During the pandemic, many office workers are simply working from home, opposed to what is referred to as “Remote Working” - a professional working style which enables individuals the freedom to change their work location and access a physical workplace when desired.

In the ‘working from home’ only model, there is often a lack of physical space and movement between work and home environments, resulting in the boundaries getting blurred. Which can lead to bad digital habits; scrolling on social media without focus, answering emails out of office hours and generally being distracted by digital devices and notifications.

Often home workers believe that there is an expectation to be “always-on” and available for work. As a result, many people have picked up unhealthy digital habits and now need to intentionally focus on resetting these behaviours.

To be more intentional in your Digital Habits, check out these tips below and start today to truly “unplug and recharge” from digital overload.

Top Tip: Out of Sight & Out of Mind

When our home and work lives are blurred together - sometimes the simplest thing, like packing away our work items so that they are out of sight can make a huge difference. Use a drawer, storage boxes, a cupboard, or even a sheet.

1. Taking stock of your Digital Habits – Start by taking stock and reflecting on your current digital habits. Grab a pen and paper and ask yourself, have you noticed any negative impacts? From tired eyes to feeling distracted and overwhelmed - to potentially suffering from disturbed sleep. Stopping to take note of these impacts, can help to motivate us to reset our habits.

2. Intention and Purpose – Continue the exercise above in reflection, by asking yourself - what is your intention when you pick up a device? Are you passing your time connected with a valid purpose and intention in your activities? Answering these questions with specific prompts often help us get a better perspective on the quality of our use of digital devices. Moreover, reflecting on the quality of your time spent supports us to intentionally stop what is often called “mindless doom scrolling on social media” to more mindful use of technology.

3. Establish Clear Boundaries – One of the key traits in effective remote working is maintaining a good work-life balance and taking high-quality downtime. This is supported by clear communications on your availability, routine and setting clear expectations where possible with your team and work colleagues. Ensure your shared calendar shows availability and non-availability clearly and that Out of Office automatic messages and other notifications are set up correctly. Moreover, ensuring these notifications and messages are respected are fundamental in ensuring “your boundaries” are known and honoured. Repetition of these boundaries and their details may be needed with a positive tone and assertiveness e.g. “I will be using my OOO whilst on holidays, turning off all work-related software on my devices and unavailable until my return date”, to remind your contacts of your clear non-available status.

4. Out of Sight is Out of Mind – Packing devices away on our downtime (or even simply covering with a blanket!) is often key to managing our habits. Some people are even fortunate to have dedicated devices, one solely for work and one for personal use.  The routine of packing away our work equipment at the end of the day, combined with managing notifications and ensuring that “offline is truly offline”, are both important key to supporting the self-discipline needed to support the embedding and full adoption of better habits.

5. Find activities WITHOUT devices – Enhance your hobbies and self-care activities by adding in past-times WITHOUT devices, with intention. Walking or exercising in nature without a device which may distract and tempt you to scroll. Colouring, drawing, doing crafts or DIY etc. There are many activities we can find if we try that can support digital disconnection. True unplugging often leads to clarity of thought, enhanced creativity and a feeling of freedom from always “being on”.

   For more information on Self-care and intentional wellbeing routines, read this blog post and download the associated template.

Intentional NO device time, says YES to true headspace - Rowena Hennigan, April 2021