How To Fix Your Sanity

Unplug and Reboot Your Mind

We live our lives, frantically connected to a screen.

You probably spend more than 8 hours of your day staring at a screen. Notifications flash and emails pop up like popcorn in a never-ending cycle of busyness.

You ask your colleague how they have been, and their response is "So Busy" rather than "So Productive."

You thought you were having a tough day, when all of a sudden, a severity hits you, and all priorities shift to fixing that problem and plugging that hole.

When the chaos is over, we wind down with some social media and then binge-watch the latest reality TV show.

The Industry Secret

"Have you tried switching it on and off again?"

In the technology world, we have a trick that we like to call "Power Cycling" it is a fancy word for rebooting or pulling out the power.

The trick of unplugging also applies to the physical world.

Don't Mug Yourself

You may have heard that Data is the new currency. Google, Apple, Amazon, and other large corporations find so much value in your data, that they give away seemingly free services such as Google Drive.

Facebook algorithms will know more about you than your closest friends. They might even know more about you than you do.

So how do we transact with Data? Most companies fail to realize the power of Data, so they store all this information without a real purpose, knowing that they will figure out what to do with it one day.

The real power of a data transaction is attention. As humans, we have a limited time on earth. We don't know how long that time is, but we get to choose how we spend the present moment.

By giving our attention to the latest Netflix show, or the funny cat video, we are spending our attention.

Companies compete for our attention, and over time they have become ruthless with the gamification of their products. The aim is to steal as much of our attention as possible. "Like" a post,  the infinite scroll, these features have been specifically engineered to keep you glued to your screen.

Using data to find what is important to us, the digital companies can lure us into a rabbit hole that guides us down a deep YouTube spiral until we are watching funny infomercials from the 80s (or insert random ludicrous topic).

If the information above is new to you and makes you want to delete your social media, then so be it, but this is not the intention.

The point to consider is going without for a day, without TV, News, Social Media, Computers, Phones, and Music.

How would you last without any technology for 24 hours?

We are so overstimulated that detox from technology is likely the best thing you can do for your mental health.

I have become more active on social media, and I have noticed a deterioration in mental health, especially if I am using late at night.

This weekend I spent a full 24 hours with myself and without technology. My entertainment was a piece of paper and a pen.

I observed my thoughts as I unconsciously craved technology, before eventually becoming comfortable with being alone in my mind.

After 24 hours, I went for a walk, and as the sun started to set, everything seemed more impressive.

My mind had reset, and I had successfully detoxed from the constant stimulation and rush of technology. It left me feeling more grateful and impressed with the beautiful things in life.

Clearing your mental plate is the best way to approach something with a new mindset.

If you fill your plate with every single food at the buffet, you're not going to enjoy any particular one.

Allowing yourself to take a break and reassess your essential tasks can be one of the most efficient ways to become productive as a creator and cut out the noise.

Unplugging from the digital world is an important thing you can do for your mental health. In a world full of distractions and social media, we often don't pull out a pen and paper to write down our thoughts as we jump from one diversion to another.

Try being alone with your thoughts. You will learn something about that voice in your head.

I challenge you to try 24 hours without any technological stimulation (no music, social media, phones, etc.) and tell me you don't feel a bit better about being alive afterward.

Comment below how you felt afterward and what you missed the most.