As some of you might remember, I decided that I would (mostly) unplug while on my recent vacation. I say mostly because the reality is I still used my phone, posted, wrote, and visited social media. The bad news is I probably need to be somewhere without service and WiFi to completely unplug. The good news is I think did a pretty good job at staying off my phone as much as possible.
This is how I was able to do it:
I promised myself.
The plan to unplug came to me a few days before we left. I really wanted to stick with it and I knew if I wrote a blog post about it, I’d hold myself accountable. So that’s what I did. (This is the blog post I wrote.) Once it was out there, I knew there was no taking it back.
I detached from my phone.
I simply left my phone in the hotel room sometimes. Other times, I kept it in the stroller pocket or in a bag away from me. Honestly, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be to detach from the phone. I guess really enjoying life made it easy. I didn’t have a desire to figure out how to edit a photo or write a caption when there was so much beauty and love around me.
I optimized my baby’s nap time.
On the second day, I made the decision to try my best to wait until my baby fell asleep to get on my phone and that’s what I did. While he slept, or was preoccupied playing with others, I took photos, edited them, checked social media and emails, and wrote.
I was intentional about social media use.
Whenever I was on social media, I didn’t really just aimlessly browse. I visited blogs and pages I am interested in, commented on photos I particularly liked, and posted things I had prepared and planned for previously.
I reminded myself to be present.
What good would it be flying hundreds of miles away with my family to spend our time on my phone constantly? Whenever I felt the urge to go on social media, I reminded myself that being present was important. Not only for myself but for my family, especially my son. I didn’t want him to have memories of me looking down at a device while we vacation. I wanted him to have memories with me. In the pool. At the beach. Loving and laughing. Looking up at the stars and group-hugging his dad. I wanted to have memories together and that requires living in the moment, together.
I really am so glad I did this. I wholeheartedly recommend you doing it next time you’re away, as well!
It's so nice to just unplug every now and then! I think everyone should make it a priority.
This is so good! We are going to Indonesia this summer and this is my plan too! I want to just set aside nearly all technology and be present.