bedroom.
In an ideal world I would leave my phone in the kitchen or living room and not take it into our bedroom. I don’t want it to be the last thing I look at before going to sleep and the first thing I reach for upon waking.
However, there are a few things that make this endeavour difficult for me. When Edd is away and I am alone with the girls I like having my phone within reach so I could call for help if I needed to. (I’m not worried about someone breaking in, more that both kids are in the bed with me and start vomiting or some similar scenario.)
Also, like most people I use my phone for a lot of things. (Right now I am sat in bed typing this blog post on my phone!) I write lists and read books on my library app or work on blog posts. And sometimes I like doing these things before going to sleep or in the middle of the night after being woken by one of the girls. But that is probably also the reason why I should leave my phone out of reach!
Whenever I manage to leave my phone in another room I tend to go to sleep earlier and I read more. Two rather desirable outcomes!
Have phone free days
We’re currently in the process of figuring out what a Sabbath day (i.e. a proper day of rest) could look like for our family. I really like the idea of having 24 hours each week where I keep my phone off. Power down on Saturday night and stay unplugged until Sunday evening. And then most likely discover that I didn’t miss anything!
Call rather than text
I am not very good at texting. It takes me ages to respond and I don’t enjoy having actual conversations via messenger. Very often, organisational things could be done quicker through a phone call than lots of messages back and forth. Checking in with people via call feels much more like quality time than firing a few texts back and forth. Also, that way I won’t do something else at the same time.
I have never been great at initiating phone calls and half the time I miss it when someone calls me cause I never hear my phone but I really want to start calling people more.
I shall keep you posted!
We will see how this endeavour goes. I will make sure to check back in about this in a dew months time!
Have you got any “unplugging habits” that help you to stay more present?
If you haven’t yet, definitely check out Hannah Brenchers book “The Unplugged Hours”, it is such a helpful read.
And now I will go and put my phone into the kitchen!
This post is day 10 of my 12 days of blogmas challenge. Read more here.
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