Today marks my first full day back at work after a relaxing two weeks of leave.  

While I was away, I turned off all my alerts for social media, email and other apps on my smart devices.  The only notifications I left on were for personal messages from friends and family.

Do you know what I discovered? 

I don’t need to be alerted every time someone tries to get in contact with me.

I also discovered that I could control my intake of data.  I can choose the times when I check my emails. I can choose the times I check my social media. I can choose the times I read and reply to emails.

I also discovered (or, perhaps, rediscovered) that no one gets upset if you don’t reply to their emails or messages straight away.

Over the last two weeks, I learned (or, perhaps, relearned) to use my smart device the way I want to use it rather than being reactive to it.

For more interesting thoughts on this topic, I recommend Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.