Imagine spending two weeks, starting tomorrow, living in a remote area with no electronic devices. Does this 'disconnected' scenario greatly appeal to you or does it freak you out more than you'd care to admit?

In our rapidly changing world where technological marvels are appearing one after another in quick succession, it's easy to get caught up in the rush of of it all. We are constantly connected to different devices so we can stay informed, keep in touch with people, and entertain ourselves. I admit to being a strong advocate for utilizing technology in innovative ways that integrate with and improve our lives.

The flip side, however, is that it is undeniable that being constantly connected can greatly affect our lives in a negative way (i.e. procrastination monkey takes over). I've personally experienced and seen far too many people having difficulty with paying attention, sleeping soundly, communicating face-to-face, connecting with people emotionally, and simply being present.

How do we find a better balance? Practice disconnection. "Disconnecting" is a term I've heard thrown around by educators, healthcare practitioners, productivity coaches, and pretty much everybody else since MP3 players had people 'plugged in' all the time. 

This is the story of my journey towards building thoughtful disconnection habits.

I was raised in a home where trying out different electronic products was encouraged. I learned English as my second language by playing massively multiplayer online games. My first paycheque was earned online at the age of 8. I've spent more than a decade deliberately integrating technologies with my life to enhance my productivity. In all of my paid and volunteer work to-date, a strength of mine has been the ability to think critically and bring technological approaches to bear in solving our problems. All of this to say that when I finally made the decision to choose to deliberately disconnect from my devices, I knew it was going to be tough. 

For me, the impetus to make this change was because I could noticeably feel the adverse effects that being overly 'connected' was having on my life: shortened attention span, waking up feeling fatigued, dry eyes, less hands-on volunteering, less time spent face to face with friends/family... the list goes on.

Here are some of the 'disconnecting' habits I've been building:

• Stop using electronic devices 30 minutes before going to sleep at night. In this time, I will sit in the darkness for 30 minutes and drink one or two cups of warm water or herbal tea.
• At the start of the day or before sleeping at night, write in a journal to get my thoughts on paper. This could be about ideas on my mind, what I am grateful for, where I'm facing challenges... 

• Leave your devices, wallet, and other non-necessities at home, then go do your activity. For example, I go for hour-long walks with only my keys & transit card; during the walk, I take the time to simply be with myself, think through my thoughts, and learn from what others are apparently doing.

• Being more conscious and in control of how my time is spent. Over time, I had gotten into the habit of automatically opening a few tabs in my browser when I had time to spare. This kept me constantly in touch with a pre-defined set of sites I use for learning, work, and distraction. Eventually, this became distracting because a few minutes of free time frequently transformed into hours of reading, and I had to get a handle on it.

As a result of the above and other conscious changes to my life, I can tell you that I am feeling more connected, energetic, effective, rested, and a host of other positives. I've been teetering the range of connectedness at different points in time, dependent on what life is throwing at me at a particular time. I'm still pursuing the right balance and I look forward to continuing this journey.

If this is something you'd like to take steps towards, I have two pieces of advice:

• Set yourself up for success by pro-actively removing changes of temptation/distraction. For example, you can develop a new 'place' for your phone, tablet, or other device(s) which is far from your place of rest; this effectively removes your ability to instinctively reach out and start. You can go a step further with this by using the 'sleep' functionality on devices.
• If this is something new for you, my recommendation is to take small, incremental steps to building a habit. For example, the first step might be to remove distractions from places of rest, followed by starting to disconnect for at least five minutes per day. Then, when five minutes becomes routine, increase the disconnect time or add in a new ritual (e.g. journalling, hot drink, meditation) and build up that habit.

Happy disconnecting!