Digital Autopilot - Turn It Off

​​If you find yourself wasting hours using your electronic devices day after day after day, always wishing you hadn’t, always regretting the fact that you’ll never get that time back, getting sucked into endless social media rabbit holes, suffering from sore eyes and neck pain - but feel there is nothing you can do about it...your electronic device habits are probably on autopilot. It’s time to turn off the digital autopilot and time to take control of the wheel.

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The really devastating part about leaving your devices on autopilot, especially when it comes to your social media accounts, is that you don't even notice how much they are controlling you half the time. You just downloaded the apps and left the default settings on. Next thing you know, you are getting flooded with emails, red dot notifications and bings and buzzes. You're getting disrupted 24/7. While  many people live day in and day out on autopilot  (which is truly sad), the way to truly have healthy electronic device habits is to be totally aware and proactive when it comes to using your devices. So, how do you do that?​​

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1. Stop the email notifications. Take time to go to each app and cancel the emails. This will save you tons of time. Many apps not only send you notifications but the app designers pile on the emails to suck you back into their app! 
2. Remove all the notifications. The red dots on the app icons…do you still have those on? And the bings and buzzes - have you forgotten them? Do you really need them? Do this and you’ll start noticing that you pick up your device a lot less.
3. Do you need to have your app icons on your home screen? How about making them a bit harder to get to? How about needing to tap 2 or even 3 times to actually get to the app? Just that small inconvenience can make you use your social media apps a little less and save you from wasting some of that precious time of yours. ​

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​Finally, if you are on digital autopilot you have to ask yourself who you want to be in control…the social media app companies, your email inbox, Netflix or YOU! If you feel like your life is out of balance. It's either too stressful, too complicated, too boring, or you have surrendered your life to the "routine".  Take some time this week and really think about your relationship with your electronic devices. How can you take control? Make them less visible? AND maybe you’ll get a little bit of your life back?
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Thanks for reading!
Until next month folks,
Pierre

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