If you ever feel overwhelmed by technology, that’s probably because our brains aren’t adapted to it yet. Technology helps us in many ways, but it can feel addictive and consuming, too.
Would you like to improve your relationship with technology? Here are some tips.
Give Your Brain Time to Wind Down for Sleep
If you would like to go to sleep at a certain time, you are more likely to be able to do that if you disconnect from your devices at least an hour before that time. Two hours is even better. You might think to yourself, “what the heck am I going to do without those things for an hour?”
Here is an opportunity to get creative! Is there any kind of tech-free self-care practice you can put into place during that time? A bath, stretching, meditation, guided visualization, journaling, drawing, reading? Getting prepared for the next day? Connecting with a roommate or partner? Petting your animal? You get to decide what would feel best for you.
Give Your Brain a Break from Technology in the Morning
If you are like most humans, you charge your phone by your bed, use it as an alarm clock, and look at your texts/email/social media/the news first thing upon waking.
Have you ever experimented with not doing that? If you haven’t, I recommend giving it a try. Do you notice a difference between how you feel when you start your day with your phone and when you don’t? Does your morning feel different? Does your entire day feel different?
If you want to try starting your morning with something other than your phone, you are probably going to have to do something different to break your habit. A first step is charging your phone outside of your room. If you find you’re still tempted to check all of the things when you get up to turn your alarm off (or worry about your alarm disturbing others), you might try getting yourself a simple digital alarm clock, which costs about $10.
Why does this matter? Well, starting your day with the demands of work, friends and family, or bad global news can get your stress hormones firing first thing in the morning. Rather than peacefully easing into your day, you start to feel stressed right away.
When you start your day with social media, you naturally start comparing yourself to others. This can shift your focus to what you think you “should” be focusing on, rather than what’s actually most important to you.
Give Your Brain Extended Breaks from Technology
Can you leave your phone in another room when you’re home on the weekend? Can you go an entire weekend completely disconnected from technology? Camping is a good opportunity for this, but you can choose to do this any time you like. This is another chance to notice what it feels like when you are connected versus disconnected.
Change Your Notification Settings
If you ever get even slightly overwhelmed by your notifications, turning some/most/all of them off can help. Unsubscribing from mailing lists that you don’t care about can also help decrease overwhelm.
An alternative or addition to reducing notifications is turning vibrate off on your phone when it is set to silent. Somehow I never even realized this was an option until a few months ago. It was life changing for me. Now I look at my phone when I want to/have time to, not whenever it buzzes. And if you want to take it to the next level (especially if you really need to be productive): airplane mode.
Notice How Your Use of Technology Makes You Feel
Do you notice a theme here? A lot of these tips are related to developing an awareness of how your technology use impacts you. How does being connected to the news affect your mood? How does scrolling through social media impact you? Are there other activities you can do that would make you feel more joy? More connection?
I don’t believe that technology is bad or evil. With an awareness around how technology impacts you, you can make empowered choices. You can make technology work for you instead of against you.
If you are finding technology is having a negative impact on you, and you would like additional support, please contact me at 805-664-1177 for a free phone consultation.