The lost art of downtime

I was recently reading the findings of the 2019 Screen Time Stats Report of data gathered from the Rescue Time app, an app helping people to monitor the use of apps on their smartphones. The app is designed to help people regain control of their device use. A report right up my alley. What alarmed me was the usage habits they found. It reported that on average adults were using their smartphone for 3.15 hours per day with the top 20% if the users spending more than 4.5 hours per day. The most interesting statistic was just how many times a day they checked it and for how long. 

Most people were checking their smartphone 58 times per day with a follow-up check within 3 minutes of the previous time they checked it. With 70% checking it for less than 2 minutes. This made me think, why do we do it and more so, have we lost the art of downtime?

Why would we be needing to pick up our phones this many times a day, in such short bursts with little attention given to it? To further explore my question I went to a shopping centre food court to observe … it isn’t stalking or staring when done in the name of research! What I noticed fascinated me. People could not stand in line waiting to place their order, or to collect their order, or to eat their order without looking at their phones. Or maybe they could, they were just choosing not to. This appeared to be the case for people on their own and with others. The presence of another human didn’t seem to stop the need to check the phone, because it appeared the other person was also doing it! 

With my phone in my bag, I wondered ... have we lost the ability to be idle, to daydream, to observe, to wonder, to communicate?

With my phone in my bag I wondered … have we lost the ability to be idle, to daydream, to observe, to wonder, to communicate? 

It made me think what did we do before we had smartphones? I can remember as it wasn’t that long ago, if we were waiting in a line we would look around us, we would stand there and just be still, we might spark a conversation with the person next to us, our mind would wander to other thoughts or we would switch off and not think about anything. It is in these moments we gave ourselves micro opportunities to switch off and find calm and in doing so often come up with our best ideas even when it felt like we were not thinking at all.

Famously the founder of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world Bill Gates shares that he takes twice-yearly “think weeks” where he goes to a secluded retreat, for the purpose of daydreaming where he thinks about and plans his next six months. He says that it is through the daydreaming and thinking that he comes up with his best ideas. If it works for him then maybe we should give it a go.

Research conducted by the University of California in 2012 found that daydreaming has its benefits and, in fact, is being promoted as a way to boost mental skills and productivity. Daydreaming is reported to improve skills such as empathy, memory, self-discovery, problem-solving, creativity and mood. It is also known to calm the nervous system and provide a sense of calm. We all know that checking our smartphones 58 times a day is not adding to our health and well-being yet we keep persisting. So how can we reclaim the art of daydreaming and keep our phones in our pockets?

1.  Stop yourself. When you feel the compulsion to pull out your phone (assuming it is not already in your hand), keep it where it is. Give yourself a goal if you need to, like not taking it out until you sit down to have your meal, or you won’t check it until after you have finished your meal. You are the master of your smartphone!

2.  Be deliberate. Give yourself an “instead of”. So “instead of checking my phone, I will look around the café”, or “instead of checking my phone I will talk to my friend.” This will keep you focused on the new activity and get your mind off checking your phone.

3.  Turn off the notifications. When hearing the ding, feel the vibration and see the flash, no matter what we are doing our mind becomes distracted and we feel we must check the phone … just in case. Set yourself up for success and turn the notifications off, just leave on the ones that are really important for you like incoming calls. Social media, unless your work depends on it, is not life or death so turn them off!

Enjoy switching off and daydreaming.

Angela

#switchoff #productivity #calmfromchaos