Clocking Out For The Day
We all lack margin. Space between one moment to the next. Days are blurred together, and the common theme in our lives is distraction. For me, it’s at night. When my day ends and I finally get home from coaching, meetings, gym, and whatever else that day presented.
The problem: The agenda for the day is over, but my mind is still searching for stimulation. This is when these phones and tablets aren’t serving their beneficial purposes anymore, and instead, they bring in negative loops and thoughts that follow us to sleep. The loop of stimulation never ends: When it’s time for bed, my phone sleeps under the pillow, and I check on it throughout the night as it wakes up, to make sure it’s ok. My iPad is on the left side of the bed, taking up more space than an iPad should. We each get half of the bed: I stay on the right side, iPad on the left, respecting each other’s space. Both devices are always within arms reach, an unhealthy habit that needs to be broken.
The solution: The same way we put our keys and wallets away when we walk in the door, the iPhone and iPad will do the same. They’ll be put away too, until the next morning. 7pm to 7am. This is when the margin begins. No communication with the outside world. This is when reading books begin. Handwriting my thoughts. Watching tv and basketball games. Playing Xbox. Relaxing. My day should be winding down, gaining closure, and not flowing through the night and bleeding into the next day. There needs to be white space. Putting these devices away will be my way of clocking out and telling myself: I won the day.