When you look at your phone, PC or tablet, do you think about the cost?
150 years ago, Henry David Thoreau wrote,
The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.
It’s now well understood that excessive screen-time is the thief of social interaction, wellness and leisure.
It saps energy, creativity and critically, your life.
Here’s some ideas that might help you slow, or even reverse that flow:
- Unsubscribe from almost everything. Not this, of course.
- Use devices for one purpose, and don’t sync them. eg – PC for work, phone for texts and calls, tablet for videos and music
- Stop tinkering with digital trivia, and employ technology only if there’s a massive transformational benefit from using it
- Leave your phone at home when you go out to socialise. Scary, but hey – you might get to talk to people
- Have books lying around where reading your phone is currently the default action – the loo, the bedroom, the lounge
As author Eric Barker says, you don’t pick up a hammer unless there’s a nail around.
Approach your digital tools with that in mind, and everything will get better.
Jonny
PS: If Facebook is a tool, your ideal clients are the nails. Let me show you how to bang them in. Sorry, crude analogy.