The countdown is ON…
Last Wednesday it finally happened! I finally held a finished copy of ‘An Edited Life‘ in my hands. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Want to see that moment? It’s in my latest vlog. I cried happy tears and felt like my bowels were going to fall out, all at the same time. It was wonderful and a moment that I will never, ever forget. Even better? Receiving copies to give to friends and family. My Mum cried, my Grandma started reading it immediately before finding the household cleaning routine page to tell me that her and my Grandad flip their mattress EVERY WEEK (home organisation is basically in my genes), and my friends spent approximately fifteen minutes snapping the perfect photo for Instagram and using me as their hand model to get just the right angle.
It’s been a great few days and I’m floating around on cloud nine, to the point where a friend asked if I had been drinking when she came to pick me up for lunch at the weekend. Nah mate, I’m just *that* happy and having a midday dance party – want to join? So seeing as my friends and family have been shown all things ‘An Edited Life‘ I felt it was time to let you in too. Here’s an exclusive excerpt from the Self Care chapter that I feel could come in particularly handy over the festive period, along with a special thank you gift for all of you who have placed pre-orders already and an idea for Christmas gifting to send to your significant other if they haven’t got the hint already…
HOW TO SCHEDULE IN A DIGITAL DETOX AND ACTUALLY ENJOY IT
SCHEDULE IT IN. Find a day of the week that works best for you (for me that’s usually a Sunday), and then adda digital detox to your diary once a month – or however often you plan on un-gluing your phone from your palm – and you’ll be much more likely to successfully complete it with that calendar reminder pinging up and staring you back in the face. Once you get in the groove of things, you might even want to go the whole hog and ditch your phone for a 48-hour weekend stint.
SAFETY FIRST. Let your nearest and dearest know about your plans and give them your home phone number to contact you if they really need to. Although, do people even have a home phone these days? I’m not sure we’ve got one. I must check. Either way tell the people who would be most likely to contact you just so they don’t panic. I wouldn’t worry about sharing your experiment with everyone as you may find that, like me, upon turning your phone on literally no one has messaged you. It’s a great wake-up call for the ol’ ego too, as it turns out.
CREATE A PLAN. Before you begin your digital detox, I’d suggest concocting a plan. A safe bet is to spend the day being social. It’s a win–win situation whoever you decide to spend your time with. People like your grandparents or parents, who might only use their iPads for news and weather updates, are good to hang out with if you feellike even just seeing someone with a mobile in their hand is going to push you over the edge. However, hanging out with your mates will be an eye-opening experience that demonstrates just how much time we spend trying to tap out a message mid-conversation on the down-low and referencing photos, memes, GIFs and Google searches in conversations. If it’s your first digital detox then it might be an idea to begin with the former and work your tolerance up to a point where you can be in a room full of switched on tech without feeling the need to power up your own.
FIND PHONE-FREE ACTIVITIES. When your phone- free day actually arrives, it’s a good idea to have some old-school activities on hand so that your palms aren’t itching for a keypad. Personally I think that board games should never be sniffed at: Scrabble, UNO and Sequence are some family favourites. Baths are also a major win. Light a candle, make a beard out of bubbles and that’s your evening sorted right there. Plus there’s always the great outdoors to explore; colouring books that you probably got for Christmas and have never used; put pen to paper and start jotting down ideas for that novel you’ve always wanted to write, or begin drawing that photo you’ve always wanted to sketch. I also find it a good time to get round to doing things that I’ve been putting off, like clearing out the loft, writing thank-you cards and organising my photos into photo albums because the pile of pictures was beginning to look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
HOLD ON! You might find by the end of the day that you haven’t missed your mobile at all. Instagram who?! If that’s the case then why not extend your digital detox by an extra day? But if you’re feeling like you might trip up, head to the bedroom and do everything you possibly can to get to sleep. You spray that pillow spray! You do your stretches! You put your legs up against a wall to get your blood flowing or whatever the Yogis say that it does! Once you’re 10 minutes into a good book you won’t be thinking about what Chrissy Teigen is up to on Twitter. Then when the morning arrives your mind will feel clear and cleansed and any sense of ego that you did have previously will drift away as you turn your phone on and it sits there silent in your palm, notification-less.
Pop this book down for a minute, grab your calendar and add in a digital detox. Go on. I’ll wait for you. Yep, you’re done? Here’s where you got to! Brilliant. Although going without your phone for a prolonged period might seem like some form of self-inflicted torture at first, the more you practise and complete it successfully, the more you’ll realise how beneficial this unplugged time is to our mental health and general wellbeing. It gives us the headspace to edit and process our thoughts, and the physical hours on the clock to be fully engaged in whatever it is that we’re doing. It’s the definition of quality time.
THE #AEL WORKSHEET BUNDLE – AVAILABLE NOW!
Have you pre-ordered a copy of ‘An Edited Life‘ (it’s available worldwide, just click on the link here to be sent to the best place to order from your location)? Well firstly – THANK YOU! And secondly, as a thank you, you can gain access to the #AEL Worksheet Bundle right this second. They are a collection of six life organisation PDFs that I’ve put together to use in conjunction with the book and cover a bit of everything from capsule wardrobe planning, to fitness routines, and budgeting to weekly planning. Just send proof of your purchase to [email protected] to receive an email reply with your download link for the worksheet bundle. If you haven’t pre-ordered, don’t worry! The bundle will be available as a free download from this website on 10th January 2019.
WANT TO SEND ‘AN EDITED LIFE’ AS A GIFT?
Now I can’t take credit for this one as it is the genius that is Lily Pebbles that came up with this idea, but if you’d like to gift a copy of ‘An Edited Life‘ for Christmas, here’s a voucher to pop in their card to let the receiver know that you’ve pre-ordered them a copy. Cute right? So if you plan on buying your mum, sister or mate a copy, download, print out and complete this voucher. Or send it to your gift givers if you fancy getting a copy for Christmas.
Photos by Emma Croman
*’An Edited Life’ is available for worldwide pre-order here*
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