Author: It’s Time to Log Off

7 Tips for Digital Wellbeing in Lockdown

The digital world has taken over even more since we went into lockdown. Now, many of us work exclusively through screens and we also connect with loved ones, relax and play through them too. How can you manage your wellbeing in the digital world right now? We have some easy tips to help you stay sane and well:

#1 Log Off

The most obvious solution to digitally-induced stress is simply to log off. We have been suggesting it as a solution since the beginning, it’s in our name! Instead of focusing on work, or the pressure to keep up, why not enjoy some analogue activities instead? You could do a jigsaw, read a new book, get into cross stitch. The world is your oyster (we hear lots of people are baking bread).

#2 Reach out

One of the many benefits of technology right now is that we can keep in contact with friends and family around the world. We need connection more than we know. 58% of adults in the UK use social media to communicate with family daily but 67% say they would prefer to meet those people in person. Now we are trapped we only have the option of former, so if you have been holed up alone for ten weeks then the odd friends’ Zoom call can be a good thing. You could also use this time to get back in touch with people who drifted out of your life when things became too hectic, or those older family members who you don’t speak to enough. Even though it’s through a screen, human connection could make all the difference to someone vulnerable.

#3 Go outside

When screens are getting too much and you just need a break, the easiest and best way to unwind is to go outside. Nature was designed to keep us calm so the best way to manage your digital wellbeing is to go out in it. We are now allowed, in the UK, to spend as much time exercising outside as we like so take advantage. You don’t have to run or cycle but a nice walk, even just around the block in a green space, will make all the difference. 

#4 Make time online meaningful

Social media has been awash in the last few weeks with posts about the Black Lives Matter movement. If we want to effect real change and truly stand as anti-racist allies then we need to show up. We can all use our platforms as small as they may be to confront ourselves and others with the realities black people face and to take steps to stand against it. Social media has become a place of education, community building and activism on a global scale in a way we have not seen since the #MeToo movement. So join it, make your time online mean something and your digital wellbeing will only increase.

#5 Keep safe

We’ve written recently about the growing phenomenon of Zoom bombing. Hacking and online crime of all kinds is unfortunately on the rise right now. We’re spending more time on screens and so are cyber criminals. Refresh your memory with all the cybersafety tips we’ve shared in the past and be more vigilant than usual. Your guard may be down because you are more stressed and anxious than usual and not paying attention, don’t become a victim.

#6 Enforce boundaries

Our work and home lives are ever more intertwined as we continue to live and work at home through the lockdown. Many of us don’t have home offices so are working out of our bedrooms, and are living with others who are working at home too. Tech can bleed across the home:office boundaries easily and play havoc with our work-life balance. Put some simple boundaries in place yourself, either around spaces or time where you disconnect from work, to keep your life neatly delineated.

#7 Prioritise sleep

Sleep and screens are a bad mix. The temptation may be greater than usual to let screens invade your bedroom and for you to indulge in late night social media scrolling, or anxious middle-of-the-night pandemic news checking. Lack of sleep is the one thing that will seriously impact your wellbeing and your mental health. Don’t use screens at a time when you should be sleeping. Put them firmly outside your door – or at the very least on the opposite side of your room to your bed – to reinforce that.

We’re producing updated resources specifically during the pandemic period so visit our article archive for a whole load of other helpful articles on how preserve your digital wellbeing in lockdown.

(And check out our podcast for entertainment when you want a break from staring at screens). Stay safe.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

10 Tricks to Stave Off Digital Burnout in Lockdown

As lockdown drags on we’re spending more and more time on screens. For good or bad, they’re an even more integral part of our lives than before. Burnout, and particularly digital burnout, has always been a concern, especially amongst the generation that spends the most time on screens: Millenials. Excessive screen use simply doesn’t make us feel good. So, now that our lives rely even more heavily on screens, here are some ways to stave off digitally induced burnout.

1. Take time away

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, whether by an ever ringing group chat, never-ending emails from your boss, the constant need to be productive or the bad news that’s piling up, the best thing to do is to step away. You could make yourself a cup of tea and sit for a while by a window. You could read a book. You could spend some time looking after a plant or pet. Whatever you do, any time away will help you come back fresh and able to focus and not be burnt out by incessant screen time.

