#4 Laura Willis - How to prevent digital burnout

The Andy Ramage Podcast

Do you experience a constant digital tug towards your technology? Do you check your emails way more than is necessary? Do you double screen by flicking through your phone whilst watching TV? Have you forgotten what it's like to be bored or to simply switch off?

If so you might be heading towards digital burnout and today's guest experienced exactly that. After suffering a breakdown due to inbox-anxiety, Laura Willis had to learn the art of managing her devices to leverage their power while avoiding the overload.

I first met Laura when she was delivering a talk on how to better manage technology to improve digital well-being.

During the talk, which we cover in this episode, she presented a slide that made me so sad.

The slide was a representation of how our "free time” has developed over the last 13 years.

Free time is those moments in life when you can just do what you wish.

Over the last 13 years, our work time and free time has not really changed. But what we do with our free time has altered dramatically as you will discover during this episode. But I warn you in advance this stat will make your heart sink. Equally, as it did for me, it might inspire you to transform your relationship with your tech.

After a moment of enlightenment during a meditation, Laura experienced a vision of her holding a phone that she could not escape, so she set out on a mission to transform her relationship with her tech.

This led to the creation of “Shine Offline”, whose aim is to “Improve employee focus, collaboration, wellbeing and work-life balance in an ‘always on’ world”.

You will LOVE this conversation, Laura has so much timely wisdom to offer and a great story to share.

Alright, let’s do this.