6 healthy Internet habits for peace of mind

Now that we're working from home more than ever, it's no surprise that the boundaries between work and play have become blurred. It's all too easy to slide between the two – either browsing aimlessly when we're supposed to be productive or getting pulled into replying to emails when it's time to knock off. A helpful tip is to keep work content on work laptops and phones, and personal content on personal devices. If you don't have the luxury of multiple devices, then keep work and play in separate windows or even browsers.

Setting boundaries is a good thing whether you're online or offline. Just as you would keep toxic friends at arm's length, declutter your digital space of annoying push notifications and advertisements that don't serve you well. Take the time to go into your smartphone settings to disable all but the most essential notifications so you're not distracted by every Instagram update or new e-commerce sale. The same goes for your desktop, where adblocker extensions come in really handy.

Some of us are great at multi-tasking, but for the rest of us, having a million browser tabs open is nothing short of anxiety-inducing. It might be necessary for the work that you do, but there are still ways to keep your tabs to a minimum, or at least, organised. Check out browser extensions like OneTab, which keeps all the links you need in a list in just a single tab, or Tab Snooze, which allows you to close tabs for a set period of time (without losing them entirely) while you focus on important work. It's like a tech-savvy Marie Kondo. 

Make the Internet your happy place by consciously following sites and accounts that make you feel good. You can even go a step further by categorising content types by platform. Access news by going directly to websites (instead of having depressing content showing up randomly on your feed), use Facebook and Instagram strictly for keeping up with friends and inspirational content, and YouTube for recipe videos or whatever you deem fit for that platform. Of course, it's never going to be perfect – but having a plan will help prevent an Internet spiral and get you to log off when you need to.

The Internet is not all bad, and there a ton of interesting and inspiring communities that you can join online. These could be discussion forums, Slack groups, online communities and more, that focuses on a beloved topic or hobby. For marginalised communities, these could be safe spaces for you to express yourself and find some solidarity with people around the world in similar circumstances. Engaging in these groups is the opposite of mindless scrolling – it could feed your soul.

Work in 'no Internet' time blocks into your day and replace these with mindful activities. We recommend an hour or so first thing in the morning, or last thing at night. Go through your morning routine without touching your phone, or snuggle down with a book right before going to bed. When you do that, you'll be surprised how much time browsing the Internet has been taking up, and how much more you can accomplish instead. If you need some ideas, here are the best parks in the neighbourhood you can visit, books you can catch up on, and calming yoga classes you can attend online. We even have a beginner's guide to meditation.