- Do a digital detox
- Complete a simple time audit
- Celebrate Women’s History Month
YOU DO YOU
Unplug. Destress. Reset.
Last Friday, people around the world celebrated the Global Day of Unplugging. They committed to stepping away from their devices and leaning into intentional, focused, in-person activities.
Why disconnect from the magic of digital convenience?
Being chronically glued to devices can cause more than just tech neck; it can also cause technostress.
The American Psychological Association defines technostress as a “form of occupational stress that is associated with information and communication technologies such as the Internet, mobile devices, and social media.”
It’s a relatively new concept in the psychological world but has been associated with serious negative effects on productivity, job satisfaction, and job strain.
Technostress: The numbers
Source: Deloitte’s 2023 connected consumer survey
- 41% of connected consumers dislike how much effort they put into managing their technology and devices, for example by fixing security issues, troubleshooting bugs, and updating software.
- 28% feel overwhelmed by the quantity of devices and digital subscriptions they use.
- 38% struggle to limit their screen time.
- 39% worry about how technology use may affect their well-being.
Technostress produces many of the same symptoms as old-fashioned stress, and often overlaps with it.
- Headaches
- Back pain
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Interrupted or inadequate sleep
- Difficulty concentrating
- Restlessness
Technostress: The relief
Technostress is not a diagnosable medical condition, and different people feel it in different ways depending on their lifestyles, tech usage, and other individual factors.
There’s no one cure or remedy that works for all people, but many people have found relief in the following things:
A digital detox.
A digital detox involves mindfully and responsibly separating yourself from technology and devices for a set period of time. Detoxes can be any length and centered around many different strategies, including:
- A personal value, goal, or mindset that requires cutting back on technology.
- Mindfulness training to reduce dependency on external stimulation.
- Organized digital detox events or training programs.
Strategic and specific self regulation.
Just wanting to spend less time in the digital realm doesn’t always result in spending less time there. Come up with specific tactics you’ll use to meet your goals.
Here are a few examples:
- Create a list of events you want to be fully present for, such as family dinner or a daily reading time. Designate them as “set-aside” events that you always come to without devices.
- Turn off notifications when you want to be the most focused, present, or engaged.
- Cap and self monitor the maximum number of hours you would like to spend on each digital activity you engage in.
- Set aside specific time slots as the only times you engage in certain digital activities. For example, 4 PM – 6 PM may be your social media window and 8 PM – 9 PM your streaming window.
- Identify the digital activities most challenging to your willpower, and take a top-down approach to limiting your usage. For example, you might turn off your work computer, log out of certain social media accounts, or hand your phone over to a family member or roommate.
Regular digital “time outs.”
Time outs, like detoxes, are deliberate breaks from technology and devices. Unlike detoxes, they tend to be shorter, more frequent, and more habitual.
For example, you might…
- Take at least three 10-minute screen breaks throughout each work day.
- Take tech breaks every night after 9 PM.
- Unplug one day a week, as Tiffany Shlain recommends in 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week.
TOGETHER WITH CLICKUP
Quit Wasting Time In Meetings
Meetings should be productive and collaborative.
But without a plan, that’s not always the case.
Whether it’s a homeroom PTA meeting, a general staff meeting, or an executive board meeting, save effort and time for all attendees using the Agenda Template.
It’s designed to help you make the most of your meetings by giving you everything you need to:
- Outline topics, objectives, and goals
- Break down tasks and action items
- Assign responsibilities between teams members
Keep everyone on the same page and accountable for their work, so that every meeting is successful and productive.
👉 Get the free Agenda template today.
GET MORE SH*T DONE
Time audits: A how-to
Unlike a tax audit, a time audit doesn’t have to be torturously complex to identify inefficiency and waste hidden in your schedule.
Here’s how to run a simple 2-week time audit:
Create your audit spreadsheet
- Open up a new spreadsheet.
- Label the first column “days” and number the cells below from 1 – 14.
- Label the next five columns as follows:
- Meeting Hours
- Task Hours
- Health and Wellness Hours
- Personal Hours
- Daily Reflection
- Fill each cell under daily reflection with the following prompts:
- Agree or disagree: Today’s meetings made the best use of my time. Explain your answer.
- Yes or no: I finished all my priority tasks today. Explain why or why not.
- Agree or disagree: I dedicated enough time to my health and wellness today. Explain your answer.
- I would describe the personal time I had today as “too much,” “just enough,” or “not enough.” Explain your choice.
- Fill in the spreadsheet every day for the next two weeks.
- Use the SUM function to calculate the total hours you spent on each category.
- Divide each column’s totals by 336—the hours in 2 weeks.
- Multiply those numbers by 100 to get the percentages.
- Reflect on your percentages.
