9 tips to detox from mobile

Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram and company let your mobile ring and vibrate continuously. You check the notifications as soon as a new message appears, whatever you’re doing, and even when you’re walking in the countryside or doing sports, you don’t get rid of your mobile to count the steps to track your own movements… these are symptoms that they need a digital detox.

Do you allow yourself not to be available at any time? Do you immediately give up searching Google for any information that comes to mind or arises in a conversation? Do you look at your mobile (or are you looking forward to it) while you eat or talk to another person?

At any time we can feel overwhelmed by digital stress, so we need strategies to escape of the technological trap. The following nine tips show how you can free yourself from your own smartphone for a few hours or several days.

10 steps to digital detox

1. Disconnection with prior notice

If you put the phone down completely, could you miss something? The fear of not receiving important messages can make it difficult for you to disconnect, so inform your family, friends or even the boss that you will not be available from a certain time or during a weekend, for example.

You can indicate it in the status of your social networks and record a message in the mailbox of your smartphone. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about someone suffering for your time offline.

2. Set a limit on email review

At home you do not go to the mailbox every five minutes, nor do you do it with your mobile. Check the arrival of emails two or three times a day and, if possible, always at the same hours.

During the weekend you don’t have to check your inbox more than once a day.

3. Go where mobile can’t go

When you swim in the pool, you definitely won’t miss your mobile. Smartphones are also taboo at the movies, such as during a yoga session or at a theater performance.

But there is no need for the rules to force you to turn off your mobile or put it in airplane mode. You can decide yourself, for example, go for a walk and “forget” your phone at home.

4. Select newsletters well and shelve spam

It can be really annoying to receive newsletters all the time that bury the really important messages in your inbox. Often we just delete them. But that is exactly what can lead to a flood of mail over time that you don’t want to read absolutely. So, from time to time, take the time to solve this problem.

Unsubscribe from newsletters that don’t interest you and move the spam emails to the corresponding folder. If another spam comes from the same sender, your program will recognize it later and won’t even allow the mail to reach the inbox.

This cleaning takes a bit of effort. But then you have more peace and quiet and a much “cleaner” inbox. Your computer and mobile phone will stop receiving new messages every few minutes.

5. Runs just as well without an app

While you run or cycle, your mobile phone can play your favorite music, keep you informed about your calorie consumption, pulse rate and the kilometers you’ve covered…

All of that is unnecessary. Remember that there is nothing better than being present here and now, also when you exercise. Focus on your body and what is around you.

6. Become a digital detox step by step

If you find it difficult to give up your mobile suddenly, do it gradually. For example, start by turning off your mobile for an hour. When you turn off your mobile phone, you also save electricity and battery.

Slowly increase your phone-free time until you can live without it for a whole day. You will see, it’s worth it.

7. Use “airplane mode” more often

For digital detox, you don’t always have to do without your mobile phone completely. After all, you can use it as a watch.

If you want a little more peace and quiet without turning off your smartphone, just put it in airplane mode. All data transfer will stop.

You will no longer receive emails, chat messages, calls or SMS. That means there is no contact with the outside world through the mobile phone. Yet still you can perform all the internal functions that do not require the Internet.

8. There are apps for digital detox

It sounds strange, but they really exist. There are apps that they teach you how to use computers and cell phones in moderation. These apps block apps or calls.

One of the best is Offtime. It allows you to control the time you look at your mobile and restricts the appearance of notifications, among other functions. The Blackout app is much more radical: you set a time when the phone will not be operational and it will be like that, with no possible way back.

9. Power users go on a digital detox vacation

Is a whole week offline a dream for you? This can come true in various places. There are monasteries where you can relax in peace without mobile phones ringing everywhere. Also in many mountain refuges you live nature instead of emitting beeps and vibrations. Some hotels and rural houses also have free Wi-Fi zones.

10. Do you need so many social networks?

Jaron Lanier provides us 10 reasons to delete your social networks immediately (Ed. Discussion). It is an essential book where you will find very good arguments to limit your Internet consumption, not only on mobile, and especially on social networks. Assess whether you really need all the networks you now have, see how you behave on them, think about what they are giving you or what you don’t like.