Off The Grid

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What 30 hours without my smart phone have taught me.

The past weekend, early Sunday morning to be exact, my iPhone cable-charger broke and not long after, my phone battery was dead. At first I was very irritated; I noticed myself picking up my phone several times trying to see if there were any notifications…it went automatically, like it was an autopilot move, and a split second later I realized, oh yeah, never mind, it’s dead.

I was wondering if my mom responded to my whatsapp messages, I wanted to call my brother about his party Friday night, I wanted to post something on instagram, I wanted to add some tasks that came to mind to my planner, I knew customers and clients could be calling first thing Monday morning….And I realized how CRAZY dependent I am that I constantly had to resist the urge to check the phone.

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Unlike most Sunday’s, I decided to  skip the office and stay home to do some well overdue cleaning and organizing and maybe do a little bit of preparing for my Business Marketing class next week.

By the end of the afternoon I felt really relaxed and actually enjoyed the 100 % focus I had for everything I was doing. I felt calm, and felt like I finally had some space in my head to think over a lot of things, that I normally don’t get to think about in the mass of speedy thoughts that usually cross my mind during the day.

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To make a long story short: I managed the clean the entire house, including organizing my big messy closet, in half (!) the time I normally need. I had so much time left I could actually enjoy catching up with the latest episodes of Suits.
Today (Monday), at the office, I managed to do everything I had planned for 3/4 of the day before lunch. And believe me, I’m a realistic planner.
I started on the tasks I planned for Tuesday, and I managed to spare some extra time to write this post. I feel a lot more creativity in writing also, which I lack most of the time.

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Conclusion: I, however I’m sure I can speak for a lot of you as well, waste too much time constantly checking my phone, getting distracted by meaningless notifications that can easily wait until later. I mean let’s be honest scrolling through Instagram, Twitter & Facebook feeds is fun, but in general not enriching or enhancing anything, while there is so much we can do with the same valuable time.

IMG_6797photoshop I knew I was guilty of this ‘’addiction’’ before, but I actually really needed the past 30 hours to remind myself of this behavior that comes so automatically, as it is programmed. I noticed that with everything I do, I constantly interrupt the task, to check my phone. Our lives are actually designed around it, and not the other way around like it is supposed to be. I mean, when you think of it, it’s crazy!

IMG_6825photoshop All this time I thought I was pretty good in the whole multitasking thing, but I’ve learned from this experience that I’ve been fooling myself, BIG time.

Apart from the high increase in productivity and efficiency that comes with the 100 % focus, the calmness I experienced was really nice. The not constantly thinking ‘’oh I have to call this client and oh I want to look up this brand on instagram’’. No…you don’t have to do anything, you just have to enjoy the moment and focus on what you are doing, making everything so much easier and more enjoyable.

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So I’ve decided to ‘’cut off’’ myself more in the future. Unfortunately I will not be able to do so during the week since I need to be on call for Business, but I will do so every Sunday. I will also try to schedule my social media activities to certain moments in the day and not during the entire day as usual.

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I’m looking forward to getting more out of my time and more out of my mind.
Who’s joining me?

Love,

Nadira

IMG_6810photoshop Outfitdetails: All items are from older collections, as I just assembled random items out of my closet.
Leather Jacket: Mango; Oversized Sweater: H&M; Leather-look Leggings: Zara ; Boots: Zara
Hat & Gloves: V&D Netherlands

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No Comments
  • Ninon
    Posted at 19:38h, 09 February Reply

    I’m already joining 😊 since Sean is in my life he comes first. The rest will be done later. If it is urgent they will call 😉 Have a good week 😘

    • Nadira
      Posted at 19:39h, 09 February Reply

      Nice! I think a child puts this in perspective very well indeed…Nothing is more important. Have a great week too! Xxx

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