What if you had more hours in the day? More hours to walk in the sun (or read a book with the sound of rainfall outside). More hours to spend with people you love, enjoy, or would like to get to know better. More time with your kids, who — when we take a minute to look clearly at them — are really growing up fast. Maybe you could put in that garden you’ve been thinking about.
Or imagine this: instead of the anger, frustration and superficiality of online interactions, you could feel the soul-nourishing refreshment of spending a few suddenly-unearthed hours with an old friend you’ve been meaning to get together with for a long time.
Folks, I’ve got great news. There really is a way to get more hours in the day. It’s simple, and with the right perspective, it’s not even that hard.
Welcome to Screen-Free Week, April 30-May 6.
This is an annual effort to encourage, support and celebrate a basic idea: taking a week off of television, internet, smartphones and video games will help you take back control of your time and ways of using these powerful tools.
This week is a great time to recognize that screens can loom large in our lives and souls, taking away from the good life that we all want. To use a travel metaphor, screen-time can be a means to get along the road, but is a poor destination itself.
This isn’t an effort to say that all screen-time is bad. It has its purposes. For instance, I feel good about encouraging you to visit one particular website: www.screenfree.org. It’s a treasure trove of resources on how to plan for a successful Screen-Free Week.
I like its list of 101 Screen-Free Activities. Here is a brief sample:
9. Read magazines or newspapers. Swap them with friends.
17. Teach a child some of your favorite childhood games.
42. Play Frisbee.
52. Attend a live sports event at the local school or park.
71. Visit and get to know your neighbors.
The site also has this Screen-Free Week pledge: “I, _____________, pledge that during the week of __________ I will only use screens when they are required for school or work. I will not: 1) watch TV or videos; 2) play games on tables, website, phones or consoles; 3) surf the web; 4) use social media. Instead of spending time with screens, I will ______________).
I continue to see screens as a tool. I use them at work. I communicate by email and Facebook messenger. During Screen-Free Week I’ll still check in on those channels. But I’m going to prioritize in-person communication and talking on the phone, rather than by text or keyboard. Heck, I might even write a letter or two.
This type of activity is exponentially more rewarding and fun when it’s a group or community activity.
I encourage you to talk with your neighbors, family and friends. If you decide to join along, drop me a line. That’s news worth checking my email for!
A Local Voice
You also have a wise advocate and coach here in Lewis County: public health advocate Galilee Carlisle of Curtis, who has devoted her life to a movement she calls “Heads Up” (rather than head down, staring at your phone.) She invites folks to reach out to her at 360-245-3993 or galilee71@yahoo.com (where her email signature line, “sent from our hard-wired computer,” emphasizes that fighting smartphone addiction doesn’t have to mean going entirely without digital tools.)
“What I always encourage people to do is to really plan out the week — be a driver in your life, not just a passenger!” she said.
That means planning things in advance, like having recipes lined up so you’re not googling how to cook asparagus or the proper way to prune roses.
Dust off the board games, get batteries in a real camera and alarm clock, so you’re not tempted to use your smartphone.
“No one loves a hypocrite, and once one person ‘slips,’ the rest of the family is likely to follow right along,” Carlisle said.
When it’s over, she encourages people to document how the week felt and what changes were hard or easy — and what changes you might like to keep as permanent.
Screen-Free Week is a chance for a nice mix of physical, social, creative and exploratory activities, from cooking meals together to playing board games after dinner or finally having the time for a deep-clean of the part of the house you’d like to take back from the clutter.
And that’s really the point of Screen-Free Week — taking back your life from the digital debris.
I’m as guilty as anyone of spending (wasting, if I’m being honest) time endlessly scrolling down the social media feed.
From April 30 to May 6 — and hopefully for many more days to come — we have a chance to be mindful and in control again. It’s an exciting opportunity.
And who wouldn’t want a few more hours in the day?
I look forward to hearing how this experience goes for you. I think you’ll be surprised and delighted (and perhaps even a bit unsettled at first) with all the free time you suddenly have.
This is your life. Look up, step out and enjoy!
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Brian Mittge can be seen around the hills and valleys of south Chehalis. His columns appear more Saturdays.
