At Time To Log Off, we love digital detox challenges that get you all practising putting down your phones. We’ve run quite a few over the years; the Phone Free Food campaign, our popular Log Off For Love Valentine’s Day challenge and our regular 30-day Digital Detox challenge. But summer school holidays have now come around again, so we’re welcoming back our family Summer Unplugged challenge!
It might be a bit challenging in the winter when days are short and the weather is dismal outside, but Summer is the perfect season to start a digital detox adventure. Longer, sunny (we hope), days and balmy evenings will give us all the excuse to step away from our devices more.
And summer holidays are all about spending time with our families and friends, what better time to re-connect with our loved ones and focus on building stronger connections? Summer Unplugged is all about putting down the phone and reconnecting with those right in front of you – your family. And this is not just for kids, more and more young people tell us that it’s their parents who are struggling to put their phones down – so this is for all of you.
Print out our print Summer Unplugged challenge poster – stick it on the fridge or on a noticeboard at home – and follow the ten steps to a summer spent unplugged. Don’t forget to let us know how you’re finding the challenge by using the #SummerUnplugged hashtag online, too.
We hope you’re already doing this. But just in case you’re not, or it’s slipped a bit over a busy school term, set a specific intention around phones and food and ban phones whenever you’re eating. It’s a great way to practice mindful eating too, without your screens to distract you.
This one is definitely a challenge! Don’t try this when you’re going out to a place you’ve never been before and hope to be able to cope with navigating without GPS or maps. Incorporate this in a day out to somewhere you all know well. Agree you’ll all leave your phones behind and set out to enjoy the day screen-free. Ready, set, go!
We all use our phones in very different ways which means there may be very different things we want to get out of a summer digital detox challenge. Someone may want to log-off work email every night, another may want to cut down on Instagram scrolling. Come up with your personal goals and share them.
Screens do have a way of making us quite sedentary. We sit down with them, usually indoors, and we’re not very active. Make a list of all the games you could play off screens and work your way through them this summer.
A digital detox doesn’t have to be for a week, weekend or even a full day. Just start small with a limited period of time off screens and build up during the time of the challenge. How about setting a target for the end of the summer that you’ll work up to? A while Sunday off screens could be a good thing to aim for.
Print out our print Summer Unplugged challenge and follow the ten steps to a summer spent unplugged. Don’t forget to let us know how you’re finding the challenge by using the #SummerUnplugged hashtag online (as long as you’re online only occasionally!) so we can see how you’re all getting on.
* Stop Staring At Screen: a digital detox for the whole family by Tanya Goodin (ILEX, £9.99) is out now.
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