Our smartphones have become our inseparable companions, not only in our everyday lives but on holiday too. It’s understandable – after all, they make staying in touch with friends and family much easier, help capture our memories or are simply there to help in emergencies if we ever get lost or are just looking for a good restaurant nearby. But having to keep an eye on our smartphones can also quickly become a stress factor – after all, incoming calls and messages need to be answered in real time, even on holiday. Then what soon happens is that you sit staring at the screen instead of talking with the other person at the table or enjoying a lovely view. Does this sound familiar? Then we’ve come up with the right challenge for your next holiday: Cut the smartphone time and make time for adventures!
1. Back to the Roots
Step back a few years and use some of these tried and tested “accessories” instead of a smartphone: a watch and alarm clock to tell the time, a torch to get things in perspective and a paper map to select the perfect route. And the Indianer Jones feeling comes for free! 😉
2. A camera instead of a smartphone
Even if lots of smartphones now take really great pictures, pick up your old camera and go on a voyage of discovery. Without any distracting e-mails, chats or realtime uploads to social networks, you can concentrate on yourself and your adventure out in the wilds of nature and still record everything that’s important so you can share it with friends and family later.
3. Settings to suit you!
You’re the boss! Instead of responding to the steady flow of incoming push messages from your apps, take control of what’s happening and only look at your smartphone when YOU choose to. Simply deactivate the “push messaging” option in all your apps that keeps telling when a message or similar comes in. You can also cut back your automatic mail access: Instead of downloading your mails in real time, get your phone just to retrieve them once a day, ideally in the evening or morning, after or before your trip. For the rest of the day, you can leave the smartphone in the hotel or in your backpack, in flight mode.
4. Set offline targets…
… and meet them. As the first step, check how much time you spend on your smartphone – various apps or integrated features in your smartphone will show you in black and white how long and how often you look at the screen. Take up the challenge and halve this time in your next step! Is that too easy for you? Then keep on halving your screen time regularly – until you get to zero minutes. Then you’ve succeeded in making sure your holiday belongs just to you!
