Historically Digital Wellbeing has been a duty of care.  However, with the increase in digital demands in the last few years along with Right to Disconnect legislation, it is becoming a more strategic component.  When also considering work design, it introduces a real opportunity to help increase staff performance, reduce staff turnover, and improve their wellbeing.

Awareness

Research has shown that overall working hours have gone up by 20% since March 2020 with average output reducing by 18%[1].  A key driver for this is increased task switching (multi-tasking), constant task switching is exhausting, hence why we feel like we’ve got a lot done when we haven’t necessarily worked effectively.  For example according to research[2];

• On average we receive 100 emails / day
• 70% of which we check within 6 seconds
• It takes a minimum of 70 seconds to get back to the task in hand

That means we spend a minimum of 82 minutes / day refocussing after checking emails.  20% of our working time, just ref-focussing (not writing) emails.

Use the tools built into your phone to get an understanding of how you are using your devices. And remember not all tech is equal, think it as you would a food diet.  What are your high sugar content apps you want to use less?

If you are an Android user, Google has a good set of resource on Digital Wellbeing; https://wellbeing.google/.   It has lots of advice and practical tips for configuring Android devices so they’re most helpful to you.  Apple also has a similar resource for those of you using iPhone / iPad; https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT208982.