As a freelance content creator, I spend at least six hours a day — oftentimes more — writing online articles, managing my Substack blog, or recording podcasts. That’s a lot of time sitting at my desk while staring at a computer screen!
But this really only scratches the surface of my total weekly screen time, because I also maintain a presence on multiple social media platforms in order to promote my work. I’m constantly checking feeds to see if my posts and links are getting “engagement” — likes, reposts, comments, and such. All this digital “work” can be exhausting!
One of my resolutions for 2025 is to begin practicing a digital sabbath — setting aside Sunday as an opportunity to unplug as much as possible from screens and devices, and I plan to set myself up for success. One reason why most of our New Year’s resolutions fail is because we don’t develop plans to make them sustainable. If I’m going to ditch screen time on Sundays, I’ll need to find something restful to do instead. Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with.
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Enjoy the outdoors
In my hometown on the north shore of Long Island, I’m blessed to live only a brisk 10-minute walk from the waterfront — a delightful little beach with a boardwalk and a splendid view of the skyline of New Rochelle right across the Long Island Sound. What better day than Sunday to get out and immerse myself in the soothing rhythm of the waves breaking on the shore and watch the ospreys hunt for food in the bay?
Read a good book
I’ve always been a voracious reader. An afternoon spent with a stack of books is my kind of thing. But nowadays, I’m usually reading for research — I always have at least a couple of articles in the works at any given time. As my plate of freelance writing and podcasting commitments has filled, I’ve found less and less time for pleasure reading. A Sunday without digital distractions would be the perfect opportunity to rejuvenate my imagination and get lost in a fun novel!
Play board games
My brother still lives close by and he visits almost every weekend to hang out. I’ve been searching for ways we can spend quality time together that don’t involve screens. Ever since we were kids, we’ve both loved board games. These days there are a plethora of new games to choose from. Even a classic like the immersive strategy game Axis and Allies could fill up an entire afternoon! We also both started collecting trading cards like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon, providing even more options for our “table-top” gaming.
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Create art
As a kid, I loved art class, especially drawing. I often doodled in my notebook during recess! But for some reason, I fell out of this artistic hobby as an adult. Recently, I’ve been drawn (pun intended) to pick up visual art again. I’ve begun assembling supplies and a collection of how-to-draw books. Drawing relaxes my mind and stretches my creative muscles in a way that’s totally different from the writing skills that I use on a daily basis.
Journaling
I’m an inconsistent journal-writer. With all my writing commitments, I often forget to budget time for daily entries. However, Sunday journaling is a practice I could adopt to reflect on the achievements and anxieties of the past week. Journal entries are a low-stress kind of “freewriting” and don’t need to be polished like online articles. I just jot down whatever comes to mind. These unfiltered insights may surprise me!
The meaning of Sabbath rest
Human beings are simply not equipped to spend most of their days staring at glowing screens. Yet we spend countless hours every week scrolling through a barrage of random posts and videos on our phones or managing an avalanche of documents and spreadsheets on our computers. This can’t be good for us! We have become so absorbed in our devices that we’ve forgotten how to spend quality time unplugged from the digital world. We’ve forgotten how to truly rest, which is what the Sabbath Day was established for in the first place.
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Many Catholics seem to envision the Sabbath observance as simply fulfilling their Sunday Mass obligation, spending 45 minutes or an hour in a church pew. But the biblical idea of the Sabbath goes all the way back to the beginning of the book of Genesis when the Lord rested after the six days of creation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it this way: “God’s action is the model for human action. If God ‘rested and was refreshed’ on the seventh day, man too ought to ‘rest’” (CCC 2172). Taking a day off to rest our minds and bodies from the virtual world can help us reorient our priorities back towards the people and places we love, which are gifts bestowed on us by the God who made all things.
