I’m just going to be straight up: we all spend way too much time on our phones. Correct? Most definitely. Especially during quarantine, I’ve been spending an extra long time on my phone each day, and my eyes are *not* thanking me. Instagram is, though, for my spectacular daily activity numbers. And that is why I’m ditching my phone for 24 hours.
This year, I tried to limit the amount of time I spent on my phone at least a little. I told myself that I had to keep my screen time under two hours a day, I had to get off my phone by 10:30pm each night, and I couldn’t check social media until after I’ve eaten breakfast. However, I still go on my phone/computer way too much, and I cannot seem to wrap my head around the fact that nothing will happen if I don’t check socials every hour. I guess the main purpose of this challenge is so I can just take a break from living my life on the Internet.
I gave myself five key rules to follow for this unplugged day:
My phone stays turned off in my nightstand drawer for the entire day
I can check emails and work messages on my computer
I can’t check social media on my computer
I can’t watch any online videos (YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, TikTok) with the exception of workout videos
I can’t tell anyone that I’ll be logged off
Since I don’t have my phone to take pictures, you’re just going to have to settle for my eloquent descriptions. I’ll just take you along for a normal day in the life, and y’all can see what I spend my time doing instead of going on social media. Hope y’all enjoy reading!
8:40 AM: Waking Up
On weekdays in the summer (aka today), I usually set an alarm for 8:30 am. However, since my alarm is on my phone and I don’t have an actual clock in my room, I woke up without an alarm today. I think this is the first time I’ve done this in probably five months, so I was kind of nervous that I’d wake up at 11 am and not have any time in the morning. Not to worry, though, because I woke up at 8 am, went back to sleep, and then got out of bed at around 8:40.
8:45 AM: Getting Ready
I didn’t change my morning routine that much since I made it a point to not check social media before breakfast. However, I usually check emails and work messages before I get out of bed, and sometimes I’ll listen to music as I get ready. I didn’t do that today, which definitely sped up the time between waking up and getting out of bed. I did my standard morning routine of brushing my teeth and washing my face, and I also did a little bit of makeup because I had the extra time. This is some pretty standard makeup -- I used the Lamora Exposed Nudes palette as usual, with Pearly in my inner corner, Champagne in the inner third of my lid, and Comfort blended onto the rest of my lid. I finished off with my normal Maybelline mascara and some lip balm. Super simple because I am *not* a beauty guru.
9:00 AM: Breakfast
I was feeling kind of lazy in the cooking department this morning, so I threw together a bowl of cereal and called it a day. I ate some Honey Bunches of Oats, which are so underrated. Important cereal opinions: soggy cereal is great, cereal before milk always.
9:10 AM: To-Do List
Sample to-do list from a while ago
I do this every day, but I put together a to-do list of all the things I need to do for the day. I don’t have as much to do today because some of my jobs are on a pause until September/October, but I added a few things that I thought would be fun (like ukulele) and some blog posts I wanted to get to work on (stay tuned hehe).
9:15 AM: Work (>_<)
Yeah, I still have to do work today. I did some SAT practice because I’m taking the test in a month (scary business), and then I checked my emails and work messages to see if there was anything I needed to do today.
10:00 AM: Reading
The cover of Fire!
I toughed it out through SAT prep, and I only had one work message that I had to reply to. At the time I’m writing this post, school is starting in about a week, which means that I won’t have as much time to read as I do in the summer. I have a few ebook holds that got checked in from the library, which means I have plenty of reading material to get through before school starts. Very exciting. If I like any of them, you’ll find out when I do fall favorites. Right now, I’m in the middle of Fire by Kristin Cashore, which is in the same series as Graceling, a book that was featured in my summer favorites. It’s pretty good so far, so I’m really excited to see where the book goes.
11:30 AM: Making Lunch (yum)
What casarecce looks like (source: The Pasta Project)
After some action-packed reading and figuring out who the heck the main love interest of this book is because everyone’s into the main character but she is not having it, I made pasta. This wasn’t anything too special, just casarecce (cute pasta that looks like scrolls) with tomato sauce, onions, shrimp, bell peppers, cucumbers, ham, and turkey. Aka random ingredients from our fridge that we found, chopped up, and threw in the pot. Even though it was simple to make, it tasted delicious.
