Its fast approaching that time of the year when a volley of posts surface about unplugging ourselves from digital devices and the online chaos. What we simply used to call ‘taking a vacation’ is now fancy-worded as ‘digital detoxing’, with promises of better re-engagement, increased focus and spiritual freedom on return. There even exists a ‘National Day of Unplugging’, designed to help hyper-connected people embrace the ritual of a day of rest.

When we are overdosing on information everyday, its easy to see why people think this way. After all, information is seemingly cheap now, what’s expensive is our attention. As if under an impish spell, we allow our attention to be dragged into places its better off bypassing. We let our attention inhabit realms it has no business in. A hundred apps, thousands notifications and a million scrolls and swipes later, we claim this is poison and we must be set free.

The Internet has given us some magnificent things, from a voice for the masses to videos of cats and streaming movies. But the notion that digital excess is giving us anxiety isn’t just about the Web, its about how we are conditioned to use it. We own a brain which is perhaps the greatest machine learning system in existence, but it does not mean it can alter generations of human physiology in a decade without any perceivable side effects.

This year was substantially productive for me. It was long and intense. I finished writing my first book, which was released in September. Betaworks kept doing what it does best — building great products and companies. I reviewed more papers than when I was in grad school. Gave some talks. Spend a lot of time studying the current media landscape, especially around attention dynamics of Twitter and trending topics on Facebook. Wrote bots to track breaking news. You can say, I live and breath social data.

Being plugged into the live-wire is the reality of our lives. And although it appears that a digital duality between the online and the physical world should exist, I don’t think that’s the preeminent concern.

In fact, I don’t feel fried, grilled or burned out. But I do want to re-calibrate attention.

For a span of next few days, my strategy to ‘unplug’ is deceivingly simple: Shape digital usage so attention can’t escape the task at hand. Even better if usage can amplify your attention. During a vacation or holidays, the goal shouldn’t be abstinence from everything digital. Instead, it should be to recondition the way you use the Web and social, news and other apps.

Apps Unplugged.

Fewer channels of communication is definitely a good option. Focus should be on what’s immediately useful vs. what’s not urgent. Here’s what I believe could be a digital recipe for a attention recalibration during vacation.

Apps I will use: Instapaper and Evernote make this list. I use Instapaper for both long reads and collecting interesting articles about places I am travelling to. You could also download a bunch of Wikipedia articles and avoid opening chrome every time you visit a landmark. I clip a bunch of browser snapshots onto Evernote, including ticket/hotel info. Helps me not to look at the email confirmations (avoid the email app). If there are flight delays, I usually get a text or travel app notification. The Kindle (device/app) is something I will have to use as well. Long reads is a must in this time. Preferably, books/novels.

Utility apps are irreplaceable; can’t really drive around without Google Maps! I also enjoy running by the sea, so Runkeeper might come alive during those sessions. Onto music now — if you are travelling to a place where there’s Spotify or other streaming services, that’s great. Personally, I love 8Tracks - its available everywhere and has a distinct serendipity aspect to its human-curated playlists.

Apps I shall skip: To re-calibrate attention for distinct long tasks, the plan is to protect yourself from anything that can drown you in the wave of social lift. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Slack, Sunrise, Snapchat, Secret, Swarm/FourSquare, AlienBlue (for Reddit), YouTube, Whatsapp, PlayStore, AppStore and emails apps of any kind are prime suspects here. Regarding email sabbaticals: yes please! — take a look at Danah Boyd’s excellent blog post on how to make that happen.

So, here’s my usual homescreen vs. my homescreen for the next 2.5 weeks. (P.S: Check out the homescreen app. Awesome way to discover apps)

I do not think my social feeds slow down during the holiday season. Instead, they are usually cluttered with celebrations. Happy for all of them — but its not urgent. I’d rather see the gleam in their eyes when I ask them in person how the holidays went. P.S: I love all the apps on the left, but its fun to fence them for a few days; see them grapple for attention.

Apps to assist “catching up” on return: Digg Deeper and Digg Reader - if you haven’t tried either of these, you seriously should. Digg Deeper lets you filter your Twitter feed by ‘x of your friends posted article y’. Very handy to quickly find out if a critical mass among your friends is paying attention to some news. Digg Reader is just a great RSS companion. I am in peace of mind that wonderful articles from specific feeds won’t be lost in the stream. Regarding emails, I made a bot that can rank emails by #colleagues who responded in the thread, urgency, dates mentioned etc. Good way to catch up once you are back.

Following such protocols should produce organically contemplative moments. Many people believe holidays are meant to escape the “receive-consume-produce” cycle. One giant kill-switch on the cycle isn’t a pragmatic unplugging strategy. Instead, my plan is to only “consume-produce” and choke the “receive” part for some time. Attention re-calibrating is more like letting your brain run on batteries for a while, limiting the receivable live-wire of social and event streams.

Time Unplugged.

The overarching question is: how long of an unplugging does it take to better live a plugged-in life?

I feel our culture is shifting to a place where we place an increasing premium on speed and rapid iterations. While this is great, its also important to know your current velocity before taking a digital sabbatical to re-pattern attention. You must estimate how long it will take before you come to a rest and decelerate accordingly. Then be at rest for a while, restart again, accelerate and get back to constant speed. I have heard this regimen should take something like 2–3 weeks, but we shall see.

Most importantly, don’t treat vacation as an escape from life or as some detoxing curriculum. Instead, look at it as an opportunity to experience and appreciate a new place with new tasks, and to do things differently than you would normally. In reality no matter how much you love your every day life, it is great to experience new things. Playing with new things helps us focus our attention on one particular task (at hand). Given our current digital media largess, I believe we need to re-learn the attention lesson every new year.