Day 23: Take Breaks
Welcome to Day 23 of the Phone Breakup Challenge!
As you know, we’re now in the final week of our phone breakup, and one of my goals for us this week is to start to solidify some of our new habits – including taking regular breaks from our phones.
Regular short breaks from our phones are essential for our emotional and intellectual health. As you well know, being constantly tethered to our phones exhausts our brains; they need regular phone-free time to recover and rejuvenate. And as is also true with other potentially addictive behaviors, it’s important to take a break once in a while just to prove that you can.
There are many ways to take a break—and they don’t have to be twenty-four hours long. You could decide to consistently set a bedtime for your phone that’s an hour or so before your own (and a wakeup time that’s an hour or so after yours), and use that time to do something nourishing for yourself. You could choose an activity every weekend that you will do without your phone, such as getting coffee, or going for a hike. You could choose days and times to take a break from social media.
Whatever you do, remember that the point is not to punish yourself; it’s to make yourself feel good. In other words, don’t ask yourself, “When should I force myself to take a break from my phone?” Instead, ask yourself, “When would I like to take a break from my phone?”
With that in mind, please identify a time today—anywhere between a half hour and an hour will do—when you will leave your phone behind or turn it off entirely. Choose a time when the idea of leaving your phone sounds pleasant. For example: when you’re walking your dog, when you’re taking a lunch break, or when you’re having dinner or watching a movie.
Tell us about your experience in the comments. And then continue to experiment with these short breaks from now through the end of our time together – and beyond!
“I went out to dinner with my wife and left my phone at home. It was great! I’ve continued to leave it behind when going on walks, or just stepping out for a bit. She has been doing the same, so we’ve been able to connect.” —Crystal
To scrolling less, living more, and taking breaks,
PS:
As always, you can ask me and your fellow participants questions—and share observations and insights with each other— by leaving a comment.
If you leave a comment on the blog, please be sure to check back — I read through every comment, and try to respond to each one! (And other people often chime in, too.)
You can also send me questions privately simply by responding to your daily email, but I encourage you to engage with the community; you may be surprised to discover that other people are struggling with the same thing!
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Catherine will be popping in once a day to read through and respond to your comments. You may also hear from other members of the team, Maryana and Laura, who are helping with logistics.