Okay, bare with me on this one. Because this might be a bit strange to some that know me, but .. I might be offline for an hour or two. Hold on!.. hold on! I am okay! Don’t panic.
I am going to have what I like to call a “Sam Day”.
Psst, if you don’t want to read this all and instead listen to this second blogisode, check out the video at the bottom of the page 🙂
Samantha, a friend of mine, has this company called ‘SamCoaching’. Which is about helping each other make career choices, etc. One of the things that she does that stood out, is something that I try to apply once in a while.. For a couple of weeks she goes offline on purpose, to step away from tech and social media and such.
Well, actually. I try to think about that myself and then purposely decide to turn off all my devices. Maybe once a week, once a month.. sometimes once an hour. I just need to unplug from the Matrix. Let’s link to her page if you’re interested in more info, (but then come back ok? :p This blog is about ME ME ME).
Let’s quote her: “Your online should help improve your offline” (something along those lines). And I agree. Your offline life shouldn’t suffer from being online the whole time. Instead, what you do online should simply help you with your offline (stuff). Am I making any sense? Well, it makes quite a bit of sense to me.
https://www.facebook.com/keuzecoaching/
Anyway, she encouraged us on her Facebook a couple of times in 2017 to just go offline for a few weeks. And I ignored that. A few weeks? YEAH RIGHT .. I am far from being able to do that. But I didn’t really-really ignore it. If you have been following my blog over the last couple of years you might have read about this topic a few times. I’ve mentioned that I just want to go for a bike ride, a walk, or just turn off my tech stuff, and go enjoy doing offline things.
But .. I can do it much more right? And more on purpose, .. longer? The new year seems like a great excuse.
So yeah, today I am having what I have noted on my #todo list as a ‘sam day’. It simply means that I try to put my tech away, I turn on do not disturb or even airplane mode and just stop caring about notifications and social media replies. And all that stuff that’s just so distracting. A little me time for a healthier mind isn’t a bad thing, and instead of sitting down behind a computer for an hour, .. walking for an hour helps me physically as well.
And sure, I can’t do two weeks, like I said, I socialize online, I teach myself things online, I help others online with their stuff, .. all sorts of things: Tech is important to me. Walking away from that means I feel a tiny bit more unhappy throughout the da… wait, am I? How the hell am I supposed to know? I don’t actually stay offline long enough to find out. This year I want to find a balance that works, for all those reasons. And Sam’s that great mental reminder. Oh, and she said she also calls it SamCoaching once in a while and sam is from samen (together), so I guess I have to go offline and socialize there a little more as well.
Here we are, online, writing this blog. But, when I went to bed last night I turned off my devices, and I left it off when I woke up. I took a few hours to tidy up the place and play with kittycat (She’s @SashaPurr on Twitter by the way), and I only turned on my phone to start an hour long podcast. Which I listened to while having a walk outside.
Remember 2016? It was such a lovely day to go for a bike ride.
What do we have this year?
So yeah, it wasn’t the most wonderful walks of all. But it was nice to listen to some podcast and not think about social pokes, or items on a todo list or anything like that. And the audio was a great distraction to make time fly. It made walking easier. I can’t wait to do it again soon.
Maybe Sam didn’t mean it like the way that I apply it, but .. using my tech to get me online to get a podcast downloaded that I could listen to offline to be more offline. That worked for me. :p
Surely this one hour this year is nothing compared to what the Spring and Summer seasons might be when it’s even nicer to go for even longer walks, but it’s a start.
“Hey Siri, set a weekly reminder to have a Sam day”. And maybe eventually I’ll make that a daily thing.