2. Get outside

The best way to get away from screens is to go outside and until recently not all of us had that luxury. Now everyone is allowed outside (in England) for as long as they want to exercise which we’re thrilled about. With the good weather coming a 10-minute walk around the block or cycle in a nearby park can make all the difference. You don’t even need to worry about how much you go out now, as long as you are moving. Your digital burnout will ease as you spend more time in nature, so go out as much as you can.

3. Connect with loved ones

Screens are not all bad and if you use them well they can make your life much better. Around the world people have been using tech to connect with distant family and friends for some time through social media and video calls. In our new normal this connection has expanded in a major way. Families are hosting quizzes. Friends are watching TV together. Daters are meeting virtually. Most importantly, vulnerable and isolated people are able to join in the same way as everyone else. So make sure you use at least some of the benefits of tech by connecting with your loved ones online.

4. Stay away from bad news

Although there’s been some good news recently with the lifting of some lockdown restrictions, generally we can agree it’s been pretty bad. Political scandals, economic problems and death tolls fill our feeds and whilst they are important they cannot be all we focus on. John Krasinski with Some Good News has come up with ways to focus on the positive and we should follow that example. Maybe limit your intake to only major media sites instead of Twitter? Or designate a time each day when you check the news instead of having a constant stream which will only increase your stress.

5. Blow off steam

The world is very serious right now, and rightly so. But, if you’re already struggling with digital burnout then why not bring some lightness into your life? There are plenty of new escapist TV shows for you to watch from Normal People on the BBC to White Lines or Dead to Me on Netflix. If you want mindless laughs then there are loads of old sitcoms back online such as How I Met Your Mother and One Tree Hill. There’s also a lot of social media content:  UK TV commentator Andrew Cotter has been employing sports-style commentary on the quirky habits of his dogs, Mabel and Olive. Comedians Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke have been challenging each other to lip sync battles on Twitter from their home.

6. Keep cyber safe

We’ve already written about the importance of staying safe as we conduct all of our lives online during this lockdown. Cyber-attacks have risen, in the forms of fraud and Zoom bombs of hacking of your video call, often to show explicit content. None makes it easier to live and work remotely. Make sure that you’re using common sense and all the available information to protect yourself against any would-be cybercriminals. We don’t need life to be any more difficult right now.

7. Set boundaries

We’ve always advised that people implement good boundaries to control their screen use and that’s more important now than ever. Perhaps you could separate your work and home screen use by the time of day or by location in your home (even if that is only a different end of the bed)? Sleep without any technology or have meals with your housemates without it – it will help you unwind. We’re now mostly working from home which blurs the boundaries of our work schedules so make sure you try to enforce your work hours firmly.

8. Stop measuring

Staying away from screens should help not hinder your stress levels so don’t worry about the numbers. Setting a screen time limit for the day might be useful but don’t panic if you go over it. Screens are now being used for every part of our life, so it’s not quantity but quality which is important to think about. If you spend two hours passively scrolling your news feed every day then you may start developing symptoms of digital burnout. But, if you spend an hour on a video call with your friends you’re likely to feel happier and healthier.

9. Bin the FOMO

There was a lot of talk online, especially at the beginning of lockdown about doing something worthwhile in quarantine. After all, apparently Newton discovered gravity and Shakespeare wrote King Lear when they were avoiding illness too. But you don’t have bake sourdough or start embroidery to be doing something worthwhile. For most of us living with other people 24/7 is enough of a skill. If you have children or dependents you’re taken on far more than a language, you’re not getting a holiday, you’re doing more work. Even if you’re living alone, that doesn’t mean you have to focus on learning new skills. Focus on the present moment and take on what you want at the rate you can handle it, social media peer pressure be damned.

10. Cut yourself some slack

Quarantine is hard. The world is going through a tough time and many people are losing loved ones or unable to see those who are vulnerable. Last week was #MentalHealthAwareness week in the UK and we wrote about how to stay afloat during corona if you take anything from that please let it be to give yourself a break. We are not perfect and screen use, whilst it can have a negative impact harm can also connect us to those we’re separated from. Use common sense and don’t be too annoyed with yourself if you find yourself on screens more than you intended.

Hopefully, with these tips at the very least you wont come out of lockdown suffering from digital burnout. We’ve been providing updated resources specifically during the pandemic period so do have a look at our article archive for other helpful tips on how to use screens healthily in quarantine.

