Musings on a screen-free day

A fellow member of the tildes.net community posted a thread about taking a screen free day, and after trying one I wanted to comment with my thoughts on it. Rapidly I realised that the comment was becoming far longer than the average, so I took the opportunity to stick it onto my blog instead. I took a screenless day on 12th September, and it was incredibly restorative. I decided that it was easier to have zero screens than to permit just one or a specific purpose, so there was no digital input for me at all. I came away eager for more time away from my phone, though not necessarily all screens all together. One of the main takeaways from the day were how much more time I felt like I had. To be able to indulge in hobbies for long stretches and to cook a complex meal from scratch feels impossible on a normal day. But there was time to spare, and it felt so fulfilling to use it for things that made my brain work, rather than things that do the work for me. I wasn't filling every second…