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5 digital detox tips to remedy digital nomad fatigue

Search Remotely 5 Tips Digital Fatigue

News flash!

You don’t have to be a digital nomad traveling the world, connected to your digital device 24/7 to experience digital fatigue.

Telecommuters can affected also. How? Election season, societal chaos, crime rates, homelessness, inflation and the rapidly changing demographics occurring worldwide may cause the lives of remote workers to tailspin.  The positive features of a highly digital world means you don’t have to be in the physical space of calamity to feel its negative effects. Excessive exposure to conflict, interference from election news, and polarization can take it’s toll and lower remote job productivity.

The American Psychological Association (APA) posits as the global populus recovers from the negative effects of Covid-19, many of its problems are masked by a resilient and determined population. Until there is a needle added to break the camel’s back. 

For Remote Workers: A Primer to Technostress and Digital Detox

This article is written for the remote worker, hybrid, telecommuter and digital nomad who wants to detox from the digital world. In this post, they will learn:

  • What are the challenges of the travelling remote workers lifestyle 
  • What does neuroscience tell us about it 
  • How to manage constant virtual exposure to negative events and conflict with Digital Detox
  • Five [updated to ten ] life hacks to start an unplugged lifestyle while handling remote jobs

Chronic Stress Caused by External Events Wears down the Immune System

Generally, worrisome thoughts, frustration and mental tension felt every now and then, aren’t too bad. But too much stress too often (chronic stress), according to mental health experts and psychologists “can accumulate, causing inflammation, wearing on the immune system, and increasing the risk of a host of ailments, including digestive issues, heart disease, weight gain, and stroke.” Stress events that are beyond our control are most damaging. Stressful thoughts brought about by excessive exposure to conflict, interference from election news, and polarization can take it’s toll and lower remote job productivity.

Remote Work Technostress or Digital Stress can Be Managed

Unlike, for instance remote work-related stress, or technostress; external events that can cause mental anguish are to be avoided like the plague. In a German study cited by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found telecommuters working from home experienced 9% to 20% increased likelihood in experiencing digital stress (technostress) than their in-office colleagues. Technostress can be detrimental to the health and well-being of remote workers. How? When staff working at home experience excessive worry, tension and frustration they are more prone to experiencing negative emotions.  Negative emotions can then lead to negative behaviors and implications for poor mental and physical health.

Fortunately, digital nomads, tele-workers, staff and contractors working at home can manage technostress. How?  By detoxing digitally.  

Telecommuters CAN Control the Amount of Digital Stress Experienced

If you are working on a remote job, you can control the amount of digital stress you experience. If you want to quickly learn how, see our video. It’s updated to include  5 additional tips for a total of 10!

Digital Nomad and Virtual Telecommuter Challenges – why our minds can’t fully rest?

The inability to unplug is the biggest struggle for people with remote jobs. Numerous studies confirm what internet users have come to know intuitively:

  • Unplugging after work hours is the most prominent pain point for 40% of remote workers, according to the 2019 Remote.co study.
  • As a result of Buffer’s 2021 survey, the majority (27%) of respondents said that the inability to unplug is their greatest WFH (Work From Home) challenge.
  • 35% of the ordinarily office-based workers surveyed by trade union Prospect say their mental health has deteriorated since they started working from home during the pandemic. 4 on 10 of them claim it is due to the inability to switch off from work.

Digital nomads are negatively impacted also. Even when they spend their spare time traveling to exotic retreats to explore new and exciting destinations. Michał Jońca, a travelling remote worker from PhotoAiD, shared with me his experience: 

I experienced severe problems with unplugging from work. Even when I completed all my daily tasks, my mind couldn’t just leave the work behind and fully enjoy the fantastic views of Krabi province in Thailand. In the back of my mind, I always heard professional duties calling for my attention. 

Other mental health and wellness articles of interest to digital nomads:

Indeed, those who combine travel with work face the same problem as other remote workers.

  • Inability to unplug from work is one of the top challenges digital nomads meet.
  • Having trouble shutting down after the workday harms productivity for nearly a third of digital nomads.

Brain Neuroscience and Digital Connectivity Explained

Why does it happen? Some blame the always-on digital culture, but it’s not the whole truth. The origin of digital nomad fatigue is in our bodies – in our brains. Simply put, our brains are analog systems in digital reality. They aren’t adjusted to the buzzy digital world. The technological devices deliver too much stimulus, which arouses our brain every time we use them. Also, using smartphones releases dopamine in our brains – the hormone of pleasure that is secreted during successful social interactions. It’s an addictive neurotransmitter because feeling pleasure motivates us to keep it on the same level. So, we use smartphones to stimulate our reward pathways over and over again. The result? We overuse smartphones. Then we feel overstimulated and fatigued “without reason.”

Luckily, it’s not a one-way road. In the words of world-leading addiction expert Professor Anna Lembke, the author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence:

Our expectations have been manipulated not just by the culture but also by the biology of too much dopamine. What we need to do is tolerate a period of abstinence from all of these pleasure-inducing stimuli, allow our pleasure-pain balance to reset itself.

Since “abstinence” is the solution, let me present the technological abstinence – the digital detox.

