A Plus Attitudes

I just came back from a vacation where I was mostly unplugged

My family and I just came back from vacationing in St. Petersburg, Florida. We visited my niece who is doing an apprenticeship at a local theater there.

I have been working on being more mindful on how often and when I use my mobile devices. I made a conscious effort to limit my time spent on my phone during our vacation. I can honestly say I only used my phone when I needed it for looking up places to visit, navigating around town, taking pictures of places and people and occasionally responding to a text from a family member. The only other time I really used my phone was when we were back at the resort and I was relaxing and reading a book. I have a Kindle app. I also checked in occasionally to see how many steps we completed in the course of a day. We did a lot of walking and I did a few runs. Turns out I managed to get in over 10,000+ steps each day.

Thankfully my family members including my niece, were also spending limited time on their devices. The result… a lot of quality time together. We had great conversations, lovely meals, we spent a lot of time catching up, talking, walking and visiting beautiful downtown St. Petersburg. We enjoyed each other’s company thoroughly and with limited distractions.

My niece is 22 and my daughter is 18, and they managed to keep their phones in their pockets while we were hanging out with each other. So, maybe I, the adult set the standard by keeping my phone out of site and giving everyone my undivided attention?

Next time you are spending time with your special loved ones, why not try putting your devices away and focusing your attention on them? They are what truly matters!

Do you set aside certain device-free times or days?

If so, how often? I’d love to hear about it, please leave a comment on how you manage your device time.