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Tips on how to perform a digital detox whilst travelling

by Haute Grandeur, 21 April 2016

With digital devices increasingly dominating our lives, it’s a challenging task to lead a balanced lifestyle, even more so when you are travelling. Here are some tips on how to perform a digital detox when you’re travelling.


A digital detox is about disconnecting from your devices. This is about allocating time to switch off from devices, slow down, recharge and reconnect with yourself and others. The Alila Villas Soori Digital Detox Weekend Retreat focuses on practical skills and strategies to reduce stress and distractor influencers. There can be a villa host allocated to your device should you have an important event or conversation that you may be required for.


Create some technology boundaries before you start your retreat. This could be switching off devices at 8pm every night to start to get a healthy rhythm and experiment. In the retreat, the workshops will give plenty of tips and strategies on healthy boundaries with technology, making technology a diligent servant instead of a tyrannical master in our day-to-day lives. Technology curfews are a great place to start with crafting a structure.


When we travel for work, our time can be more interrupted than normal. I would suggest that rather than continually scanning through emails at airports, onboard planes or in transit, check your emails in blocks to be more productive. Allowing a power hour to knock off your emails can be far more effective than regularly scanning and not responding. Our brains function best in a serial manner, so mono-tasking is far better than multi-tasking. When we scan our emails, mild or extreme anxiety often arises which thus leads to unnecessary wear and tear on our bodies over time. It’s also very inefficient.


You have to ask yourself, why am I checking social media so often? What is it hiding or postponing? How would I feel without social media? Sometimes, we keep distracting ourselves with social media when we don’t want to stop and look within or when we are trying to avoid something else in our life. Harvard Medical School scientists found that using a cell phone or laptop before bed can disrupt the body’s production of melatonin and negatively affect sleep quality.


We may feel like we have so many friends on social media, however, they are not quality relationships. Investing in your friends is important at every stage in our lives. Are you investing time and energy in your friends? You have to stop and reflect on how you want technology to work for you.