I tried it! Did I pass or fail? Well, you gotta keep reading. Hey you, no scrolling to the good stuff. Keep reading…lol..

You know, I was sitting in around one Saturday, looking at my phone. I was scrolling Gmail, Facebook messenger, Whats App, YouTube and texting. ALL at the same time, it’s like I was multi-tasking going back and forward and let’s not even discuss those FB notifications that seem to come in every second, letting you know who posted, said or did something. Answering messages here, sending messages there, reading messages everywhere. It was then that I asked myself. “Can you go 2 hours without picking up your phone?”

It was a question that I honestly couldn’t answer. You see, for the last month or so – maybe even longer to be very transparent with you. What I’d come to notice about myself is that I had become immune to my phone. Okay, I know what you’re saying “Who isn’t?” But I mean; I had become overly obsessive with the phone, it was like I couldn’t go less than a minute without checking it. Now, don’t get me wrong – I know we all have business (like real businesses) that we have to tend too and I get it. But there are ways in which we can sort of handle all that – in which I’ll get too a little later but back to my experiment.

So, I challenged myself – I said I wouldn’t pick up my phone for a WHOLE 2 HOURS, this was going to be really epic – even for me. It was now 9:55 am and I was determined from 10 am to 12 pm I would NOT pick up my phone. When 10 am rolled around, I turned my phone over and went to fix a little breakfast and wash up some dishes. Okay, so I’m lying I didn’t get up right away….Lol. I stared at it for about 3 min asking myself what the heck was I doing or trying to prove. Then I got up….

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To say I wasn’t tempted would be an understatement because I definitely was as all types of thoughts came rushing to my mind. My sister was ill during the week and the first thing I thought about was, “What if she calls me?” or “OMGosh! I forgot to text her to see how she’s doing!!! Did someone text me back on Whats App? Send an email? Did my doctor call?? – Okay, that was a little extreme, but I was going through PHONE DETOX PEOPLE!!

It was torture for sure and there were many moments where I almost broke my own deal with myself. BUT – I CAME, I CONQUERED & I SUCCEEDED!!!

Yes and I’m proud of myself but do you know what I noticed when I did turn my phone back over? Nobody texted, called, responded or emailed me – so why do I get all discombobulated about my phone, like I need to check it every minute and for what. One day as I was getting on the elevator to go to work, there were two other people that got on at the same time and believe it or not – there was no eye connection, no hello as they both were glued to their phones. It’s amazing the things that come and take precedence over our lives to the point where we become unconscious to the things around us. In life we all need breaks, even from our phones.

Listed below are two tips, one for business and one for personal that you can do to get off the phone, for a minute or two or two hours….start slow though.

Putting a “PAUSE” on your Business Responses, Maybe?

Now, this won’t work for everyone but some of it might help. If your business depends on you posting every day or every other day to keep it afloat, I would suggest scheduling tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Crowdfire. If you got an hour a day, you can schedule anything for the week, you may can’t pay for an assistant so why not allow these tools to do it for you – for free (starting out). I use them all the time. You can also schedule your email to send out automatic replies letting customers know that you’ll get back to them in 24 to 48 hours.

Take it from me, you don’t want to answer a business email quickly….life gets busy and if you answer it quickly, your customers will expect that of you every single time. Give it 24 hours, just make sure you stick to your word as your business reputation is on the line. If you feel you can’t do 24 then go to 48 hours, that way there’s no rush to getting back to someone right away, just in case life is calling, on your side. It’s your business, sure enough and I know you love it but there are tools you can use to still keep your business going, while you’re focusing on other things – such as, taking a painting class, in which I heard was the going thing now..

Oh and P.S. Did you know you can schedule a text message? I do this all the time when I send out inspirational messages to our singles group at church. All of those messages are constructed and scheduled; I got messages scheduled up until the second week of March…

Taking a Break from Your Device…Just for a Little While

As you can see from the experiment I conducted above with myself. Taking a break from the phone or social media could be great for your mental health. This could be time that we use to focus on other things, such as completing that long to-do list of chores we’ve been putting off or catching up on some much needed rest or a movie (away from your phone). It could be time to get out and go visit a friend or just to get some fresh air and clear your mind.

Put yourself on a timeout from those things that take too much of your time, space and energy. Only you know what those things are and how much space you’ll need from them. So, I challenge you – can you put your phone down for two hours a day? And No, sleeping doesn’t count! You have to be fully awake. Hence this post, I’ve been doing it for a week. It’s been very challenging but rewarding as well.

Will you join me? Let’s get back to really interacting with what’s in front of us and not on a device. Let me know below what strategies you do to disconnect and/or if you’ll be taking the challenge!