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Five Steps to a Sustainable Digital Detox

digital detox

I’m a big advocate for technology, leveraging it in the daily life. I love using it to become more educated, productive, creative and connected with the world. On the other hand, it’s a double-edged sword. The more you delve deeper into the online world, the more you lose being in the moment in the real (offline) world. I’ve read about and have friends who have gone on digital detoxes in order to stave off their online addiction and bring them back to the basics and details of the real world. It’s no easy act to juggle and most of the time requires a very conscious mindset of the online/offline war.

Personally, I know realistically that going on a complete no-Internet detox for a period of time is just not going to happen. Plus, it’s not sustainable in the long term even if I were to try. Throughout the past six months, I’ve been thinking about what little things I could practise to ‘detox’ in a more sustainable manner. And I think it’s working. I’m rather switched on during the week, particularly given I work at a tech company, it would hard not to be - and I’m okay with that. But on the weekend, it’s me and real world time. My weekends are much more relaxing than what they used to be. This is my version of a digital detox in a world consumed by all things tech.

Do you have similar wrangles with yourself and about becoming too much of an online addict? If you share the same sentiments, I strongly encourage you to be conscious of it and follow these five steps to detox realistically and live a healthier, stress-less life:

1. Unsubscribe and spam filter your inbox

In all seriousness, your email inbox is your digital enemy no.1. The number of times that I have woken up in the morning with an eagerness to check what possibly awesome stuff may have been delivered overnight? It’s an unhealthy addiction and most of the time, I’m disappointed and just spend the time going through and deleting crap.

Learn to be harsh with your inbox and unsubscribe from every single source that is not necessary and just producing clutter. Facebook notifications for mentions - do you really need an email for this every time it happens? Don’t you check Facebook regularly enough to catch such notifications? Unsubscribe. Twitter mentions? Unsubscribe. Linkedin messages? Unsubscribe. Newsletters to stores you no longer frequently shop at? Unsubscribe. The key here is to remove all unnecessary passive streams of information. If you really cared for Twitter, then you would be actively checking Twitter and catch everything there anyway. 

For those sources that I would classify as “semi-necessary” (i.e. they’re not important all the time, but sometimes are quite useful to receive) or if you simply have a problem with unsubscribing from things, then mark them all as spam. I’ve done this to mostly shops that I enjoy shopping from. Mark them as spam and whenever something new comes in, it will go directly into the spam folder, bypassing your Inbox. That way, if you don’t actively check your spam folder, which you wouldn’t normally anyway, then you won’t even notice them!

2. Switch off desktop and mobile alerts

This is something I started doing from around August last year and I’ve not looked back since. I’ve found myself to be more productive and less easily distracted at home and at work.

On my iPhone, I don’t receive alerts for anything apart from phone calls, SMS and two apps that I make an exception for: Footy Tips and eBay. The footy because I like to be reminded when a game is about to start in case I want to watch it on TV (and have forgotten to tip) and eBay, in case I am bidding/watching an item and don’t remember when it ends. But with social networks, I have a personal mandate to switch off ALL alerts. No exceptions there! Go to your phone’s settings and there should be a notifications section where you can turn it off for every app there.

Similary for home and work computers, I’ve made sure that there are no Growl or widget alert notifications that appear - ever. And most definitely no notifications for chat applications (that’s digital enemy no. 2).

limit time spent online

3. Consciously limit time spent online during your time off

If your day job normally involves use of a computer, it would be hard to consciously avoid using technology during that time. I’m the same, so I wouldn’t expect you to try and detox when it doesn’t make sense to logistically.

What you should try to do instead, is to avoid going online during the time of the week that is your time off. For me, that basically means from Friday night to Sunday night, I busy myself with other things and most of the time, either forget about my phone or don’t have it on or near me. If you find yourself spending minutes or hours checking Facebook, stop, ask yourself why and what else you could be doing!

4. Bring a proper camera with you instead of using your smartphone

When going out, it’s always handy to capture memories on your phone, via Instagram, Vscocam, Hipstamatic and the plethora of camera apps we have these days. But this tends to lead to people just being glued to their phone when really they should be enjoying the scene in front of them! Take the time to edit and share your photos when your home, not when you’re out having fun.

This is why I recommend bringing a proper camera with you instead. Whether it be a compact or DSLR, you’ll have more fun immersed in the moment with your camera, than with your phone. Seriously, try it and you’ll thank me for it. Your camera doesn’t have the ability for you to check your email and Twitter after all, plus your photos should turn out nicer too!

find an offline hobby gardening

5. Find an offline hobby

Whatever it is, it should be something that takes a decent chunk of time and doesn’t involve anything requiring the use of the Internet. Lately, I’ve become a real hobby gardener and now it’s become a weekly habit that I spend half a day on the weekend tending to my balcony garden. It’s a fun and interesting hobby that I like to partake in and gives me a real sense of the earth.