1:00 PM: Blogging
I finished lunch around 12:30 pm and did some more reading before getting to work on one of my new blog posts. Hint: it’s about motivation, and it’s coming out in December. I put on some quiet music, outlined all of the things I wanted to write in the post, and then started writing everything. It’s one of my more serious posts, for sure, and it wasn’t the easiest to write, but I think it’ll be really helpful for everyone reading.
2:00 PM: Meeting
I got quite a bit of the blog post done, but then I had to get on a call with someone to discuss a potential project with an organization we both volunteer for. It’s some cool stuff that I can’t share yet, but who knows, maybe when this gets posted the wheels will be turning and the project will be in the works. We made a proposal and outline for the project, and I’m really hoping that we can actually execute this idea because I think it’ll be a great experience for people that participate. Happy feels all around.
3:30 PM: Working Out
I answered some emails, scheduled the blog post I started working on earlier, had a snack (essential), and then went to go work out. This is the first time I’ve opened YouTube since last night when I was bingeing Love Island (no shame), but I resisted the urge to watch those new videos and instead started up my best friend, follow-along workout videos. I did an arm workout and a squat challenge by MadFit and an ab workout by Holly Dolke. I’m definitely going to be sore tomorrow, but I keep telling myself that it’ll be worth it.
4:30 PM: Ukulele
I wanted to spend some time playing my ukulele because I feel like I haven’t played in a few weeks. I went on ukutabs.com, looked at the most popular ukulele songs, and picked some that I thought would be fun to play. I ended up playing “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran, “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood, “Electric Love” by BØRNS, and “betty” by Taylor Swift. I put in my cover of “betty” for your viewing pleasure. Please excuse the subpar ukulele playing (I cannot strum and sing for my life) and poor video/audio quality (this was recorded on my computer). Song recommendations are welcome for the next time I play uke or for my music Instagram!
6:30 PM: Dinner
Standard Peking duck layout (source: Curious Cuisinere)
I did some more reading, which got very intense because the book was getting to the climax. There was so much action. I was not okay. But, then I went and ate dinner. Tonight we had Peking duck, but instead of duck, we used some leftover pork from a couple nights ago. If you don’t know what Peking duck is, it’s a Chinese dish that’s kind of like make-your-own burritos. You take a pancake (we used tortillas), spread seafood sauce on it, add duck and various veggies, and wrap it up like a burrito. It tasted great, and Peking pork tastes just as good as Peking duck. No complaints here.
7:30 PM: More Reading (hehe)
I finished my book. It was so good. Very much recommended.
8:30 PM: Podcast
After my day full of reading, I decided to listen to a podcast to unwind. I started listening to the latest episode of Wild Til 9, laid down on the couch, and stared at the ceiling for a good half an hour while Jeremy Lewis serenaded me with his voice. Many laughs.
9:30 PM: Getting Un-Ready
After some nice podcast listening, I got ready for bed by brushing my teeth, washing my face, and doing all of that. Standard night routine business.
10:00 PM: More Podcasts
I didn’t want to spend the time before I went to bed looking at a screen, so I decided to listen to an episode of Pretty Basic and did the whole staring at the ceiling thing again, except this time it was while lying under the covers. I want to get better at not looking at a screen so close to bedtime, so this was a nice way to stay entertained while not straining my eyes.
10:30 PM: Going to Bed
I was feeling pretty tired, so I turned in early tonight. Goodnight, everyone! Below I have some thoughts on how my day without my phone went.
Thoughts
I found it really nice to unplug for a bit. I didn’t have to worry about who was texting me and what about, and I wasn’t refreshing my YouTube feed repeatedly because I was so bored. I was really happy to be able to get some reading done because that book was phenomenal. Although my overall screen time didn’t go down by that much, I think my screen time was put to better use because I was reading and blogging instead of watching YouTube and scrolling through Instagram. The next day when I checked my socials again, I found nothing important waiting for me. Lesson learned: time to start checking social media less. I’m definitely going to do more of these social media/phone detoxes in the future because I think it’s good to detach yourself once in a while. Overall, it was a good thing to do, and hopefully you guys also try it out!
Comments