(And don’t forget to check out our podcast for some screen-free entertainment when you want a break). Stay safe.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

Screens in Quarantine #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

It’s Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK and this year’s theme is kindness. To be kinder to yourself in the pandemic, we’ve got a few suggestions on how you can use screens in quarantine to improve your mental health, rather than negatively impact it.

#1 Use screens for connection

Most of us are separated from family and friends right now and we’re giving thanks for the wonders of technology that can keep us connected. A FaceTime call can do wonders to help an older relative feel less isolated and help us stay in touch with our mates too.

But Zoom fatigue is real and connection doesn’t have to be all about video calls. A retro phone call will help you connect in a more personal way to the person the other end than shouting at them on a screen. We recommend rediscovering audio calls for Mental Health Awareness Week (and beyond).

#2 Get off screens and get outside (if you can)

It’s not easy for all of us to get into a green space but if you can – and if you leave your screens at home behind you – it’ll do wonders for your mental health. Study after study has shown the benefits of connecting with nature and spending time outside. A short walk in a green space will boost your spirits and list your mood. If that’s too tricky, cultivate a house plant on a window sill as a pretty good alternative.

#3 Give bad news a break

It’s only natural that we want to keep checking the news to see what the latest with the pandemic is; cases that have been treated, people that have survived, the latest about lockdown. But checking in once a day to stay informed and compulsively reloading your feed several times an hour while your anxiety is mounting are very different approaches.

Limit your news checking to reputable sources and set rules for yourself about when you will check. If you notice yourself becoming more anxious or depressed adjust your news schedule accordingly. Don’t forget to seek out all the very many good news stories circulating right now too, of people doing wonderful things to help their communities and neighbours – all of which will leave you feeling uplifted.

#4 Set clear boundaries

Working from home as most of us are now, it’s easy to let work and play blur into each other which can leave us feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Set clear physical and time boundaries around when you are working and when you are spending time with those you live with – or connecting with friends at a distance. A separate space, if possible, to work from which isn’t your bedroom and a clear cut-off time in the evening and morning when you move from work to ‘home’ will help you feel more in control.

You can also consider allocating devices for work and play to help with this. Your laptop or tablet for all your work activities, your smartphone for anything outside the office. Take work email off your phone to really make this effective.

#5 Keep yourself safe

There’s been a big surge in cyber scams since the pandemic began as cyber criminals take advantage of our increased time on screens to target us through them.

Phishing attacks (where the cyber criminal sends a message as if it was coming from your bank or another trusted institution to get your account details), are particularly rife. Remember, all the same rules about how to keep yourself safe online still apply when you’re on screens in quarantine. Don’t give out any sensitive details to anyone who approaches you directly. Always end the conversation and contact your bank via your normal methods to make sure the message has really come from them.

Unfortunately trolling and stalking on social media are on the rise right now too. Cutting down on your social media usage will help keep you away from attacks like this, but if you’re still getting unpleasant attention online we always urge that you block the offender and report their activity within the app. For more serious cases of threatening behaviour, always inform your local police authority. Don’t suffer in silence, tell as many people as you can about what’s going on.

#6 Give yourself a break about screens in quarantine

This Mental Health Awareness Week is all about kindness and we want to suggest we’re kind to yourself about your screen use right now. Which is not to suggest we recommend unfettered 24:7 use of them! But it’s simply inevitable that your screen use is going to be much, much higher than it was before the pandemic. If you’ve set yourself some kind of arbitrary screen time daily rule you’re going to find that you’re way over your limit every day. And that’s OK. We’re in an unusual and once-in-a-lifteime period of time when all of our routines and plans are going more than a bit awry.

The only thing we want to ask you to do is to be mindful about how your use of screens in quarantine is making you feel. If every time you go on a screen it’s boosting your mood, making you feel connected and productive and having a positive impact on you, then you’ve clearly got the balance right. If, on the other hand, you notice that your screen use is tending to make you feel stressed and anxious then keep a note of what activity or behaviour you’re spending the most time on and experiment with cutting back. Keep adjusting until you get the right balance for you.

We’re providing updated resources specifically during the pandemic period so check back regularly for other helpful tips on how to use screens in quarantine.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

How to do a Digital Detox in Lockdown

We’re all spending a lot more time on screens than we ever thought possible, even just a few short weeks ago. And, judging by the weekly reactions to Apple’s Screentime report, we’re getting more than a bit anxious about how much time that’s actually adding up to.

