Motivation Monday: Unplugged

By Loralyn Mears PhD Loralyn Mears PhD has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on August 19, 2019

Monday Motivation here we come! This is for those of you who slog through your Monday mornings. If you lament the end of the weekend and dread returning to the office, you may need our Motivation Monday quick tips.

Grit Daily offers an avenue to connect with others like you. We’re here to help get your work week off to a good start. Pump your fists – it’s time for Motivation Monday!

 

Where’s my phone?!

The panic. The horror. Surely I didn’t just leave my phone in the Uber? My whole life is in there! Where is it? Quick, somebody please call it!

Sound familiar?

The average adult currently spends 4 hours per day on the phone. I don’t think my usage is that high but I don’t dare open the app that tells me what it is. Although I’m tempted to look, I’m not going to. Motivation Monday or not, I just don’t want to know.

Stats to kick start your Motivation Monday unplugging experiment

Five years ago, that average daily phone use was only 90 minutes. If that statistic isn’t scary enough try this one: teens spend an average of 9 hours per day on their phones. And yes, over half of them think that that’s too much and they’re asking for help to unplug.

We’ve become co-dependent with our phones and so connected to them that we’ve lost our ability to connect with others. Loneliness has reached epidemic levels. In fact, 30% of Millennials describe themselves as “desperately lonely.” And, despite all those hours on the phone, 22% don’t have a single friend to call. ☹

Today, people spend more than half their mobile team mindlessly scrolling and liking their way through posts on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. Speaking of which, more than 5 billion videos are watched each day on YouTube alone. On Facebook, users tune in for more than 100 million hours of video-watching. Oddly enough, 80% of all videos are watched with the sound off. And here’s a progressive idea, Instagram has disabled the “likes” count feature – that’s a win for mental health.

I feel the need for …

Nope. It’s not speed. Au contraire! I want to slow down. I feel like I need some time to myself. And some time with my family where I don’t have looming deadlines for blogs or other content for my clients. We’ve previously talked about the importance of taking your PTO and tuning out to tune in, so now it’s my turn to do as I say.

Consequently, I’m going to take some time to just sit still and just be. Sitting on a dock at the lake and just looking out at nothing at all calms me. Knowing that I’m heading back up into the wilds of Canada affords me with a sense of home and completes me. Reconnecting with family through hugs, drinks and laughter fuels my soul. I need it.

See you next week when we’ll post the AFTER scores on our motivation Monday unplugging experiment which started last week  …

Sunset wharf Image below by Welcome to all and thank you for your visit ! ツ from Pixabay

By Loralyn Mears PhD Loralyn Mears PhD has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Journalist verified by Muck Rack verified

Dr. Loralyn Mears is a Columnist at Grit Daily and a podcast host (The Grit Files, which aims to shine the spotlight on female founders). She is a content marketer, founder of the WORKtech startup, STEERus, specializing in personal and professional development to address gaps in soft skills - communication in particular. In her consultancy practice, she helps clients with content and strategy. Loralyn spent over a decade playing with mosquito DNA, got her PhD, decided she would rather market science than be at the bench and has never looked back. Along the way, she’s wined and dined her way around the globe. She's authored two books, including the 2018 Gold Medal Indie Book award-winning, One Sip At a Time: a Memoir and the hard science thriller, "The Battle for Humanity: How Science Saved Us." 

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