Simple things like going on a camping trip with your best camping pillow can help you unplug and unwind from the hustle and bustle of life. Here are examples of apps and products that can help.
The app “piles a Moment of Zen in front of the apps you need to get away from,” according to its website. For example, you can open Facebook, but before you can scroll through your feed, you need to wait a few moments and catch your breath. This brief pause will help you decide if you need to move on, or if your time and focus would be better spent on another activity.
Think of RescueTime more or less as a time management alarm clock: it collects information about the time you spend with certain apps and websites, which helps you understand your habits and structure your app accordingly. It lets you block sites that are below very low (ahem, Facebook) and sends you alerts when you’ve spent a certain amount of time on a certain activity.
For example, if you decide to limit the amount of time you spend on work-related emails to 1 hour per day, RescueTime will alert you when you’ve reached that limit. It uses information that allows you to be more successful, but it also provides comprehensive reports on your actions that could allow you to learn more about your work style and improve your productivity.
Like other phones, the 3310 gives you a taste of the pre-smartphone lifestyle (the iPhone didn’t come out until 2007, for example). The phone doesn’t have social pages, making it ideal for outings like camping, concerts, or dinner parties. You can plug in a phone when you need it, so you don’t have to look at your experience through a screen.
Siempo is another slim phone designed to help you set limits on technology. The phone can be used as a secondary phone, like the Light Phone, but is better equipped to replace your current ultra-connected phone number. It allows you to set a “pause” style that silences all notifications for a predetermined amount of time and includes a “Morning Alert” feature that lets you set how you want to interact with email and apps at the beginning of the day.
Smartphones disrupt your sleep cycle because of the blue light they emit. This season, it’s part of your daily ritual to put your smartphone to bed, thus reducing your exposure to blue light during that important hour. By giving your phone its mattress – outside of your bedroom – you can say goodnight to your daily routine and find the peace you desire to wake up fully recharged.
