Yesterday I decided to take a day off of technology.
No laptop.
No TV.
No phone.
I don’t know why I decided to do it. I guess I thought I was “supposed to”. You know, you hear people talk about how important it is to take time away from technology. To be one with nature. To avoid talking to people online and instead talk to them face-to-face.
And I always felt guilty that I never did any of these apparently much-needed “technolog-free days”.
Like, am I failing at life or something?
Am I making a huge mistake by being online and fully connected at ALL times
Am I going to crash and burn and see my life crumble all around me?
These are the questions I would ask myself. A lot. And I’d hear other people be all “OMG I’M TAKING A DAY OFF, THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!” and I’m like.. “maybe I should do that, I’m probably gonna die if I keep up like this, or at least that’s what people keep warning me about”.
And so yesterday when I woke up with the head cold of all head colds, I was like “perfect! This is the universe telling me I should DEFINITELY take a day off!”.
So I turned off my phone.
I put my laptop in a place that was inconvenient for me to access.
And I did the same with the keyboard for our TV (our TV is hooked up to a computer).
And then..
I twiddled my fucking fingers all day long and wanted to die.
Ok, so it wasn’t that extreme but it was PRETTY DAMN CLOSE.
And I cursed all of the people who ever told me that this was a good idea. This was NOT a good idea. I was going crazy! I felt awful that I was being so unproductive! That I was just sitting around doing nothing when I could be writing and creating and selling and ya know, HAVING FUN.
I tried to get outside but the sun was like a slap in the face and made me want to puke.
I cleaned some of the house and that felt good and productive, but when I went to reward myself with some screen time once I was done (like I usually do - otherwise I won’t do it), I wasn’t ALLOWED, based on MY OWN DECISIONS.
I ended up taking a 3-hour nap just because I was so fucking bored and I knew it would make the time pass quicker.
I woke up, ate some dinner, screamed “FUCK IT!” (in my head, so as not to freak anyone out), turned on the laptop, and watched Tony Robbins on Netflix. And it was THE BEST EVER.
No more technology-free days for me.
They are the freakin’ WORST and are honestly the perfect way to simply piss me the hell off.
I wanted to share my day with my Snap followers
I wanted to speak to YOU
I wanted to show up and DELIVER
I wanted to answer my messages and emails
But I didn’t allow myself. And it sucked. No more of that recklessness!
I woke up this morning, kissed my phone, and spent a full hour catching up on everything I missed the day before, and it was total bliss.
This just reminded me that even though everyone else may seem to be doing something, that doesn’t mean that I also need to join them. I can hang out over here, by myself if necessary, and do the complete opposite of what everyone else is doing!
It’s safe for me to be myself
It’s safe for me to do my own thing
It’s safe for me to be different
It’s safe and it’s okay and it’s PERFECT AND WONDERFUL and THANK YOU VERY MUCH I’m just gonna be ME now.
No more technology-free days.
No more feeling guilty for not taking a day off.
No more allowing others to try and “convince” me I need to do what they’re doing.
NO MORE.
And what’s the big deal with using technology every day anyway?
It was created to make our lives BETTER, not worse.
So long as you are not using it to harm others, I think it’s smart to use technology every day. Just make sure you’re using it in a way that makes you happy and/or successful.
If you’re using it just for the hell of it and it makes you feel like crap, then maybe you’re the kind of person who needs to have regular technology-free days.
I understand that some people work better when they take a day off using technology and that’s GREAT if that works for you. Just don’t disappear for a week and come back expecting people to remember who the hell you are.
By all means, take breaks if it makes you happy and truly makes you feel good, but don’t act as though these tech-free days work for everyone because they just DON’T.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and this is mine:
Technology-free days are awful and I’ll never willingly force myself to endure one again. 🙂
Remember –
This is your life. Only YOU get to choose how to live it, and I highly recommend living it the way YOU want to live it!
You don’t need to follow the crowd, you don’t need to do what anyone else tells you to do unless YOU want to, you don’t need to conform! You can simply be you, do what YOU want, say what YOU think, and let me just say –
Life is WAY more fun when you live it this way.