- Is this how you imagined you spend your time?
- Rank each of the time expenditure categories—meetings, tasks, health and wellness, personal—in order of importance to you.
- Do the percentages complement or counteract those priorities? For example, if you put “personal time” at the top of your list, but it’s also what you spend the least amount of time on, then you might need to work on a full scheduling overhaul.
- Cross reference your percentages and your reflection answers.
- Consider the proportion of time spent on each category against the corresponding reflection answers. If you rarely said that your daily meetings made the best use of your time, and they also take up a big percentage of your time, then you might need to shake some meetings off your schedule.
TOGETHER WITH BONUSLY
Managers: Your Secret Weapon for a High-Performing Culture
We used Bonusly at the last company I worked, and everyone LOVED it.
How it works: You have a set amount of points each month (in my case it was 100 pts) that you can award to teammates along with a message.
What I personally loved about Bonusly:
- Your points don’t roll over so it encourages you to use them before they expire; you celebrate your team’s wins, big and small
- The feed is public so everyone (including C-suite) can see how awesome you are
- Points can be redeemed for rewards (I always redeemed mine for cash and bought flights to Cabo once!)
- Set up is a breeze & easily scalable; our company grew to 1,000+ employees, and the plans were easy to switch as we grew.
Have more questions? Feel free to reply to this email or, better yet, set up a quick free demo here.
— Joanna (Co-Founder of The Assist)
WATERCOOLER TALK
March is Women’s History Month
Celebrate with a month of her-story lessons. Learn about a different badass “her” from history each day.
March 1 – Emma Beatrice Tenayuca (A labor organizer, civil rights activist, and educator.)
March 2 – Empress Theodora (Considered one of the most influential empresses of the Byzantine Empire.)
March 3 – Julia Margaret Cameron (An artist and photographer who challenged gender norms.)
March 4 – Wilma Mankiller (First woman Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.)
March 5 – Cynthia Longfield (Madam Dragonfly) (Entomologist who wrote the book on dragonflies.)
March 6 – Margaret Chung (First female Chinese American physician.)
March 7 – Bessie Coleman (Record-breaking early pioneer in aviation.)
March 8 – Susie King Taylor (First African American nurse.)
March 9 – Patsy Takemoto Mink (First Woman of Color in Congress)
March 10 – Hetty Green (The Witch of Wall Street) (Formerly the richest woman in America.)
March 11 – Bridget Bond (nee McMenamin) (Irish civil rights leader.)
March 12 – Louise Arner Boyd (The first woman leading expeditions to the Arctic.)
March 13 – Ella Fitzgerald (An influential female musician.)
March 14 – Lillian Moller Gilbreth (An early female inventor and engineer.)
March 15 – ‘Doctress’ Rebecca Crumpler (First Black woman to get her medical degree in the U.S.)
March 16 – Annie Smith Peck (A trailblazing mountaineer and suffragist.)
March 17 – Lucy Hicks Anderson (An early transgender pioneer and advocate.)
March 18 – Ethel Waters (Blues singer and LGBTQ+ activist.)
March 19 – Gloria Hollister (Research scientist behind early oceanic exploration.)
March 20 – Hatshepsut (Egyptian pharaoh.)
March 21 – Mary Golda Ross (First woman Native American aerospace engineer.)
March 22 – Jeannette Rankin (First woman in the U.S. Congress.)
March 23 – Brownie Wise (A successful business woman in the 1950s.)
March 24 – Zitkála-Šá/Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Indigenous rights activist.)
March 25 – Ynés Mexía (Environmentalist and prolific botanist.)
March 26 – Belva Lockwood (Early female U.S. presidential candidate.)
March 27 – Jeanne de Clisson (A lady pirate known as the Lioness of Brittany.)
March 28 – Aleen Isabel Cust (A groundbreaker for women in veterinary surgery.)
March 29 – Queen Nzinga (African queen who protected her people from slavers.)
March 30 – Patria, Minerva and María Teresa Mirabal (Part of the resistance against a dictator in the Dominican Republic.)
March 31 – Susan Ahn Cuddy (First woman gunnery officer and first Asian American woman in the Navy.)
STAFF PICKS
Stuff we’re loving this week
😍 We’re all about little joys when it comes to our workspace. Upgrade your desk with a cute ergonomic mouse pad.
📚 Get your hands on this perfect coffee table book to celebrate Women’s History Month — Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World.
👗 We’re loving this Black Body-Con Maxi from SKIMS. It comes in regular and plus sizes, plus it’s 38% off right now.
📄 Get our free “Employee Favorite Things” Template to make gifting and team building planning a breeze by getting to know your team’s preferences.
BEFORE YOU GO
Riddle Me This
What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?
⭐ Answer here.
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