The Get Unplugged Challenge

Today's Think Kit prompt was a challenge to "[u]nplug for an hour, a half day, or a whole day. Choose a time that feels a little uncomfortable. How did you feel? What did you do? Reflect on your experience. How much did you unplug this year? How does this experience make you feel about unplugging in the coming year?"

I won't lie: I'm addicted to my phone. Then again, who isn't really? I've only been in the land of the cool smart phone kids for about a year and a half, and I already have a hard time imagining my phone not being a natural extension of my hand. Not being able to check emails for new orders or customer inquiries, or respond to Facebook messages from close friends or Tweet a cute picture of my cat? Now completely unthinkable.

It's silly, really, that I've grown this attached to this tiny piece of technology that I lived so easily without just a brief period of time ago. But it's the first thing I look at in the morning when I'm still all cozy under the covers, scanning my Twitter feed and email inboxes to see if there's anything important I need to know right off the bat.

Today I did the same exact morning routine, which led me to today's prompt. Normally on a Sunday morning I would get out of bed, grab my phone, and settle in for a morning/afternoon of HGTV while I continued to catch-up on my social media channels. But this morning I left the phone by my bed, ventured into a silent living room and...sat down with a book.

Photo via Anna David

I was an English major in college, and while that should mean that I am rarely without a book, the reality is that the whole reading for class thing kind of burned me out. I've been trying to pick up more books for fun, but lately I've found myself sifting through blog posts or business books more often than not. The other day I was at my local library (a place I could dedicate an entire wonderful blog post) when I stumbled upon Falling for Me by Anna David, which just happened to catch my eye as I turned down an aisle to look up a book in the computer. I can't put the charming memoir down, and, to my surprise, I stayed unplugged a full two to three hours. Even after my sister interrupted the silence with a call, I returned to my comfy spot on the love seat where I kept reading well into the early afternoon.

Being unplugged felt kind of refreshing. When I finally did pick up my phone to check a few emails and read tweets from my friends, it almost felt a little overwhelming. I wanted to crawl back into my peaceful book zone, but alas I had things to accomplish today.

I haven't spent much time reading or staying unplugged this year, but today's experience makes me wish for a return to the days before social media and iPhones and all that jazz, days when I spent my afternoons content with a pile of computer paper and a box of Crayolas. Maybe I'll do that more in 2013.

What about you? Do you unplug every now and then?