I also enjoy crochet and watching the football on weekends, both ‘offline’ hobbies that are real joys. So I encourage you to get out there and find something offline that you learn to love to spend your time on. And don’t forget to consciously leave your phone somewhere out of arm’s reach!

Let me know if you plan to start a digital detox too, I’d love to hear how you go!

For those who have gone on a detox, have you got any great tips that I may have missed?

Detox feature image credit

BLOG TECH #4 // HTML 101 - what’s it all about?

I think it’s time we start hitting the deeper stuff now in our Blog Tech series, don’t you think? So far, we’ve touched on colour design and blogging 101 basics so a primer on HTML before the end of the year would be perfect to set you off on a path to a geeky new year!

What is HTML and why is it used?

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HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language and it is the type of language used to tell a browser what to display on a web page. For example, the image above is a snippet of the HTML used on my blog right now. It specifically relates to the main navigation links near the top of my blog, just underneath my logo.

Different HTML elements put together make up a web page’s content. It’s also pretty easy to distinguish the HTML as it uses tags  like these < > with text inside. You’ll notice that many lines in the image above begins with <li> and ends with </li>; this style is pervasive across all HTML elements since it denotes the beginning and end of an element. In this example, it marks the start of a “list item”, with each one of my navigation links being a different “list item”. Make sense? Good!

Another thing to note is that having a decent grasp of HTML and how it relates to SEO (search engine optimisation) is important so you don’t make silly mistakes that would make your blog rank badly or low without you even knowing! But more on that another time, that deserves a post or two on its own!

So…what can I do with HTML?

These days you’ll hardly see HTML without some CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). CSS is the styling of the HTML and is the key ingredient that makes your blog look beautiful (more on CSS next week). But for now, you can think about HTML in terms of a photo that you’ve just taken - unedited and unprocessed, it’s the raw thing. Then the CSS comes along, processing and tweaking the photo… by the end once it’s done, you have a shiny prettified photo!

Every web page and site you see uses HTML for the content and guts of the page along with the CSS, which makes it look good and presentable.

On a high level, an HTML document is structured like this below:

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  • You begin and end with <html> and </html> and everything else goes in between these two tags.
  • There’s a head section that contains special stuff which does not visibly appear on the actual page. Think of it as more behind the scenes work. For example, if you’re using Google Analytics to track your blog’s traffic, then you would have included the snippet of Google Analytics code within this head section.
  • Everything you actually want displayed on your page needs to be included in the body section.
  • If you want to write notes to yourself on what something is or does that you don’t want displayed on your page, write it within these tags: <!- - Write stuff here - ->

Where can I learn more?

Keep following my Blog Tech series as I continue on with CSS next week. Not long after that, I’ll be getting even deeper with more specific HTML/CSS tutorials relevant to prettifying elements of your blog’s look and feel!

But if you’re a nerd at heart like I am and a go-getter, I would highly encourage you to learn HTML comprehensively to further your knowledge. Remember that the more you know the better and more you can do with your blog, so here are some of my recommendations to help you:

BLOG TECH #3 // Colour Design, Part 2

We’re back for Part 2 of colour design this week where we’ll get into some deeper and more interesting things about using colour! If you missed Part 1, I’d recommend you have a read of it first to make sure you understand the fundamentals if you’re not 100% confident.

In today’s post, we’re going to cover the following topics:

1. What’s RGB, CMYK, #FFFFFF and all those weird things?

2. How do I use the colour I want in my blog’s design or template? 

3. I like a colour used in a website, how do I find out its colour code?

So… here goes! I’m going to try and make this as simple as possible, feedback welcome just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you :)

1. What’s RGB, CMYK, #FFFFFF and all those weird things?

If you’ve ever played around with colour, particularly in programs such as Paint and Photoshop, then you’ve probably come across these acronyms. It can seem all rather confusing… what’s the point of all these strange symbols!? Here I’m going to demystify all of this for you!

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HSB = Hue Saturation Brightness

  • This simply defines the properties of the colour being used
  • Hue is the value of the colour
  • Saturation is the purity of the colour, basically how much it is being mixed with white
  • Brightness is the intensity of the colour mixed with black

RGB = Red Green Blue

  • Each colour of light (red, green and blue) in this model has a value between 0 and 255
  • 0 means there is no light and 255 means maximum light, which explains that if all three coloured lights are set to 0, then the colour would be black!
  • This colour model is used for to view the colour display on electronic machines such as your laptop!

HEX = hexadecimal colours

  • These are 6-digit codes that represent a particular colour on the web
  • It is denoted as #RRGGBB (recall RGB above), where a pair of digits represents the value of red, green or blue
  • This makes sense as to why #000000 is black and in hexadecimal, white is #FFFFFF (as FF in hexadecimal = 255 in RGB)
  • Here’s an article with more geeky details if you’re interested in learning more!

