Your Present is the Presence – Digital Detox Challenge

Last year on 24th December I wrote a post  called Time to Disconnect where I was explaining about how overwhelmed I felt with my bad habit of being glued to my phone or laptop 24/7. I know that is not what I want for me but unfortunately being a blogger means that I have to be more aware of the internet and social media. However, there are some moments that we should disconnect from everything and try to focus on what is important.

Last year I did try to disconnect around Christmas. It was hard and I did my best, managing to disconnect and really enjoying it. So this year when I was asked by Time To Log Off and Punkt to be part of their “Your Present is the Presence” Christmas campaign, I was really keen to give this a go as I know a digital detox is always something that I occasionally need and is a great way to help you think what are your priorities are and to focus on your loved ones more.

This campaign was different as they wanted me to do the challenge one month before Christmas as preparation for the actual date. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it as I have so many commitments at the moment but then I thought, why not? I decided to just try to give it a go.

They sent me a box with a Punkt phone and other items which they thought could keep me entertained and away from the internet. The idea of this phone is that you remove your sim card from your mobile and put it inside the Punkt phone. This phone is designed to only let you make calls and texts to your friends and family so all your contacts will still be there.

That way you will not be away from your love ones but you will not have the temptation of browsing the internet that easily. This really helps you to properly disconnect from the internet. This sounds all so interesting but I was also really scared about it as I know how attached I am to my phone and I was worried this was going to be the most difficult challenge for me to do.

My days are always very busy. I have so much to do that it is insane. I need my phone for everything, especially for my work. I had a commitment on the first day. My family and I were invited to visit Lapland UK for the day. I was really worried about that as I knew I would be desperate to share photos online. I had a chat with my husband and we agreed that he will support me and he will share some photos if needed.

After that, I was ready to start this challenge. What I love more about this was that I actually had the day to spend with my family and have fun together. I really enjoyed our time together as a family. I had my DSLR and that was great for me as that substituted my need to use my phone for photos thus avoiding ending up looking at anything else.

OMG guys, this was SO hard. I really felt the need to use my phone constantly and I wanted to tweet about it all the time LOL. It was really hard but I must say that being with my family and enjoying the time together was the most important thing for me. I really want to give my presence to my girls over Christmas so this challenge was very important.

Day 1 was very hard but being distracted really helped me to be away from my phone. That was also a bonus because it passed very quick as we were busy on our day at Lapland UK. I found it very difficult during the journey though as when you are in the car you tend to kill the time by browsing the internet through your phone. I put the radio on instead and that actually helped to get distracted. We also put some Spanish songs on for kids that my girls love so we sang along. They fell asleep On the way home so the temptation came back again. I decided to sleep a little bit too. That was nice.

As soon as we arrived home we were really tired so we all went to bed early. This took me to Day 2. This day was going to be difficult as we didn’t have plans to go out. I actually had a lot to write so I decided to concentrate on that. This was great as not being connected to the internet actually helped me to be more productive. I managed to write 2 blog posts that day which was good. We did some activities with the girls and the day passed quicker than I thought.

When the afternoon arrived I was getting anxious again. As I said before I have some commitments so I need to get on the internet. I was feeling the pressure and the urge to get a few things done. I am not going to lie, I had to check a few things online in order to fulfil some commitments. I know this could sound like a failure and maybe it is as I probably failed the challenge after doing this but I would like to think that the success of this campaign was more trying to keep me away from the internet as much as possible than trying to get away from the internet AT ALL. I did that, spending a a lot of time away from the internet and enjoyed some quality time with my family and that for me is a success!

I will be doing this again around Christmas for sure and I would love it if you joined me by disconnecting also, so you can give your presence as a present too!

What do you think of this campaign? Do you also feel that you spend too many hours online? Are you also attached to your phone? Have you tried to disconnect before? Would you like to disconnect around Christmas time? Please leave a comment below as I would love to read what you think. 

*Disclosure: I was sent a box with a Punkt phone and some other items for the purpose of this challenge and promotion of this campaign but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Love you all ❤️

Franca  💋

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