At the beginning of the year I set a goal for myself to have one hour of unplugged time each evening to enjoy offline and tech-free activities. This goal specifically was meant to foster more one-on-one time with my then fiancé (now husband!!), and has been fairly conducive to doing that.

In fact, without even trying I have been spending less and less time on my blogs and online businesses, and more and more time enjoying our home with him.

We have this nice big house that we should be enjoying, and some amazing friends and of course each other, and YOLO.

There are a surprising amount of activities you can do, completely technology free. Here are a few of my favorites that I’ve been doing since the beginning of the year, and the best part is: they’re free!

Cook Dinner Together

My husband and I rarely made dinner at all, and we still don’t cook every night, but cooking together is a great way to connect.

You can chat about your respective days in between steps on the recipe, and it’s truly teamwork. Plus, the end product is one that you can enjoy together, which is wonderful.

J likes to chop, and it’s my personal least favorite part of cooking, so he chops, I measure and stir and season. It works out really well and we connect.

As a huge bonus, cooking together saves money rather than eating out. Eating out is also something you can do when you are unplugged but it doesn’t foster the same connection, nor does it come at a low price.

Play a Sport or Get Active

We have bikes, so we like to get out and use those on the cooler, drier days. We usually find a park or a trail that we haven’t explored before and check it out.  If biking isn’t your thing, it’s also super fun to grab some street hockey sticks and just mess around with those at our local sports field, or kick a soccer ball.

Hiking, taking the dog for a walk, playing badminton in the backyard: all of these things are great ways to spend down time unplugged.

Grab a group of friends and play some ultimate frisbee. Part of the fun is figuring out a sport, and the other part of the fun is actually playing it. This may need a Google search but besides that, you shouldn’t need any technology at all for this.

Dream storm!

Dream storming is one of my favorite activities. There is something so exciting about dreaming up your future and what it will look like, and all it requires is your imagination and knowing what you want out of life. You don’t need a computer or TV to dream storm.

Grab a chalkboard, a poster board, or even a pin board and a few magazines. Brainstorm what it is that you want to accomplish in your life and how you want to get there. Break your dreams down by an ideal timeline; do you want to go to Asia in 1 year, or within the next 5? Be specific.

No dream is too big or audacious to include! Then, when you are done, pin it somewhere where you can see it. This is so much fun (it’s like imagining what it would be like to win the lottery) and it also may help you achieve those goals. After all, visualization is a very valuable tool.

Make a Budget, Review Your Budget or Review Your Spending

Not everybody finds this as fun and exciting as I do, but whether you find it fun it’s an important thing to do. If you don’t already have a budget, make one! If you already have one, review it for holes or for opportunities.

Doing this will help you reach your financial goals much more quickly and may give you the motivation to change your spending habits here and there.

This may be a bit of a cheat as it likely requires a spreadsheet, but you shouldn’t need much else for this.

 

The idea of being unplugged for a period of time each day is not a hugely popular one but I think it’s important to get away from everything and just.. be!