Unplugging and Disconnecting on Sundays

One habit I’ve adopted for this year is unplugging and disconnecting on Sundays. This means not using my laptop or iPad and doing my best to use my iPhone only for voice calls and text messages on a limited basis. I allow myself use of a Kindle Paperwhite to read books and the weekend edition of the Financial Times. I’ve recently started and am really enjoying reading the Luminaries.

Downloading the weekend edition of the Financial Times to my Kindle each Saturday for $0.75 is the best way I can find to essentially “subscribe” to the FT’s weekend edition, without having to pay the few hundred dollars for the full subscription. I do like to pick up the print version when it’s convenient, however find that the digital download is more convenient and less expensive, although not quite as satisfying as the print version.

Back to unplugging on Sundays. I expected this to be a difficult habit to adopt and while it has been in some ways, it hasn’t been quite as tough as I originally expected it would be to unplug. The most concious part of this habit for me has been to not instinctively reach for my iPad or sit down at my laptop to do “just one quick thing” to fill in spare 10-15 minute blocks that may arise during the day.

I’m still not sure what to do with this time, other than not pick up the laptop or iPad. I’m trying to use this time as a break for my mind, just to give it a rest, rather than try to cram additional information into it or get the adrenaline moving by trying to squeeze one more “to do” out sporadically throughout the day. What I’m discovering is that the process to gear up to get a single “to do” done, usually requires the same amount of energy as gearing up to get a bunch of “to do”’s done, as the mindset to get one or multiple “to do”’s done is the same, at least for me. This supports research I’ve done in the past that says batching “to do”’s, rather than trying to knock them off one at a time, is the way to go.

I experienced a more extended version of this yesterday. After going to church, my longest bike ride yet, brunch with my wife and friends, then a long walk home with my wife over the Williamsburg Bridge, I came home, read and rested. I wasn’t quite sure what to do after that, as I was a bit too tired to read and didn’t want to turn on the TV. I think part of what I experienced was a new level of being tired from the bike ride. So I settled on having dinner, picking up where I left off watching Inning 6 of Ken Burns’ PBS baseball documentary on Netflix, and just rolled with it.

After experimenting with this approach for a month, it seems to be working in beneficial ways. I find that by unplugging physically from the online world, I’m actually recharging mentally. I feel more refreshed on Monday mornings when I sit to write this blog, as a way to roll into the the day and week. I feel more motivated to jump back into things with a fresh start and perspective, as opposed to continuing to try and pull through and extend a long process of getting things done, which I experienced when allowing myself to stay plugged in on Sundays. During these times, the weekends simply felt like a bridge, rather than a break, between work weeks. All in all, after the first month, I like where the benefits of unplugging seem to be heading and I look forward to continuing the habit through the upcoming months.