I’ve booked 5 nights in a hotel at the beach, deleted all social media and email apps from my devices, and will avoid the internet as much as I can (my aim is to use it only for navigation as I go exploring the highlights of the local region I researched before I left).

As a 37-year-old person, I remember what the world was like before the internet. It sometimes blows my mind that my generation is the last who will.

And, as an introvert, I find being constantly connected tiring, draining, and invasive at times. Being someone who runs an online business, I have good ‘digital hygiene’ – that is, I make sure that work doesn’t infect my life by putting boundaries around my work hours – and my ensuring that all of my notifications are always turned off! I also avoid getting online on Sundays.

But sometimes, I need to go one step further and turn it all off for more than a day. That is what a digital sabbatical is.

Constantly being online, checking, looking and communicating can be unhealthy so it is important to recognise when it is time to take a break from the online world to give your mind space and rest. The hardest part of this is remembering that what you leave will still be there when you get back!

So, if you struggle at times to keep yourself in check, this episode can help you work out how and why to have a digital sabbatical.

This is a REDUX – a replay of an old episode, with a new intro. If you haven’t listened to it before – or, indeed, if you have but haven’t put this into practice yourself – I hope this episode will inspire you to schedule your own digital sabbatical into your year.