For my Thanksgiving break I chose to designate tech-free time periods. I told myself that from 12:00 am to 12:00 pm I would stay off of my phone. I periodically use this practice to stay on track and focus on my goals. I believe this practice is very useful and while doing this you get a lot done early. This practice allows you to dedicate the early portion of the day to your goals or tasks so you can have the rest of the day to yourself. It felt natural to go back to the tech free time periods. I made this decision to focus on family time and not be attached to my phone during my holiday break. I was able to spend tons of time with my family and also make some memories. During break I noticed I was less distracted and much more attentive to things around me. I would definitely continue to use this practice in the future, especially during times where I really need to focus, like exam weeks. I don’t think I would try another detox practice because the results benefit me so much. But if I was forced to do another practice I would utilize the Do Not Disturb setting more often.

I opted for option 3, which was decluttering my digital space. Over break, I unsubscribed from accounts that I no longer use and turned off notifications for my social media apps. This was long-overdue, because I’ve been needing to declutter my Gmail and also minimize the distractions from my apps. Some notifications were bothering me for a while, but I just didn’t take the time to disable them until now. The detox overall was really refreshing I felt less tied to my phone and it’s allure to check out an app for no reason. Going forward, I plan to keep most notifications off, expect for like messages and calendar. I also want to try using the free version of the Forest app that locks distracting apps while I work, it could be a nice way to keep me focused when doing assignments.

4. Use “Do Not Disturb” Mode & Declutter Your Digital Space (Deleting Instagram)

During my Thanksgiving Break I decided to implement the “Do Not Disturb” setting on my iPhone to minimize distractions during peak family time like movie night and dinner. Additionally, I decluttered my digital space by deleting Instagram thus removing the app and it’s notifications all at once. I made these selections, because I wanted to be focus on being mindful and present in the moments I was spending with my family. I believe placing my phone on “Do not Disturb” mode and removing Instagram forced me to find social alternatives like: helping my mom cook for Thanksgiving dinner, playing games, making conversation, and having a movie night. I did find myself picking up my phone to no avail Instagram was not on there, so I would plop my phone in my room or on the couch. Positively, I would say I was less distracted and less absent-minded in spaces with my relatives so futuristically I would continue these detox options. However in my next digital detox, I would designate tech-free times instead of completely deleting a social media platform. For the sole reason that some of my friends and family contact me through this way. To have a balance in the future, I would continue to use “Do Not Disturb” Mode and then implement tech-free times.

For my digital detox, I chose to try option number 4. To do so, I set my phone to do not disturb whenever I was in group settings or whenever I needed to focus on completing a specific task. I chose to try do not disturb because my phone gets a lot of notifications, which either distract me because I feel the need to check my phone every time it buzzes or sometimes my phone even distracts others because it is buzzing so often. Overall, the digital detox was relatively successful because it definitely resulted in myself and everyone else around me being a lot less distracted and focused on spending time together instead. However, whenever I would leave my phone on do not disturb for long periods of time, I found that it was often quite difficult to catch up on everything I missed, which is not always a bad thing because the need to always feel informed and up to date is not always a good one, but if I were to miss a truly important email or text that would be bad, so Apple might want to look into making it easier to catch up on important things you missed while the phone was on do not disturb. Based on my experience so far, I think I will continue to use do not disturb going forward because it was helpful for getting me to focus on spending time with others in person or focusing on completing tasks. However, I will try to be more cognizant of how long I go without checking my phone, so that my phone doesn’t completely overflow with notifications to the point where I can’t even find everything I missed.

2. Designate Tech-Free Times:
   Set specific hours in your day (e.g., an hour before bed or during meals) to be free of digital devices.
   For my digital detox, I decided to choose option 2, designating tech free times. I usually am on my phone periodically throughout the day, and I will use it if need be. I never find myself using my phone for a long period of time. However, this past weekend was thanksgiving, and I had the privilege of spending the holiday with my mom. I always have found our time together as being very important, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to limit my screen time. I started off by turning my phone off while watching TV, eating meals, interacting with my friends, and more. I didn’t think much off this to be very challenging, as I almost always keep my phone away when I’m not supposed to have it out. I played a few board games with my mom cellphone free, and then we ate dinner together also cellphone free. I honestly didn’t notice that I didn’t have my phone with me, which was surprising because I sometimes feel as if I rely on it. But before bed, I decided to put up all my digital devices, and just relax. I did this before I went to bed every single night while I was home, and I noticed a huge improvement in my sleep schedule. Instead of grabbing my phone first thing in the morning, I headed downstairs to eat breakfast technology free. Overall, this was really the only thing I was surprised about experience wise. I actually plan to continue doing this when I go back home for Christmas break, and I am interested to see how it goes because I’ve done it before.

For the digital detox I choose to try out number 2 (Designate Tech-Free Times) I choose that option because I often find myself spending and expended amount of time on my phone on right before sleeping. This sometimes can have an effect on how much sleep I am getting, as it can take me a longer time to fall asleep when I do. I was very curious to see if staying off my phone an hour before I wanted to fall asleep would have an effect. I started this detox on Tuesday night and ended it on Saturday. Overall I would say that I saw a positive effect on my sleep. Although throughout the week, the times that I made it to bed would change. Even without being on my phone an for an hour, the time I went to bed would also effect how fast I fell asleep. Even with that, on most nights I would fall asleep much faster than I would originally. In the future I would like to continue to practice this detox because it is definitely a healthy practice. I can see this being beneficial for nights when I know I have an important day ahead of me and could use some better sleep. I am glad that I practiced this detox because it has made me realize that being on my phone before bed has a negative effect on the amount and quality of sleep I am getting.