How to Take a Digital Detox Vacation (Without Going Crazy or Getting Fired)

Have you heard about Digital Detox Vacations? They are totally a thing now, and I’m not surprised– I for one am admittedly a social media addict (so much so that I’m getting a masters degree in this stuff…) I feel the need to check my phone the second I hear a ding signifying I got a new email or text and can spend hours endlessly scrolling on Facebook. Sound familiar?

I get to the point where I feel like a slave to my phone and computer. I log more hours in front of a screen than I do talking to my boyfriend… or anyone, really. Which is sad now that I think about it.

One of the reasons I desperately needed vacation was because I also desperately needed to unplug for a week. I needed to be amidst nature for a few days to get away from my mundane life. I was so desperate that I explored all the options of traveling along with the guides (like this Florida Review Guide) available for some of them. For instance, I rummaged through the Internet to find a great foreign location, like Bermuda. I almost chose the travelling mode as well. But there was a slight hiccup there. I did not want to travel by public airlines as I have heard negative feedback about them a lot. This led me to consider flying on a private jet and look at the cost to charter private jet.

But while considering all this, I thought that travelling alone to a far away place might pose some challenges. For example, I could face problems with food, accommodation and language. Hence, I decided to settle for LA for the time being. I knew the place well and had a few contacts. Anyway, once, I gain confidence, I will travel alone far away. Perhaps I would even go on a chartered boat fishing adventure, like Crystal River Sport Fishing, for a day or two,. I have heard a lot about this a lot from friends and family, That is why I really want to try it in the future. But for the time being, I will settle with LA. The place seems to be in sync with my comfort zone, which I is why I preferred to pay it a visit.

But I’ll admit, I still used my phone plenty while I was in LA, texting back and forth with the boyfriend, making plans with LA friends, uploading instagram photos and even mindlessly scrolling on Facebook before bed, but I also made a conscious effort to disconnect more than I usually do.

However, the next time I plan a trip, I will do my best to turn off my laptop and phone and store them in the hotel’s cupboard. This time, I’d probably plan everything ahead of time, including lodging (I can simply click here to find some options), airlines, and places to visit, so I don’t have an excuse to use my phone while on vacation.

Disconnecting is HARD! And really weird. You feel like you’re supposed to have FOMO, but you don’t. You’re also filled with this pit of anxiety that you’re boss is going to fire you because you didn’t immediately answer an email. Newsflash, that’s probably not the case.

I came home from LA feeling oh-so-good and ready to conquer the freaking world after a week of not feeling the burden of technology. It was exactly the recharge that I needed.

I totes understand if you’re not readying to fully disconnect from your mobile devices, but hopefully this gives you some ideas of how to do little things to disconnect on vacay without driving yourself crazy… or y’know losing your job.

How to Digital Detox (and not go cray cray)

Set ground rules before you leave both for yourself and for your boss.

I like strict rules and regulations. For this reason, I made a rule that I would not answer any emails unless they were relating to plans I was trying to make while I was in LA. When that ended up happening, I brought the conversation to text so I could still avoid email.

Having this strict no emails policy made it really easy to stick to the rules.

Pro tip: I flagged every email as it came in. Sometimes it’s easy to mark an email as read even though I still need to respond to it, and then it gets lost in the abyss known as my inbox. Flagging all the emails I had to respond to or wanted to read later made it super easy to plow through my inbox when I got home.

I also laid out the rules with work. This is something I wish I would’ve done more thoroughly on past vacations when my inbox would be inundated with various requests from my boss and I could only pathetically respond with “Uh I’m in Israel and can’t do much right now.”

For this vacation I told my boss that I would still be able to post to social media for work, although it would be a reduced posting schedule as to not interfere too much with vacation. I knew besides that, there shouldn’t be anything urgent because all I do these days is social media for work. If there was anything urgent to deal with, my boss knew text was the way to reach me.

Put the email away message up on ALL inboxes

I usually only put my email away message up on my work email. For this vacation I went ham and used it on all 5 of my inboxes. Why oh why do I have so many email addresses?

It was a sigh of relief that I didn’t have to worry about any of my inboxes. As I’m sure you can now tell, email really stresses me out.

Pro tip: If you’re a blogger or use instagram as part of your business, direct people to check out what you’re up to on instagram while you’re away.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing

I knew completely disconnecting wasn’t realistic for me… it’s not like I was going to a remote country where wifi would be spotty. I was staying with my friend in freaking Los Angeles. I also knew I would want to post to instagram because that’s something I enjoy doing.

Don’t feel like a digital detox needs to be all or nothing. Set ground rules that work for you, but don’t feel like you can’t post to social media if it’s something you enjoy doing it and it doesn’t stress you out.

Silence your cell phone and leave it at home

Universal Studios doesn’t let you bring your bag onto all the rides which meant I had to *GASP* leave my phone in a locker for 1-2 hours at a time. I was at the amusement park with two friends and we joked that having our cellphones locked away meant we’d actually have to talk to each other while waiting in line. How weird.

As weird as it felt to leave my phone behind in a locker, I also realized I didn’t miss out on anything when it was tucked away. Sure I might’ve had a stray text from someone (usually the boyfriend who had serious FOMO because I was hanging out with his best friend) but nothing urgent.

It’s dumb and simple, but often times when I need to power through a project and don’t want to be distracted by a text, I silence my phone and leave it on the other side of the room. How often do you look at your phone to read a text and then end up checking 5 apps for no good reason??

Pro tip: Even if you’re not on vacation, go grocery shopping or run an errand without your phone. I know there could be some concern for safety, so I don’t necessarily like to travel far from my apartment sans phone, but simple things like taking a yoga class across the street or going food shopping 2 blocks away I’ll sometimes leave my phone at home just so I’m getting a little break from technology and not checking it every 2 seconds.

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Your Turn: Have you ever taken a digital detox vacation? What are your tips for disconnecting?