Remote Work Tips to Digitally Detox: The Way to Get Unplugged

What is a digital detox?

Digital detox is about limiting the usage of digital devices. The most popular way is putting the smartphone or computer away for the whole day – it’s 24 hours challenge. However, it doesn’t work for digital nomads, who use technology in their work. Luckily, it isn’t the only manner. The digital detox means also avoiding smartphones for particular parts of the day, like the morning or two hours before the sleep, or skipping the most time-consuming applications. So, the point isn’t to reject digital technology entirely but to have some “abstinence” time that someone can handle and which aligns with someone’s goals. 

The digital detox is a personal experience, and it doesn’t have strict rules. But – I’m here to help you make it easier. Below you will find five digital detox ideas that work effectively and are perfect for beginners.

Five  [Ten] beginner-friendly digital detox ideas

1. Blocking apps

In Poland, we say that the heart doesn’t miss what the eyes don’t see. The point is that you won’t long to use mobile apps if you can’t use them, right? That’s why blocking apps are so helpful. They are like a personal couch: they just don’t allow you to use smartphones or particular apps over the limits you set.

The list of useful apps:

2. The day off

It’s easy to say – log off if you have to spend the whole day glued to a screen at work. But why don’t you take a day off? Think about the free day without any emails, calls, notifications… Instead, it would be filled with all activities you love, whether biking, reading, or baking cheesecake. Indeed, a day of rest for digital detox would be more rewarding than expected. The next day, you would come back to work fully rejuvenated and more creative.

3. Non-digital lunch break

Lunch break is the perfect time to check messages from friends and family, watch funny videos, or scroll social media. It works especially for people with remote jobs who can’t meet their colleagues at the canteen. But – it’s also an ideal time for a digital detox break. What about reading a book, writing a journal, or listening to music during your meal? In my experience, that kind of break helps the mind rest during a busy day and makes me more focused afterward.

4. Screen time measurement

In fact, this lifehack isn’t precisely about leading digital detox. Instead, it’s the idea of how to test if you need this challenge (or how to convince skeptics). So, the thing is to install an app that can measure how much time you spend on digital devices in general and how much time you spend on particular apps. By doing this, you will determine if technology consumes too much of your time. 

The list of useful apps:

5.  Analog alternatives 

Smartphones allow us to read the news without newspapers, chat with people without calling them, and get knowledge without reading books. Maybe the main problem with digital devices is that we forget about analog alternatives which are still in use? For example, we can buy journals instead of checking the news on web pages, or we can ask a friend for a meal recipe rather than search remotely for it. It’s one of the excellent options to start with digital detox: think about what you do on your smartphone that you could do in an analog way.

Due to the popularity of this article, we’ve added a few updates! See below.

6. Try crafting

Have you ever thought about taking up woodworking, welding, needle point, embroidery, sewing, knitting, crocheting? Many healthcare professionals, psychologists and therapists swear by these projects that allow you to work with your hands. In fact, Piedmont Healthcare writes, “crafting projects can help the brain send signals to the body that all is well.” In so doing, crafters can utilize non-pharmaceutical method (non- drug induced way) to lower their blood pressure, improve mood, and reduce tension.

7. Exercising

What about exercising, jogging, hiking, weightlifting, cycling. Anything to get away from your mobile device, laptop and desktop, right? The Greater Good Science Center at University California- Berkeley, has found that physical movement helps you feel happier and less stressed. The key, the researchers write, is to practice digital detox techniques on a regular basis, intentionally and with a purpose.

8. Reading a soft/hard cover book

Sure, its probably a lot more convenient to pick up your Tablet, use Kindle or download a PDF right from your phone. But, believe me, there’s nothing like reading from a soft or hard cover book. The joy experienced by leafing through physical pages.  One writer from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) explained that reading from physical books made her feel less stress, less anxious and “less busy.”

9. Playing puzzles, board games and tabletop cards

During the Pandemic, when we were all relying upon the internet and social media to remain connected to our loved ones as well has handle full-time jobs, and/or home-school our kids who were forced to learn in a virtual environment, old school entertainment became the rage. The Guardian collected data to show that sales of these staples skyrocketed! Eventbrite’s Sebastian Boppert was quoted, “today it seems that board games are being enjoyed by many more people than before the pandemic. I’d say the extended lockdown, a need for digital detoxing and a trend toward slower, more mindful activities all played a role here.”

10. Focusing on your pet

Finally, Chewy suggests that one of the best ways for detoxification from digital devices and social media is to focus on your pet hamster, dog, cat, or bird for instance.

Wrapping up Digital Detoxification for the Savvy Telecommuter

So – are you itching to turn off your digital devices and go for adventure freely? I won’t bore you with my final thoughts. The first attempt is the most difficult, but I’m sure that you will find your remedy for digital nomad fatigue with that guide. Let’s go!

Author: Karolina Zając

PS Feel free to share with me your digital detox experiences. I’m always curious about new stories to cover.

Short bio: Karolina Zając, a writer at Passport Photo Online. With a background in cognitive science and communication, she is fascinated by how language influences our perception of reality. It’s more likely to find her in the forest than at the dance club.

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