As someone accustomed to being constantly tethered to devices, the decision to temporarily part ways with screens was deliberate and maybe a little anxiety-inducing. We wanted to keep family and friends in the loop about our experiment, so we set expectations early on. We told them they should call instead of texting or messaging if there was an urgent situation, which definitely piqued some curiosity about our plan.
Before we started our digital detox, we gathered some fun and alternative activities and materials to keep us entertained, like the books that had been sitting on our reading list for ages. We also made some plans to spend more time outdoors and tackle some much-needed chores.
To make sure we weren’t too tempted to check our phones, we set them to Do Not Disturb mode. Our computers were shut down, and the tablet found a temporary home tucked away in a drawer, creating a physical boundary between us and the digital world we were consciously stepping away from. As we prepped for this digital detox, the act of consciously preparing our environment for a screen-free weekend already began to instill a sense of anticipation and mindfulness.
