As I sit on our villa sun deck in our final few hours on this paradise island before we depart for home, pulling out my laptop to type again feels fairly alien after a week of digital detox.
The title of this post captures the intention we had for this trip, and whilst it may sound sickly sweet to some, it’s been the ideal way for my wife and I to mark our first decade of marriage. To reflect on the accomplishments in our family life and business, and to dream up ideas and goals for our next decade together. Our aim for the week was always to disconnect from the reactive demands of our usual busy, but enjoyable lives, so that we could completely reconnect with each other and the bigger picture, free from distractions.
If I were to have a bit of a rant a la Rob Moore’s occasional podcast episodes, it would be this: Do our smartphones rob us of higher level connections with our friends and families? Do we prioritise the second screen over the beautiful, giant world right before our eyes?
With these questions floating in the back of my mind, the goal I set myself this week was to eliminate the constant flow of digital conversations for 168 hours – 7 days. I was unsure about putting my phone on airplane mode when leaving Edinburgh airport knowing it would be that way for a week, but I also saw it as a worthy challenge – to see if after years of ‘being available’ if I could completely disconnect, like I did 10 years ago when we came away for our honeymoon.
I’m proud to say that the self experiment has gone swimmingly well. The headspace I’ve been able to access has given way to wonderful conversations with my awesome wife and opportunity to dream about the bigger picture and longer term ideas. These are things that we rarely give ourselves time and permission for back in day to day life, unless we are intentional about scheduling them in.
Here’s a brief summary of some of the life enhancing things we’ve been able to read/do/discuss over the course of the week:
- Daily morning exercise whilst watching inspirational speeches on goalcast (brilliant)
- Time to meditate for longer than when at home
- Time to reflect on our first 10 years of marriage, and to think about what the next 10 years will hold- what we want to be, do, have and who we want to help our kids become
- Time to dream about long term goals for Adaero Serviced Accommodation and capture ideas about developing new business arms
- Time to listen (start to finish) to the book ‘Start With Why’ by Simon Sinek, and use that inspiration to capture my own notes on creating a clear set of values and beliefs that can guide our company and attract people to us
- Time to read a book about family values and note down ideas to enhance our own family economy with our 3 boys
It’s been a blissful privilege to liberate myself from calls, texts, notifications and emails for a full week. The time disconnected from a device has been a gift in so many ways but it’s also served to highlight how saddening it is to see so many couples who are on this dream island with us, but have their heads buried in their phones rather than being engaged in meaningful conversation with their loved one(s).
I am somewhat apprehensive about opening the floodgates of text and email inboxes come Monday morning but I couldn’t be in a better frame of mind to deal with it.
If you can give yourself the gift of disconnecting fully like this every now and then, I can highly encourage it. See it as an investment as it will pay dividends to your wellbeing, your important relationships and your business.
P.S. Wishing a very happy birthday to my business partner Chris