Happy New Year my wonderful friends!

I hope you were able to take a break during the final weeks of 2024. I had some good time with my kiddos and my guy, and also got to see my folks. It was nice.

I’m looking ahead to the rest of January. As I mentioned in my pre-holiday email, I’m planning a Digital Reboot of sorts, a Combatting of Brain Rot, a Building of Creative Capacities. (if you missed that email, you can find it here.)

I am starting my Reboot/Combat/Capacity-Building on January 6th.

The focus of this upcoming week (January 6 - 12) is about disrupting my technology habit, and reflecting on where my time goes and the ways I execute most of my daily actions. I’m both super pumped and kinda terrified. I am sure that I’ll learn A LOT through this process.

Here’s my plan:

On January 6th, I will start with a two day period of not using my smartphone, other than for emergency calls.

Like, NO SMARTPHONE. AT ALL.

I’m emailing my family this weekend to let them know my plans, in case they need to reach me on the 6th or 7th. I will turn off my notifications, and wear my uncle’s old-school analog wrist-watch for timekeeping so I have no excuse to look at my phone.

After that 48-hour period for the remainder of the week, until January 12th, I will only check email and social media on my computer, and I will try to limit my phone use to texting.

I will use my tool “Finding Your Work-Life Mix” to make notes of where and how I am using my time (happy to share this tool with you too, if you don’t have it already - just email me back and I’ll send it to you).

As I take note of my time and energy this week, I know I will feel those urges to pick up my phone… And instead of reprimanding myself, I’m going to try to just notice when it happens and redirect myself.

Lastly, every morning I will engage in a short meditation - 20 breaths (keep it simple with 20-in, and 20-out), followed by a short face, scalp and shoulder massage, before kicking into gear with my regular morning/hygiene routine.

So, the summary:

• No smartphone for January 6th and 7th (emergency calls only)
• Start every morning with a short meditation
• Limit smartphone use for entire week (aim to limit tech use to my computer)
• Use my tool “Finding Your Work-Life Mix” to document my time, and reflect on how I spend my days

I'm trying to keep things relatively straightforward and not pile on too many new things. Next week - from January 13 to 19th - will build on this week’s reflections and habits.

In a week-ish, I’ll email you all again with some reflections on how things are going, as well as my plans for next week!

What do you think? Does this plan seem bonkers? Intriguing? I’d love to know…

Julia

Julia Gray, PhD

​Website | Instagram | LinkedIn​

• award-winning writer, researcher, teacher
• mentored hundreds of students & clients
• playwright, theatre creator
• chocolate devotee, Mum of 2, ex-bun-head

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