📱👀 pic.twitter.com/W9ADeAcxRz

— VeryBritishProblems (@SoVeryBritish) May 11, 2020

So, how can we use tech to keep connected, and sane, whilst making sure we don’t fall prey to addictive tech tricks and start playing our phones like slot machines? Here are our tips for digital detox in lockdown:

#1 Define your usage

There’s a big difference between the time spent creating a dance or music video to upload, and the time spent afterwards compulsively checking your feed for likes and comments posted about it. The first is a productive use of the creative possibilities of digital tech, the second is unhelpful lab rat behaviour which will mess with your mental health.

Try and get into the habit of categorising how you’re using your screens and put them mentally them into ‘helpful’ and ‘unhelpful’ boxes. For ‘helpful’ anything that helps you create, engage and feel connected. For ‘unhelpful’ anything that increases anxiety and just doesn’t make you feel good.

#2 Focus on tools

We hesitate to say delete all your social media but…. if you’re serious about a digital detox in lockdown, delete all your social media. The issues that existed about use of social media before the pandemic are still with us now. Comparison culture is alive and kicking in lockdown, with users competing for the best fitness regime, most photogenic sour dough bread and how many mind-improving courses they’ve taken in the last few weeks.

Do yourself a favour and give social media as wide a berth as possible and focus on tools that make life that little bit easier for you; WhatsApp to keep connected to friends and family, transportation apps to tell you what routes are less crowded and safe to use, video conferencing for ‘meeting up’. Right now you don’t need to feel bad about your poor baking prowess or not learning Latvian.

#3 Use screens for stress relief

Having said all that, quite a lot of what has appeared online during the pandemic has been designed to lift our moods and make us laugh (Andrew Cotter we’re looking at you), so do use social media to raise a smile and lighten your spirits when you need it.

#4 Stop counting

The phenomenon of trying to count and measure everything we do was booming before lockdown – it’s been called the quantified self movement – and it’s needlessly contributing to lockdown stress. Anguished posts about weekly Screentime reports, or horror at the dramatic drop in daily step counts miss the point that this is just how it is right now. This too will pass. Use common sense and perspective.

You’re not going to hit your 10,000 daily step count without getting very creative with the stairs, and your daily smartphone usage is inevitably going be higher than it was before. Turn off all forms of counting and tracking that are making you feel more anxious and try and go with the flow.

#5 Limit the news

It’s a very human instinct to want to keep checking what’s happening in the world. Especially now when there’s an unfolding news story that has serious implications for all of us. But it’s very easy to get caught in a negative cycle where we just keep checking over and over again without it producing much relief. Strictly limit your news to maybe a couple of times a day and then only from reputable, verified, news sources.

#6 Give yourself a break

We’re coming up to Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme in the UK is ‘kindness’, which applies to being kind to yourself too. So we’re encouraging you to give yourself a break on the screentime front. Don’t beat yourself up if carefully laid routines, structures and rules about how you use your tech all seem to be going out of the window in lockdown. All our routines are more than a little disrupted. Tune in to how you’re feeling and see if you can work down what tech balance is best for you right now. Maximise the positives and minimise the negatives of time on screens and you won’t go far wrong.

We’re providing updated resources specifically during the pandemic period so check back regularly for other ideas on how to use screens healthily and do a digital detox in lockdown.

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

Social distancing = podcast listening, It’s Complicated with Badass Cross Stitch

Since we all began to self isolate, we’ve seen more and more ways of using social media for good – from online cooking lessons to using social media to promote fundraising challenges. But ‘craftivist’ Shannon Downey’s inventive and intuitive movement pre-dates the pandemic.

In It’s Complicated, Shannon discusses her hands-on projects uniting crafting communities through the global reach of social media. Most notably. Rita’s Quilt, which was brought to global fame last year.

Shannon Downey has an unusual hobby. US based, the crafter likes to hunt through estate sales for antique textiles. If she comes across an unfinished sewing project, a crafter’s instinct takes over which means she has to buy and finish it herself. Such a compulsion may seem quirky, but when considered as a part of the tradition and value in crafting that no piece is left unfinished, is a testament to the strength of the close-knit crafting community.

