Six months ago, I enrolled in an intensive 6-month Digital Wellbeing certification program. I was warned that it would consume 6-hours a week of my already busy schedule as a Workplace Wellbeing Consultant and Coach. A lifelong learner, I decided to embrace the challenge. Here’s why and just a little bit of what I learned.
What is Digital Wellbeing?
Don’t worry – I didn’t know either (maybe this is one of the reasons I decided to do the course.) Digital Wellbeing is a term used to describe the impact of technologies and digital services on our mental, physical, social, and emotional health. So, Coaching and Consulting in this area focus on helping digital users better manage the time they spend on devices.
In the workplace, this translates to managing technology so that it promotes healthy use and proactively assists employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It’s not about disconnecting, but thinking about technology comprehensively with regards to its impact on our lives.
Why does it matter?
Digital wellbeing enables employees to be more engaged and productive, while leading healthier lives during and outside of work. Adopting digital wellbeing practices can improve focus, exhaustion, stress, and burnout while preventing overuse, anxiety and even dependency.
We all know today that our physical and mental wellbeing depend on a balance between online and unplugged time. As we approach a hybrid future — at work and at home — it’s more important than ever to find our digital balance, which is unique to each and every one of us.
In the workplace, there is a growing recognition that unmanaged use of technology can undermine performance, productivity, and wellbeing. Excessive or indiscriminate use of digital technology impacts quantity and quality of sleep, contributes to a sedentary lifestyle and obesity.
Digital technology drives an ‘always on’ culture where a significant amount of employee time is spent checking devices and managing emails — both of which can have adverse effects on wellbeing and performance.
There is evidence that digital technology blurs home-work boundaries, with research showing that 61% of managers felt the technology made it difficult to switch off from work.
As remote work gains in popularity and employees spend less time in physical offices, people are challenged with finding a healthy tech-life balance along with their work-life balance. Faced with an expanding evidence base, it’s time for businesses to take a lead on addressing digital overload.
How can Consulting and/or Coaching help?
Digital wellness is not just about “disconnecting” or “detoxing”. It’s a comprehensive way for everyone — from the top down — to recalibrate their relationships with the technology. It’s about ensuring that we realize its benefits without compromising our health and wellbeing.
As a consultant, I support organizations in raising awareness and understanding in order to establish ground rules to ensure a productive, healthy, and happy workforce. Co-creating a Digital Wellness Policy is essential to strike a balance that protects employees’ health and wellbeing, limits the intrusion of work into personal lives but also guards against the reduction in performance and productivity for the business.
Maintaining a solid work-life balance is essential to good employee health. This balance becomes even more important in a world with constant communication. As a coach, I support all employees, in groups or individually, to understand and change behaviors to create a workplace environment that is good for the personal digital wellbeing that works for the business too.
Now what ?
Start by downloading my 10 Digital Wellbeing Tips for yourself and share with your colleagues, family, and friends. Then, contact me so we can plan how we can recalibrate your organizations Digital Wellbeing from the top down!
Consciously Digital is an International Coaching Federation (ICF) approved certification that has been in the digital wellbeing sector with top Fortune 100 companies since 2015. To learn more about the certification, contact me.
