7 tips to better manage our digital well-being

Digital wellness is bringing mindfulness to design

Digital wellbeing and mindfulness is not necessarily about using technology less often. Rather it is being critical about how we use technology and reflecting on our motivations to engage — are we making a positive choice or simply being pushed around by addictive platforms?

This section will not focus on mindfulness and its links to meditation but instead on reflecting how we use technology and ensuring that it is aiding productivity and wellbeing, rather than hindering it.

“Disconnection leads to reflection which then allows for more meaningful moments in the digital domain”

Eric Stoller (2017)

So how can we better manage our digital health on a daily basis? As designers we see the pattern and know the pitfalls but do we really know how to manage our own digital well-being?

Below are 7 tips to help you find the right digital balance.

Sitting at a computer for hours on end is easily done as you get into certain tasks and time flies by. It is important though to find time to take a break and 5 minutes every hour can be a great idea. You might be worried about 5 minutes break every hour and the idea of losing productivity. Provided you can learn to take short breaks and keep them short, then you will find that being refreshed can aid your productivity.

During lunch, always try and leave your computer. Avoid eating at your desk!

START AND END YOUR DAY WITHOUT ELECTRONIC DEVICES

If you love nothing better than lying in bed checking a digital newspaper than fair enough. If you possibly can though, try and start and end your day by avoiding digital and electronic devices including television.

If you can, read a book, or take 5 minutes simply to do nothing to think about your plans for the day ahead. Think of the positives of what you want to achieve.

Likewise, before sleeping, you can spend 5 minutes thinking about the positive achievements of the day (and there are always some no matter how big or small both in your work and personal life).

TURN OFF, REDUCE OR CUSTOMIZE NOTIFICATIONS

It is common these days for many apps or websites to offer ‘Push’ notifications. You may or may not be aware of what these are so let me very briefly explain.

Push notifications are when a website asks if they can send you notifications that will pop up on your computer (normally you’ll see them on the bottom right of your computer).

Some of these notifications might be highly relevant and you want them so keep them. Ask yourself seriously though, when given the option of notifications, if you really need it for the site in question?

Try to reduce notifications and likewise, with emails, if you are receiving any emails you no longer need, unsubscribe immediately.

In other words, try to reduce your digital footprint where it is not needed and save yourself wasted time.

BETTER MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTIONS AND USAGE

On Facebook and other social media, also think carefully think about how you use these platforms for positive digital use, as opposed to negative digital use. I use these platforms myself all the time, i.e. I love Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.

It is important though to use them in the right way. It is important to remember that we have a choice in how we represent ourselves on social
media and so, when you see everyone appearing to always be on holiday and always drinking cocktails and having the time of their lives, or always looking beautiful, it is not a balanced portrayal of their offline life, you can be sure.

Perspective is vital when using social media and it is understandable that many people can feel intimidated to an extent by what they see, without realizing the negative impact social media has on them.

I would suggest focusing on doing a digital detox and creating positive digital wellness by:

• On Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, unfollowing any friends who post too many negative comments or who, for you personally, are not a positive influence of some kind.
• Make sure that any social media groups and associations you are connected with have a greater positive influence on you than negative. Do not be afraid or hesitate to unfollow any negative associations.

Take a step back and do a digital detox of your social media.

Do you find yourself on social media getting drawn into unnecessarily negative discussions or discussions that drain time that could be better and more positively spent? Unfriend or unjoin those associations.

Spend an hour to go through your social media and do a clean-up and do this once a month.

SCHEDULE TIME TO CHECK EMAILS AND FOR READING NEWS

Most of us check emails daily and read things such as the news online. Doing these can be positive of course because they are necessary such as for work and they keep us connected to the world around us.

The trick though is to structure this digital time!

Try to get into the habit, for example, of only checking your emails twice a day (except for when you are checking customer service emails if you run a business or because it’s your job).

I myself struggle, to be quite honest, with not checking my emails constantly and I know it is unproductive checking emails so often. I am not saying it is easy but try (as I will) to allocate certain times of the day to checking emails and to reading news or sports online.

I suggest checking these things at the start of your working day and then towards the end of the day or after lunchtime.

BE MORE AWARE OF POSITIVE VS NEGATIVE DIGITAL WELLNESS USAGE

In terms of digital wellness, try also to think more every time you use any digital device about how you can improve the positive usage of that device. Let me explain!

If you are using a device such as an iPhone to skim the news sites because you are stuck in a doctor’s surgery with nothing to do, could you instead already have a digital eBook on your device? Could you be reading something more useful such as something you need to learnor a book you never seem to have time otherwise to read?

Digital wellness thus reflects not just the things we need to avoid but also the way in which we can take digital usage and simply optimize it.

So why not, for example, improve the available reading materials you have on your devices for when you are looking for a distraction in the doctor’s surgery or on the bus? If you are going to use a digital device, try and improve that time used.

USE FEATURES SUCH AS DO NOT DISTURB MODE OR WIND DOWN FOR YOUR PHONE

Another simple thing you can do to improve your digital usage time and that can actually help you get off of your computer earlier in the day if you simply need to get certain digital work tasks done, is to set up ‘Do not disturb’ signs. On Skype (if you like to always be signed in), on email, or on your phone (you can use ‘Wind Down’) you can set up do not disturb.

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