I really enjoyed reading @basilesamel’s post about going offline intentionally to help with productivity, mental well-being, higher order musing and finding balance. There’s a dreamy quality to it, and I love it.

What a great reminder, just as I’m thinking about injecting joy and play into my work this month. I should, too, work offline every so often. The offline aspect of indie making and its associated benefits is something that’s not been talked about much in the chat circles as so much of our work revolves around the computer/phone screen (and increasingly not just indie making but everyone’s job too), yet so valuable and helpful that it should really be talked about more instead. 

On days when I don’t have to open up my laptop, I feel great. My eyes don’t tire as much; there’s less brain fog and distraction; more clarity and daydreaming; a deeper sensory appreciation of the tangibility of work done compared to working in the abstract and formless digital. Basically, more joy. But so far, doing work offline had never been intentional, just happenstance and based on the demands of the day, or the context of the work, for instance, being offline when planning and visioning. Incidentally, thinking back to last month, I had always started the first hour of my work day offline - reading a new book - and that never failed to make me feel joyful and centered in a calm and quiet way. So it seems, having an intentional and deliberate practice for offline work would definitely be helpful in my “spark joy in work” experiment this month. How can I incorporate deliberate offline work in my micro-habit system?

Perhaps…

• Setting dedicated offline time every day/week/month, say an offline day every week, or offline week every few weeks
• Being creative with using offline tools to help me do some of the tasks that I often do online/digitally instead
• Talking to a friend face-to-face as a way to work, think, brainstorm

What else can I do? Any ideas?