3 Simple Reasons to Unplug

Enjoy the game.

Enjoy the ride, no matter where  you are  or where  you are going. Be in the moment with the people around you.   Unplug  , make memories, and  tell stories.

From a previous post,  Be in the Moment: Going Device Free to Fenway Park,  June 5, 2016

What I wouldn’t do to have a picture of me and my dad in the bleachers at Fenway Park. But, when I was a kid falling in love with a baseball team in the late 70’s, no one brought a camera to a sporting event, except the newscasters. The rest of us, well, we sat back and enjoyed the game.

This is exactly what I’m going to do today with my son. I am going to practice what I preach and I’m going device free.

Although I’d love nothing more than an album full of pictures of being a kid growing up at Fenway Park, the memories and images I have in my mind are crystal-clear. I don’t need a picture to remember when Don “Gerbil” Zimmer was our coach, Carlton “Pudge” Fisk was our catcher and how George “Boomer” Scott delighted us with every crack of the bat. If I was distracted, it was because I was scoring the game with my dad or bugging him to find the hotdog vendor. I wasn’t a prisoner behind a device trying to catch the big play and upload it for all my friends to see, I was in the moment with my dad and a crowd full of fans cheering on their home team.
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Today, I’ll repeat that experience with my son. So, Big Papi hit a home run today because we will be totally present and will capture the moment without being behind a screen!

Spark Joy.

It's time to take  Marie Kondo's advice and apply it to our digital space.

Some questions to ask as you take inventory: Does it "Spark Joy?" If not, just like cleaning our closets   every season,   we need to   kick off the  summer months by reevaluating  our digital habits and space and if does not   "Spark Joy,"  it  has   to   go.

Turn FOMO to JOMO

Take that Fear Of Missing Out and turn it into   Joy Of  Missing  Out. 

Unplug and do whatever you enjoy doing and make sure you do it with absolute joy! Go to the  beach, watch the sunrise or set, count the stars at night, swing on a hammock, play a board game, and get  reintroduced to some of your   favorite   memories  of summer, device -free. 

From a previous post,  Lessons Learned Going Device Free,  June 6, 2016

What was my big take away yesterday being device free? I should do it more often. Yesterday, I was not a prisoner to my device. No one virtually owned my attention or my time. I didn’t feel pulled in a million directions nor did I feel compelled that I “had to” check my phone, answer my email, upload my status, etc.