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In one such hunt, she came across a huge quilting project with all the initial work done but in a very early stage of completion. Shannon knew she had to complete it for its recently departed owner, Rita, who she had actually never met and purchased the plastic bucket containing the patterns and materials. But she knew that the sheer scale of this project made it an impossible task for her alone.

She appealed for help on Instagram and within 24 hours had received over 1,000 offers of help from across the world. Facebook and Instagram groups were set up for admin purposes, and parcels containing the necessary patterns and equipment dispatched.

At the time of recording the episode, Shannon was just beginning to receive completed and returned sections. Now debuted on public display at The National Quilt Museum in Kentucky, and with plans to tour it so that all who worked on it may see it in person, Rita’s Quilt is a huge success. However, it has done more than fulfil Rita’s vision. The project has outgrown the vicinity of online groups, and across this community of contributors friendships have formed, some crafters even managing to meet and stitch together!

Although the global interest in the story was a novelty to Shannon, this was not her first endeavour to combine her craft with social media. As someone who has always stressed the importance of finding a good work-life balance, Shannon has found that over the last 10 years this has become synonymous to finding a good digital-analogue balance.

Hence she urges users to remember to put down their devices and do something else. Whether exploring nature, meditating, or crafting, there is great value in creating and exploring with your hands and person instead of through your device.

Before she embarked upon Rita’s Quilt, Shannon was the founder of Badass Cross Stitch, in her own words ‘a community that regularly puts down their devices and feeds their souls with creativity, craft, art, invention, and making’. She believes that social media is a powerful tool for bringing people together and building real life relationships, exactly as shown through the Rita’s Quilt project.

Ultimately, social media was designed for bringing people together and enable collaborative projects – even the web was initially conceptualised and built as a tool to enable long-distance collaboration between scientists. It’s Shannon’s hope that online communities like hers may help us use the internet for the way in which it was originally intended, to help us collaborate.  In a world which sometimes seems to have forgotten how digital media can be used for good, Shannon is leading by example.  

View the original article at itstimetologoff.com

Kreativ Quarantining: #3 Sömnad

Vi finns här för dig under pandemin och sätter ihop resurser på aktiviteter du kan göra under karantän som innebär mer än att bara stirra på en skärm (eftersom det finns mycket av det just nu). Vi anstränger oss för att hitta grupper som kanske ansluter online, men som sedan använder den anslutningen för att delta i en verklig aktivitet – tillsammans. De två första serien handlade om att göra musik och laga mat, och den här veckan här är några förslag på hur du kan sy tillsammans med andra;

Badass Crossstitch, en samhällsarrangör och lysande kloak som har varit på vår podcast, kör massor av virtuella "stitch ups" och klasser för att ansluta kloaker under karantän, från nybörjare som behöver hjälp till de mer avancerade som kan tillhandahålla det. Hon ger också mönster för att göra masker och många fler saker som vi behöver under pandemin så att vi kan sy ihop för att hjälpa varandra. Royal School of Needlework driver också en mer strukturerad online-introduktion till broderi bland andra kurser. Denna klass körs online och under en dag (14 maj) och på den kommer du att lära dig att sy en regnbåge till stöd för NHS. De skickar till och med förnödenheterna till dig, så sy!

Om du arbetar i ett jobb som fortfarande kräver regelbundna timmar kan du kämpa för att gå med i en av online-klasserna, men var inte rädd att det finns massor av andra sätt du kan få sömnad! Wool and the Gang är ett företag som skickar kit till dig så att du kan göra dina egna kläder, från filtar till hoppare och koftor. När du har beställt materialet kan du börja sy när som helst och kanske komma ut ur karantänen med en ny outfit eller present till någon du inte har kunnat se.

Om att göra något från början verkar lite för mycket som hårt arbete, överväg att laga de kläder du redan har. Bäst klädd är en YouTube-kanal som vi har presenterat tidigare som ofta gör videor om hur man reparerar eller omskapar de kläder vi redan har. Du kan komma ut ur karantän mode framåt utan att ens behöva lämna ditt hus eller köpa några nya kläder!

Fortsätt att kolla tillbaka eftersom vi uppdaterar det här inlägget med nya sätt att skapa och förnya i karantänsysning när vi hittar dem!

Vi hoppas att du och dina nära och kära håller dig säkra och kommer ihåg att fortsätta använda din skärmtid klokt!

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