You Should Ditch Your Device. Here's Why.

Let's be real.

It's been hard to stay productive during the pandemic. Many of us have had to transition to working from home, and balancing work and childcare; not to mention it’s hard to stay on-task when it feels like the world is falling apart around you.

I have a ton of tips and tricks I use to stay productive, but if you want to kick-start your productivity, I have a strong suggestion. Ready? Here it is: a digital diet.

I know. You were hoping I wouldn’t go for your phone, right? Well, we all know that social media is a productivity killer, but do you know how much time your phone is costing you?

The average adult touches her or his phone eighty times per day. I can’t think of anything else you do voluntarily eighty times per day. Not eat. Not hug. Not even smile (FYI—the average number of smiles per day for adults is twenty).

Your productivity will advance leaps and bounds if you cut down on your screen time, but that can be tricky because there is an addictive quality to the apps you use. If you can’t quit your phone cold turkey, it’s time for a detox. But don’t worry, I’ll tell you exactly how to do it. Here’s my seven-day schedule for a digital detox.

Day 1

Take little time-outs. Don’t look at your phone for a time frame that includes two meals, either from breakfast through lunch or from lunch through dinner. For extra credit, turn it off completely. If you’re traveling, on a juice cleanse, or anything else that messes with a regular meal schedule, then take four (consecutive) hours off your phone.

Day 2

Clean out the online riffraff. Go through the people you follow on Instagram and Twitter and remove anyone you aren’t friends with anymore or don’t have an interest in following. Apply the same principle that Marie Kondo talks about in her popular book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, only this time for your online life instead of your home life: anyone you follow must spark joy, or at least interest. Unfriend Facebook “friends” who aren’t actually friends, and set your timeline settings to only see twenty or so people’s updates at a time. Like, seriously, do you really need to be wasting any brain cells on what your seventh-grade music teacher’s daughter is eating for dinner?

Day 3

Go into the settings section of your phone and take control. Do an audit of the push notifications you have on your phone. Which do you really need? I choose to receive only human notifications, like phone calls, and turn off any nonhuman notifications, like updates from apps or alerts from retailers. Do you need to know when Nordstrom is having an anniversary sale? Do you need to know the very second someone comments on your photo? Do you need to see every time someone on Tinder messages you? I know, you must be getting lots of messages. But remember, if you become on demand, you won’t be in demand...

Day 4

Clear the app barnacles off your phone and untether from subscriptions. Honestly, this is gonna be a multiple-hour time investment—but it will save your sanity for much longer than however long it takes you to untether. Start by looking at the apps you have. The average person has sixty to ninety apps on their phone but only uses nine. It’s like your closet is stuffed with clothes, but you pretty much stick to two pairs of jeans, one hoodie, a black shirt, and sweatpants.

Day 5

Leave your phone in another room to charge while you sleep. Don’t look at it for an hour before bed and for the first hour after you wake up. Studies have shown that excessive phone use is detrimental to your health. The blue light emitted from your cell phone screen is a wavelength that boosts our attention, reaction times, and mood during the day. But it has been shown to throw off your body’s natural melatonin levels, making it more difficult for you to fall asleep at night, get that good REM sleep, and wake up rested in the morning. So ban the blue around bedtime.

Day 6

Take a social media fast: I'm talkin' no social media use for one full day. You’re probably on social media sites that I’m not cool enough to know about, so I’ll trust that you are thinking of all the ones you use, from Instagram to Snapchat to LinkedIn to YouTube to Pinterest (and, yes, other apps like Venmo are technically social media sites, which you might not realize). I no longer have social apps on my phone and log in with a browser when I use social media. Not having such constant easy access to them makes me happier. What about you? When you’re off social apps, do you feel happier? You’ll never know until you try it. Boss B*tches like Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence don’t even use social media . . . and they are doing just fine.

Day 7

Unplug for a whole entire day. Like, no phone, no internet, #nofilter. And I don’t mean keep your phone with you but put it in a pocket on vibrate or face it down; let's be honest, that creates the same effect of being distracted because you know it’s there. So the only way to actually not be distracted is to not have it with you. You can do it! This is your final exam, but also the beginning of a new chapter in your digital life.

Get JOMO

Regardless of how and where you accomplish it, I promise you will make it out of this detox alive. So, don’t have FOMO (fear of missing out)—have JOMO (joy of missing out) because you’re saving your time, your money, and your mood.

xo,

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