CMYK = Cyan Magenta Yellow Black

  • Each colour consists of ink based on a percentage between 0 and 100
  • If a colour is at 0% then it means no ink of that colour is used
  • This colour model is used in the printing industry, and RGB values are converted to CMYK in order for it to print

It’s really not as scary as it sounds, the easiest part in quickly understanding how it all works is to play around with the values the next time you’ve got Photoshop or something similar open. Open up the colour wheel, change some values and observe how it impacts the colour swatch!

2. How do I use the colour I want in my blog’s design or template? 

Now this is where your knowledge of hexadecimal colours come in handy! Granted you don’t need to have an extensive working knowledge to understand how to use colour in your blog’s design, however it’s really useful to recall the basics I’ve explained above. It saves a whole heap of googling time the next occasion you need to use black - you’ll remember it to be #000000!

Regardless of whichever blogging platform you are using, you’ll have the capability in changing the colours of your blog’s look and feel. It will most often be found in your blog’s settings, template or customisation section. 

Using Tumblr as an example which is what I use, I’d go to the customisation section and click on the colur of the component that I’d like to change. A colour picker pops up that allows me to choose the colour I want or I can simply change the HEX on the bottom to what I want it to be and the colour will immediately appear. It’s that easy!

So remember, this is all you need to do to change your blog’s colour in 2 easy steps:

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3. I like a colour used in a website, how do I find out its colour code?

This is an awesome trick for those moments where you’ve stumbled across some website and a colour they are using takes your fancy! It’s possible in whichever Internet browser you are using but I will demonstrate how to do it in Chrome as it is my preferred browser.

Step 1: right click on the section of the webpage that contains that colour you like and select Inspect Element from the drop down menu.

The inspector will then appear within your browser, don’t be daunted by all the foreign looking code!

Step 2: Look out for the Styles section that by default, appears in the far right hand column. In this column, any colours used in the stylesheet will appear with a small sample square of that colour with its HEX value next to it. If you don’t immediately see it, you can try scrolling further down this Styles section to look for it. Once you’ve found it, copy it and use it wherever you want!

Note: you cannot use this trick if the colour is coming from an uploaded image on the web page. You can only get the code from colours that have been used in the stylesheet (aka CSS) created for the webpage.

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Phew! Now that was a lot of information and tricks about colour to digest from one post! I hope you found it useful and easy to understand. This should set you on your way to improving your blog’s colour design. Good luck!

BLOG TECH #2 // Colour Design, Part 1

Today I want to zone in on something that may seem very obvious but is very powerful in making your blog that much better and more professional - colour design!

What I mean by colour design is essentially the look and feel of your blog in regards to its colour scheme. The shade and combination of colours you pick to use may seem petty at first, however they are truly a large part in creating that first impression and overall vibe of your blog’s character.

Many questions come to mind under colour design, such as…

1. What colours do I choose?

2. How many colours should I choose?

3. What can I use to help me assess what colour combinations match?

I’m sure that list of questions above is not all inclusive, but those are some of the key questions that I have previously stumbled upon myself. From my personal experiences and tools that I’ve used, here are my recommendations for the first set of questions:

1. What colours do I choose?

This is obviously up to you, but you should be aware that it depends on what type of aesthetic you are trying to create here. Are you going for a girly, cute theme or a minimalist slick theme? It really depends, however having a basic understanding of what certain colours make others feel is a good start. Summarising from a great Smashing Magazine article:

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Keep in mind that the shade of the colour itself is just as effective in changing the feel of your blog. Take for example, a baby blue shade will create a less strong impression than a bright or dark blue.

For Helarious, I knew I wanted a light shade of blue in order to keep with the more minimalist feel of the blog, whilst also providing a soft but colourful tone. I decided to pair this with a brighter and deeper pink to contrast but also keep with the subtle cheerfulness of my design.

2. How many colours should I choose?

There’s no strict rule you should follow in determing how many colours to have, although there are certainly some good things to remember:

  • Don’t choose too many colours - you don’t want it to look like a rainbow just threw up
  • Choosing complementary colours (colours opposite each other on the colour wheel) creates a more energetic feel
  • Balancing a bright colour with a darker colour helps harmonise the overall effect and provides nice highlighting and contrasts

Overall, I would suggest having a colour set between or 3 to 5 colours. Here at Helarious, I have a colour design of 5 shades. It’s nice once you’ve settled on what you think you want, to put the selected colours together in this way just to verify that you do like the overall effect:

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3. What can I use to help me assess what colour combinations match?

An easy way is to simply play around with the colour palette within your typical graphic and illustration programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop and Gimp. There are also several amazing websites out there available for you to use that can be immensely useful in helping you create the palette you want!

I would highly recommend the following useful websites:

If you have any other useful website or app, please do share!

Stay tuned for Part 2 where I’ll delve deeper into using and understanding the colour codes to make your blog look pretty, including:

  • How do I use the colour I want in my blog’s design or template? 
  • What’s RGB, CMYK and #ffffff etc?
  • I like a colour used in a website, how do I find out its colour code?