My Digital Sabbatical

    Lately, life has felt like a non-stop roller coaster of ups and downs at full speed.  Taking care of two small children, busy schedules, working and full time school has not left much time for anything else.  The Two day Social Media diet has allowed me to steal pockets of time that may have let get away on me other wise.  I found that taking the little bit of time to sit and talk with my kids or focus on them instead of feeling the need to check on things such as my e-mail has helped me to take some time to breathe.  

     I have also been guilty of checking back and forth from Facebook or Pinterest and school work while on-line and letting myself get easily distracted.  Before I know it, time has gotten away from me and I still have not accomplished much.  I have noticed that when I am focused on what I am doing and tune out all distractions that I get a lot more accomplished and in a much shorter time.  When I am distracted and my thoughts wander to other things, I find that I tend to feel a lot of anxiety and guilt about wasting time.   As a side effect of time being sucked up from being on line all of the time is that I not only feel guilt about being side tracked but I feel guilty about not having enough time with my relationships and family. 

     I have found on my sabbatical that I have been able to spend more time with my family, but also really focus on my time with them and not being distracted about other things.  I found that I had no desire to go on and check for updates and statuses but wanted to "tune out" the noise of the internet and focus more on the little things like taking walks.  
    
     I also discovered that it didn't bother me to have people ask about e-mail and why I haven't read any of it or responded.  Instead I felt that they were missing the bigger picture and noticed a reflection of my own distraction and insignificant worries.  

     I will definitely be spending less time on line and more time focusing on the important things in my life while I still have them.  

I found this blog with five positive effects of a digital sabbatical:
http://nathanrhale.com/benefits-of-taking-a-digital-sabbatical/