15+ Digital Detox Tips

1. Hide your phone – You know where your phone is, but it is not in your immediate vicinity. When the phone is out of your reach, you prevent unnecessary unlocking of your phone. Trick your cell phone and not the other way around.

2. Leave the house consciously without a cell phone – Leave the house without a cell phone? You can! It will help you to become more comfortable with your smartphone. Try to perceive other or even new stimuli. The best way to do this is to go for a walk in nature.

3. Unsubscribe from push messages – After a download, the push messages of an app are always turned on. Take the time with your phone and turn off these push messages. To do this, go to your Homescreen and then go to your Settings (looks like a gear ⚙). Under the Apps/Applications folder, you’ll find a listing of all the apps on your phone. Tap on your selected app and look for Notification or Push messages or notifications and click on do not allow. Don’t worry, you can turn them back on at any time too.

4. Buy a book – Very simple and self-explanatory. Even if it’s just two pages a day, try to read every day. Many always say you should read just before going to bed, but we believe reading can be done at any time of the day. The difficult thing is to overcome your inner obstacle, so find the best rhythm for you.

5. Try a team sport – sport is healthy and distracts you. However, if you only do sports alone, you often get entertained during sports with a podcast, music or even movies. To counteract this phenomenon, team sports help. The strengthening of social skills are thereby automatically trained, since an exchange with other people is inevitable. These Digital Detox tips sound plausible, don’t they?

6. Go online consciously – Just let yourself go and let your phone take control. Once in a while, this doesn’t hurt and can also be relaxing. Create a precise schedule for yourself and consciously allow this time. However, it is important to take this schedule seriously and then consciously go offline again.

7. Invite friends to your home – After Corona time, we have all become master chefs and should showcase these arts. Inviting friends over is a luxury we’ve often had to neglect lately. Put your cell phone in the middle of the table and make a game out of it. Everyone who uses your phone during the meal gets to draw an animal and then give this picture to another person in the room.

8. Use your watches – Really old school or really modern. The watch on your wrist is a simple tip to check your phone up to 10 times less a day. By unlocking your smartphone less, the lure of social media should be reduced. It’s the simple Digital Detox tips that can change cell phone behavior. Even more so, a watch is fashionably prestigious. This trick also works with an old alarm clock. By doing this, you’ll prevent the first reach of the day from going to your phone.

9. Pen and paper – Be curious and creative. It may sound funny to many, but using pen and paper is always unique. Go wild with art by watching Bob Ross’ old videos. You can’t erase anything on the Internet, but a piece of paper is your property until you sell it or give it away. Thus, the uniqueness always remains.

10. Take the challenge – challenge yourself and your friends. Try to find ways to get a good digital balance. Search for tasks, think of some or just visit our Digital Detox Challenge page. Through games, tips and challenges, learn how to be more aware. 

11. Delete and/or unfollow – To minimize the number of spam messages, take time and go into your social media accounts and your email accounts. People or companies clogging up your personal account are stealing your time and are usually trying to get you to take an action (like making a purchase). Take the time once and get it back in the long run.

12. Set your Quality Time – Start with one hour a week and try to do something consciously without the Internet. For example, you can plan to visit your parents or grandparents and talk to them. Help people in need or walk your neighbor’s dog. These little things consciously or unconsciously force you to build more social contacts in the real world.

13. Partner search – No, Tinder is not meant here. It can actually be easier to find a partner or friend with whom you can try Digital Detox together. Together, many things are easier and the effort to try out new things is less. 

14. Ask people – What time is it? Do I go left or right? How old did Michael Jackson become? We can all ask ourselves questions like these and more every day and have them answered by our cell phones. The simple trick of asking other people will take away your inhibitions and allow you to make new contacts. This tip is especially good for the younger generation to get rid of shyness and build self-confidence.

15. Deleting apps – For short moments we need an app, be it when flying with an airline, for the vaccination certificate, or for the language learning app. The good thing is, such apps can be deleted again without much hassle and if you need them again, you can download them again and the saved account will still have all the data you need. The advantages: More storage space, less push messages and a tidy phone.

16. Seek help – If you notice that you spend too much time in the virtual world and unfortunately can’t manage it, despite all the tricks and our Digital Detox tips, then take a look at our website. There you will find experts for coaching, team events and even for your next vacation. All experts work independently, we collect the experts for you and want to offer you a possible solution.

Many methods can quickly show how dependent we are on the digital world. It’s not about bans, but about conscious digital use. Just try it out and see if these Digital Detox tips are easy or not. The idea is to create new and fun tips and share them with you. HOWEVER: if you have a creative idea, feel free to send it to us and we’ll be happy to add to this list (naming names, if desired). Just send your suggestions to info at digital-detoxing dot com. If you have read this Digital Detox Tips post, then you are already on a very good path.