For those who work in the online space, whether a social media manager, a blogger, or just someone whose passion project revolves around their laptop, it can be difficult to find the balance between hard-working and over-working. Luckily, there are a few telltale signs that you’re in dire need of switching off your phone, closing your laptop, and embarking on a digital detox. Here are three of the best:

You’re not being productive

Even if your job is working on social media, you don’t need to be on it every second of the day, but often we end up doing just that. You post a behind-the-scenes photograph on Instagram of your brand, and then you add in hashtags to the comments, and just when you’re about to go get started on something else, you receive a message from a bot that’s just meaningless emojis, but you’d better throw it a heart anyway, and then there’s a little red notification mark on your Facebook, so you’d better check that out, and that funny dog meme pops up that you’ve been meaning to tag your friend in so you quickly hop on over and do that. Pretty soon you’ve gone down a social media rabbit hole and although you feel like you’ve been busy all day, you actually haven’t. If you find your productivity levels going down and down, it might be time to evaluate how much time you spend on social media.

You haven’t seen your friends in a while

And when you last did, you spent all evening on your phone. It’s so easy to opt for a cosy night at home writing for your blog, or even watching Netflix or online shopping, but if you feel like you haven’t seen your friends in a while and you keep cancelling then your technology usage might be part of the problem. Imagine for a second that you’ve moved into a new house and you haven’t had a chance to hook up your internet or TV yet, and you’ve packed your phone in a box that you can’t find. Is there more chance of you agreeing to head out to dinner or the cinema or for a couple of drinks with friends when there’s nothing else in the house to entertain you? This is a sad truth for many of us, so every so often consider saying no to your digital fix and yes to real life interaction.

You’re not sleeping

One of the telltale signs of too much media consumption is when your sleep starts to become affected. We’re all aware that sleeping with our phones so close to our bed can have a detrimental effect on our sleeping pattern yet we all do it anyway, whether that’s because we need the alarm to wake up or because we’re scrolling through Twitter at 2am. If your sleep hasn’t been great recently and you’re tossing and turning consistently, then you may need to consider that your technology is the thing keeping you up at night.

When do you know it’s time for a digital detox??

Photo: Jenna Day