5 Ways to Protect Your Digital Well-Being in Stressful Times

Hey Changemaker—I know the past few weeks have been filled with a great deal of change and uncertainty. To top it all off, the holidays are here and the year is rapidly coming to a close.

Between work emails, group chats, video calls, and doom scrolling, research shows the time we spend in front screens has steadily increased since the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. In fact, the most connected employees report spending nearly 18 hours online daily.

That’s why protecting your digital well-being is an essential component of your overall well-being that can support you in navigating this hectic season with more ease.

Here are five simple things you can do to create more tech-life balance. These are based on what I call the Mindful Changemaker Technology Distraction Model, which is designed to help you maintain tech-life balance while moving your mission forward.

1. Make an intentional plan for your day and week.

Survey data show one of the biggest distractions in the workplace is lack of clarity about what’s important to focus on in a particular moment. Consequently, you’re more likely to be taken off task by (digital) distractions, and may find it more and more difficult to get back on track—especially during extremely stressful periods.

2. Practice being socially distant from your devices.

Build intentional breaks from your devices into your day, especially during meals, work, and rest. These breaks allow our brains and bodies to recover from the stress of being constantly connected.

• Consider turning off notifications for non-mission critical apps.
• Put away your devices during meals.
• Give your devices a curfew and buy a real alarm clock so you can charge your devices outside your bedroom and get uninterrupted rest at night.

3. Establish your rules of engagement.

These rules spell out things like:

• When, where, and how will you use your devices?
• Which hours will you be available for work each day?
• How soon should someone expect a response from you depending on the level of urgency of their communication?
• When will you have meeting-free and screen-free focus time?

Negotiating and communicating these boundaries removes the guesswork around when and how you are available for your work and reduces any anxiety you may feel about needing to be connected to screens 24/7.

4. Turn off your camera.

Research shows we don’t need to be on camera for every virtual meeting to be fully engaged and productive. In fact, being on camera for back-to-back video calls requires more mental and emotional energy than in-person meetings, and decreases engagement and productivity.

• Where you have the flexibility, consider whether working asynchronously, turning your camera off during a video call, or having an old-fashioned phone call could meet your needs.
• I write more about Zoom fatigue research and provide a script on how to negotiate camera-free options in How to Thrive When Work Doesn’t Love You Back: A Practical Guide for Taking Care of Yourself While Changing The World.

5. Prioritize offline social connections.

Proactively identify opportunities to socialize offline and schedule them on your calendar.

• Whether it’s lunch away from your desk (and phone), regular coffee with a neighbor, or a weekly date, screen-free socializing can bolster our social connections and allow us to be more fully present to the most important relationships in our lives.

What’s one strategy you're using to protect your digital well-being during this season? Just leave a comment here—I’d love to hear your ideas and learn what’s working for you.

Keep doing the good work,

Meico