How to take a screen time sabbatical

In her book, 24/6 Tiffany Shlain calls preparing for her tech free day “ a bit like planning  a day trip to the ‘70s or ‘80s” and she’s not wrong.  We have approached planning our tech free days close to like planning a road trip where we might not have cell service.  Here’s how we approach the screen time sabbatical:

1. We start our sabbatical at bedtime on one day and finish it at 5:00 pm the next day so we don’t ever go a full day without being reachable.  We might consider going the full 24 hours in the future if we get a landline phone  again. 

2. We do Saturday night through Sunday because it works best for us and it’s a day that we most likely can spend together so we want to monopolize on that screen free time but you can do whatever works best for your schedule.

3. We think about what we want or need to do on Sunday and plan in advance what we’ll need that we might usually just look up online.  For example, if we want to try a new recipe, craft, DIY project, we’ll have that printed out and ready to go.  We’ll look up details of places we want to go on Sunday so we know hours, directions, etc.  

4. We put remote controls, iPads, and computers up and out of the way before we go to bed, we turn our Phones off.  This reminds us when we out of habit go to grab our phone or the remote on Sunday morning that we’re on screen time sabbatical.

5. We approach our day close to the same way we approach everyday, except that when we do things, they don’t involve a screen of any kind.  We’ve gone to the pump track, different parks, the zoo.  We have listened to music on our in-home speakers, played board games, deep cleaned the house, cooked new recipes, and read books.  Mostly we just relax and get to hang out with each other without our attention being pulled away by a ding, buzz, chime, or  interesting show/ game / new’s alert.

6. We end our sabbatical around 5 on Sunday but surprisingly it’s not a mad rush for the devices, the kids aren’t interested at all and we find that we only address the urgent emails and messages in preparation for Monday… everything else can wait.

We have found these screen time free sabbatical days to be some of the most enjoyable, relaxing days of our week.   While it’s necessary to get back on the devices for the work week, I have found myself looking forward to Sunday and a break from the endless contact from the outside world.  I’m not sure if our routine will last long term or not, but I do think that if it does, these Sundays will be the days we look back on with gratitude and fondness. 

If you want to dive deeper into your own quest for a screen time sabbatical, I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Tiffany Shlain’s 24/6 The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week (it’s on Audiobook on Libby from our library if you would rather listen), she does a great job of explaining in further detail the tech-free day.