Time to get Unplugged (at least for a bit) – Technology Timeout

Powered by Mom got unplugged this weekend and took a Technology Timeout!

Don’t worry I didn’t get some strange procedure done to myself, I literally unplugged myself from technology. I took a technology timeout for an hour each day this last weekend to see if I could do it, would I miss it and what I would do. Want to know the results? Read on!

Now for someone like me who makes her living from online work I’m “plugged in” to technology quite a bit from my desktop computer to my iPhone. When we went on vacation this summer I had to meet up with my family as I was coming from a work conference. I had to bring a laptop with me for vacation as I can’t be offline for more than day in my business. I can however be off for periods of time during the day so for this first Tech Timeout I started by not only shutting off my iPhone but putting this note on it.

 

It’s almost shocking how many times at first I would find myself reaching for my phone out of habit, the note was my visual reminder that it was my time out out. Now don’t get me wrong I am offline at times, however when I thought it about those times tended to be when I’m 1) sleeping, 2) doing household chores or other similar things. So I decided the best thing to do was to get away from it all and make Tech Time “Me Time”. This is a rare thing to happen so why not take advantage of it! It had been sunny all weekend and in fact this entire week so I went for walks in our neighborhood every day! Some days I went by myself and put some earphones on to listen to my favorite music while checking out all the different styles of homes, beautiful gardens and more. Some times I went with hubby and we took our dogs and we had some us time and we even managed to get our daughter out on at least one of those walks. It was relaxing for me and at the same time I got to enjoy the beautiful weather, got some exercise and enjoyed time with my family.

Since the weather was so beautiful I also did some Tech Timeouts where I just went to my backyard with either my music or a book (I did both), laid in a lounger, put on the sunglasses and just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the gorgeous weather! I felt so relaxed and refreshed after just one hour it was amazing! I really liked the idea of taking an hour for myself away from technology but also where I wasn’t doing other chores or other work of some kind. One hour is not that much time but it can make a HUGE difference at least it did for me.

Even my chihuahua Little Zeus thought that getting out into the backyard during the nice weather was a relaxing idea so he joined me 🙂

 

I highly recommend that everyone try a Tech Time Out, start with 30 minutes if you want but really is an hour that hard to do? It seems like it at first but once you start to feel the benefits and enjoy that one hour of whatever you decide to do you will think one hour  is too short!

Here are some great ideas of how you and your family can spend time together without technology!