Phone down!

A digital detox is the need of the hour

What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? If you are anything like me you reach out for your phone to put off the alarm. And then, instead of putting it straight back down and heading for the bathroom to brush your teeth, you start scrolling. 

You take a look at X — what we still think of as Twitter — to see what news has broken overnight. You check into Instagram to see how many likes your post has garnered. You take a quick peek at your favourite news sites. You open your mail to see if anything needs replying urgently. And only then do you start your morning routine. 

Well, for me at least, this is going to change from this week forward. I have been convinced for a while that I need to reduce my dependence on my phone and conduct some sort of digital detox. I need to control my phone usage before my phone starts controlling me. And these are just some of the measures I intend to take. 

• No scrolling on the phone for at least an hour after I wake up. I will still use the phone alarm. But once I have put it off I will put the phone down and not pick it up again until I have finished my breakfast. Instead, I will read the newspapers, chat with my husband, and think about the day ahead without any digital distraction. 

• Leaving my phone behind when I head out for my daily walk. Instead of listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks, I will focus on my surroundings instead. Listening to birdsong, appreciating the beauty of spring flowers, watching peacocks frolic in the shade, eavesdropping on interesting conversations taking place around me. That sounds like a good plan to me. 

• A phone detox also means getting over my compulsive need to photograph everything that strikes me as unusual, beautiful or interesting. Instead of photographing every sunset, clicking every meal that I have ever eaten, chronicling every amazing view I see on my travels, I will focus on being present in the moment. Savouring the experience in real time makes more sense than recording it in your photo gallery, which you will probably never look at later. 

• Resisting the impulse to respond to every WhatsApp message and reply to every email the moment they pop up on my phone. Instead, I will carve out an hour every morning and evening to respond to messages. And refuse to engage with anyone digitally outside of that time period. 

• Move to reading physical books to put myself to sleep rather than rely on the Kindle app on my phone. While I enjoy reading e-books (none of that physical-books-only snobbery for me) the temptation to skip out of the app and check out social media sites on my phone is often too strong to resist. So, it’s best to let it rest on the nightstand while I lose myself in the pages of a ‘real’ book. Wish me luck!