No telephone day: 8 Ways to disconnect from technology

Fabienne Broucaret

14 Feb 2015

updated the 6 October 2015 à 23:21

1/8
Challenge yourself
Test yourself. Can you manage not to look at your mobile phone for one hour? Do you feel you are missing out if you do not browse the social networks during your lunch break? Is it difficult for you not to send text messages or emails during the weekend? These small challenges will allow you to assess your degree of dependency.
The most important factor is to analyse your emotional state when you cannot use your mobile phone.
2/8
Assess the current situation
Being aware of your progress will allow you to evaluate, celebrate it and be conscious of your level of reliance.
List on paper how many times per hour, then a day that you check your email inbox, log onto Facebook or Twitter, or verify that nobody called. Every time, note the time it takes you. We always have the impression that it takes two minutes, but the reality is more like five or ten!
This list often allows an awareness of your dependence, small or big, because you may not pay attention to the symptoms; difficulties concentrating or remembering, and sleeping disorders, among others.
3/8
Work on your motivation
Discover what you could gain from cultivating a more harmonious relationship with technology. This will enable you to establish a list of boosters for the moments of doubts or withdrawal symptoms.
How can you benefit from being less dependent on your mobile phone? What would it bring to you and your relationship with others? Time, energy, creativity? And time for what and whom? To learn? To dance? Or for another activity you have always wanted to try? Change is difficult, but it is made easier if you know why you want to make it and the benefits you will reap.
4/8
Set goals
The idea is not to refrain completely from using a mobile phone, tablet or computer! Rather, we need to set reasonable goals: no mobile phone during meals; total logout one or two evenings a week; log out of emails once per hour; and so on.
Knowing where you are going, how and for how long, is essential to the success of a challenge. Humans have the capacity for incredible determination, especially for a precise goal over a limited period of time.
5/8
21 Days
Experiment with 21 days of detoxification, according to your objectives. This is the period of time required to observe the effects of long-lasting change.
6/8
Limit the sources of interruption
From your computer, remove the sound alert that notifies you as soon as you receive an email. The same goes for notifications on your mobile phone. It is better to check your email once per hour. This is less time consuming and will not be as disruptive to your work.
7/8
If you want to succumb
Review your list of motivations and, if needed, post it in crucial places (at home, in the office). At the critical moments, breathe by focusing your attention on the path that the air takes inside your body. Close your eyes and try to identify the possible tension in your body. Finally, ask yourself two questions: “What emotion is taking up the most space?” & “What is my biggest desire at this very moment?”
Ask yourself why you want to look at your telephone: what is your deepest need? You need to have a break, to speak to somebody, and so on. Try your best to answer differently to your needs and replace the virtual with reality.
8/8
A more harmonious relationship
Choose your new relationship with technology. Enriched by your awareness and your detoxification, you can define this new relationship in the long-term.

We tend to always have our mobile phones in our hands checking if we have any notification. Here’s how you can try to temporarily disconnect from your mobile phones.

“Take the best of the technology without, it taking the best of you!” That’s the motto of coach Alia Cardyn. She imagined small exercises made for those who are constantly attached to their phones, less effective in their activities, and spending too much time on social networks or emails.

Thanks to the advent of smartphones and tablets, we are reachable, available or connected for most of the day. Is it a real choice or did it become an automatism, a reflex, or even an addiction? “I remember this managing director of a company who came to me five years ago”, recalls Alia Cardyn. “He complained of struggling to manage his time. I asked him not to reach out to his mobile for every notification, but to do so only once per hour. He tried, and explained to me that doing so had brought on physical symptoms of anxiety. He also realised that the time spent on his phone was disrupting his work. And I understood that it was really necessary to fight our dependence on new technologies!”

In the gallery above, Alia Cardyn provides her advice for disconnecting from technology.

Fabienne Broucaret

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No telephone day: 8 Ways to disconnect from technology

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