“Disconnecting from our technology to reconnect with ourselves is absolutely essential for wisdom.”

~ Arianna Huffington

Do you ever unplug yourself? If you’re 100% honest with yourself, how long can you go without checking your email, text messages or social media?

These days we’re connected 24/7 and it impacts our ability to be in the moment. It impacts our face-to-face relationships, drains our mental energy, and affects our ability to focus and get worthwhile work done.

Summer is a great time to take a mini holiday from your digital world. On the weekend, or even just Sunday… or when you feel overwhelmed, choose less screen time and more real time.

Watch the REBOOT video below, or read the transcript that follows, and then plan your own tech-free time in the weeks ahead.

Unplug yourself, from your technology! It’s summer… The perfect time for you to take a break from work, work, work, and get some rest and relaxation. And you do deserve that break.

An over tasked, stressed brain has no ability to plan, to focus, to solve complex tasks, to pay attention. And when that happens, your productivity decreases. And that is not good for your dream big goals.

In a past issue of Fast Company Magazine, Baratunde Thurston, a prolific social media guru, stepped off the grid and unplugged for 25 days… from everything.

How would you manage? How would you do with a week? Could you do two days? What about one digital-free day every single week? Seriously, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Maybe a weekend where you’re connected with family, friends, and activities, and disconnected from your digital world. How’s that for social networking.

It’s not easy in an era of 24/7 information overload when everybody wants to find you right away, but it’s definitely worth it. So, how do you unplug yourself? It’s simple, but it’s not always easy. The first step is to admit that you have a problem.

In his book, Breathing Space, Jeff Davidson says you need to know when to check-in, and when to tune-out, and the best rule is to check in for only two reasons.

1. If you absolutely have to.
2. If the guilt or anxiety you feel from not checking detracts you from your ability to have a good break.

Now he’s talking about vacations, but I think that advice could be applied every single day. We need to stay connected to how we’re connecting, if you will.

I was forced into my own 5-day digital break when my phone met an untimely demise in the river. That was not a good day! But it was an eye opening experience. I realized that I was a slave to every single beep my device made. I also realized that if I didn’t respond to people within a nanosecond, they were still there two or three hours later, when I did respond, and they weren’t upset. It became time management on my own terms, and I started to use my time far more productively.

So I challenge you in the weeks ahead, as we ease out of summer, to take those unplugged breaks. Take a day, take a weekend, unplug over your holidays, and feel the power of connecting in different ways.

And, for some more insights around digital detox, watch this video: 6 Ways to Detox from Your Digital.