If you were to ask me to describe my relationship with technology in one word, it would be complicated. In this day and age, with technology being so easily accessible and versatile, it's hard not to have a complicated relationship with it.
On daily basis, I find myself using many forms of technology (as I think most of us do). On a productive note, I use laptops and iPads every single day for my job as well as my schoolwork. I think keeping these types of tasks separate from my phone has helped me to be more productive, because I know that when I sit down at my laptop or to take notes on my iPad that I don't really have anything to do on those two devices other than schoolwork. The disruptions in productivity don't tend to come from any apps or websites on those devices - but they do from my phone. Often if I hit a mental block or get bored, the problem comes from when my phone is sitting next to me and I pick it up to take a break from whatever I'm working on and then don't put it down for much too long. Because I wouldn't call myself tech-savvy by any means, the only strategy I've found to get around this is to put my phone in another room, and set a time for when I allow myself to go take a break. What I've found by doing this, is that I often get into a swing of working and don't end up needing to go get my phone until after I'm done whatever task I was working on. Other times, when the time is up if I still feel like I have a mental block and can't work effectively, I take it as a sign that I do genuinely need a break and I allow myself to take it.
As technology has grown and become a bigger part of society and my life, I struggled at first to create those healthy boundaries with technology. When I was younger, we didn't have internet at our house but all of my friends did, which I found really hard to navigate because all I wanted was to stay connected to them. When we did get internet, I found that I was constantly using it and had little to no boundaries at all for using any form of technology. That carried on for a bit when I moved out and started university. However, university was quite a big culture shock and I learned that I would have to manage my time much better. That is where my strategies started to come into play, which I mostly still use to this day. The biggest thing I've learned is to just give myself grace when I need breaks from the busy-ness of life, but also to be aware of how I'm spending my time.
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