Martin Sketchley's Morning Pages & More!
3 tips for a digital detox!
3 tips for a digital detox to increase wellbeing, productivity, creativity, escape distractions and social media, and a challenge!
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My name's Martin Sketchley. I'm a published novelist (Simon & Schuster), scriptwriter and workshop facilitator, with over 30 years' experience across fiction, non-fiction, business analysis, scriptwriting and education.
00:00 – Intro
00:15 – Constant Connectivity
00:37 – 1: Actively Deactivate
02:03 – 2: Jottings
03:06 – 3: Pulp Faction
03:55 – The Challenge!
04:29 – Outro
Hi. This video is going to be
all about the idea of taking a digital detox. An increasing number of us are
feeling overwhelmed with all the social media and news and
all that kind of thing. So we're just going to take a
look at the whys and the benefits and how
we can go about it. Okay? Let's go! With all our digital devices and
constant connectivity, we're inundated with information every
day: email, messages, meetings on Zoom or Teams, social media
notifications and scary news about the end of the world. We haven't evolved to deal with
this amount of information. And that's why taking a break
from it all is increasingly popular. Here's my three tips for
overcoming the overwhelm in the form of a digital detox,
and a challenge at the end! One. Actively Deactivate. Have you ever picked up your
phone and not known why? Or when you didn't even want to? Have you ever felt a surge of
panic when the phone's not where you expected it to be?
Me too. Smartphones are the greatest
source of all the information that's flooding into our lives
every day. And we're addicted to them without realising. With all this external input,
our own thoughts barely get a chance to surface. In his book Digital Minimalism,
Cal Newport describes this as “solitude deprivation”. “A state in which you spend
close to zero time alone with your own thoughts and free from
input from other minds.” The solution's easy:
stop looking at the phone! But because of our addiction to
smartphones, this is easier said than done. But how often do you pick up
your phone and do nothing of any value? Just losing time to social
media, online shopping for things you can't afford,
or constant doom-scrolling. We need to make a conscious
effort to take a break. For example, I've started
leaving my phone at home when walking the dog. Now, instead
of glancing at my phone just because it's in my pocket,
my mind has chance to wander. I can look at the sky or the
birds, think about what's happening in life, and what I'll
be doing for the rest of the day. I also leave my phone in the
kitchen when I go to bed. The next morning, I check my
reminders list for the day, but I don't look at any messages,
social media or news. If something really important
has happened, I'm going to learn about it somehow. Avoiding other people's thoughts
for the first hour of the day can have a significant positive
impact, helping us to feel calm, reflect on our own thoughts and
feelings, and boost creativity. This brings me to point two:
Jottings. These days, if we have an idea
or need to remember something, we automatically reach
for the phone. This is quick and convenient and
feels somehow safer, because the note's probably in
“the cloud” somewhere. We can even tell the phone what
it is we want to be reminded about, and when, and it'll
sort it all out for us. Talk about convenient! But we've
become so reliant on this technology that we tend to
forget such notes exist. An effective, non-digital
alternative is an ordinary paper notebook. Phones and
tablets are extremely useful, but are they really more
convenient than a simple piece of paper? A paper notebook will not
distract you with notifications or messages. You won't get
frustrated when it autocorrects incorrectly. And there's a
distinct sense of calm when writing in a paper notebook
that an electronic device is simply unable to offer. If you're not convinced, get
yourself a cheap notebook, one that fits in your pocket,
and a pen or pencil. Then, the next time you want to remember
something or have an idea, use the notebook instead
of the phone. Actually forming the letters of
the words with your hand rather than rubbing your finger across
a piece of glass will embed the idea into your mind. I bet you
won't even forget what you've written. 3. Pulp faction In recent years most of my
reading was on my Kindle or iPad. E-books are
really convenient! If I wanted to make a note of
something while reading, I'd either email myself or copy
the text to another app. But this would drop me out of
the flow of reading, and during the process I'd often see
notifications of some kind or an email and become distracted. This made it difficult to
maintain my train of thought and slowed down the reading – it
took me *ages* to finish a book! So now I've returned to paper
books: the perfect example of something that does
one thing well. Paper books have been educating
and entertaining people for hundreds of years, so they must
do something right. Now, I read with a highlighter
pen to hand. If I want to make a note, I'll quickly highlight
the text and continue reading. Then, when I've finished the
book I'll revisit the bits I've highlighted. If you don't want to permanently
mark your books, just underline the text lightly in pencil, and
you can rub this out later. So now for the challenge! Try disconnecting for half an
hour tomorrow. Put your phone in a drawer somewhere and go
and do something else: prepare and eat a meal,
talk to someone, even just watch TV – anything that
doesn't involve the internet. The point is, to separate
yourself from that phone. Notice how often you think about
reaching for the phone during this time – and the difference
it makes that you can't; I'll bet the positives outweigh
the negatives. And I'll also bet you'll be surprised by how often
you want to reach for the phone. Gradually increase the amount of
time you spend away from your phone each day, and you'll
regain that time for doing more worthwhile, satisfying things. So that was the digital detox. I hope you enjoyed it. If you
did, check out my other videos and if there's anything else
you'd like to see me cover just let me know
in the comments. Bye for now!
#tips #digital #detox
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Can you do one on the panic that arises when you actually have some free time and some how the space and time is terrifying. What is the psychology behind this? How do you overcome it?
Thank you for making this video, most of it resonates with me and I'm definitely giving the challenge a try. Feel like it'll benefit both me and my family. Also the animations in your video deserve a thumbs-up, pretty well made imo. May I ask if you made them yourself? Cheers
I need to try some of these suggestions!! 😏