Is It Time to Disconnect?

Why and How to Do More Work Offline

Last weekend I had an unfortunate experience with a beloved piece of technology. Getting home after a day out with the fam and not finding my phone anywhere, and decided to open FindMy. I located it…in the middle of a busy Miami highway (still working surprisingly). I’d had one of those dad moments of putting things on top of the car and forgetting it was up there. Determined to get it back, we drove back to the highway and, after a few tries, I finally found it, completely obliterated.

I wouldn’t consider myself addicted to my phone, but the following Sunday, I found myself looking for it constantly, imagining notifications, or reaching for it to take a picture. I hadn’t realized how often I relied on this small, magical machine for just about everything.

Later that day, my wife and I took our daughter to a class at a local park and, without a phone, I had an hour to kill.

That hour made me completely rethink my understanding of connectivity, specifically to the internet.

In one hour, I had deep conversations (thanks, Apple Watch) with multiple family members, enjoyed the sunshine, and made surprising progress on The Manifest Playbook (with no internet!)

This made me think: should we intentionally disconnect more often?