TECHNOLOGY has made us all feel more connected than ever before, but at the same time as young working adults, we face the dilemma of feeling like we’re missing something important when away from our digital devices.
As such, it’s vital for us to set ‘digital boundaries’ to help manage the way we interact with the digital world, which can ultimately help us manage our mental health, productivity at work and personal life.
The following tips may look deceptively simple, but you may find them much harder to follow in real life.
Nevertheless, we hope that they would help you create digital boundaries for the sake of your overall wellbeing.
Set tech boundaries at home
After work, when you’re at home, try to stash your phone or laptop or other digital device away.
Checking your phone for messages or emails can be incredibly distracting because your brain is always anticipating that you might receive a message.
Recognise when you’ve been on a device for too long and develop the discipline to step away for the sake of your mental health.
Set your downtime with technology
After work, your brain also needs some ‘downtime’ to process all of the information received throughout the day.
If you fill your downtime with digital distractions like playing games on your phone, keeping up on social media, or even reading e-books, it would leave your brain with very little time to process or form long-term memories.
Instead, try activities such as exercising, light reading (books or magazines), or even a stroll after dinner.
Set expectations
While at work, you always have to be professional and respectful of your colleagues’ personal boundaries.
Although you’re expected to send or respond to your work-related emails and messages during office hours, try to minimise them once the workday is over or over the weekends, and especially when you or your colleagues are on leave.
And although in some cases, it may not be up to you to set these boundaries – because depending on the industry you’re in or the environment you work in, those off-hours communication may be unavoidable – the key will be on keeping the work-life balance in check at all times.
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