Digital Feierabend

Feierabend: pronounced like “Fire-a-bent”

Feierabend is a German word that roughly translates to “Enjoy the evening.” Americans might say “Quitting Time!” but it is more distinct than that. In Germany it means the practice of setting a clear end to the day’s work, at a set time, usually around 5 or 6 pm, Feierabend means you fully set work aside for the evening (and maybe go have a beer.) Digital Feierabend is a practice I’ve invented for myself that means—set a clear time when you close your laptop, put down your phone for the rest of the evening, and go analog. Doing a digital Feierabend is powerful and worth trying for yourself— it is a bit like sex or psychedelics, or falling in love - you have to experience to get it.

I think every week I see some article somewhere about how smart phones are bad. However, the recommendations these articles share are real weak. They might suggest something like “try to eat a meal with your phone in your hand”. Or “Try to go 10 minutes without looking at your phone. Think about how that made you feel.” Dude. We can do better than that. If you don’t really fully experience the freedom and clarity of what it is like to go for a serious amount of time without being on the internet you can’t say you even really know what it is you’re talking about.

Most of the articles about taking little baby sips of stepping away from your phone are kind of like saying “Are you trying to lose weight? Only eat McDonalds once a day partner! Trying to get in shape, try watching tv standing up instead of sit down. Want to smoke less? Try just smoking half your cigarette - isn’t that better? “

Really that’s just giving yourself permission to wallow in a cycle of addiction, while thinking your doing something. Free yourself!

Which brings me back to the practice of doing a Digital Feierabend, I beleiveit is anidea that is within reach right now for everybody. (If you want to skip the fun of leanring a German word you can think of it as simply setting a digital curfew) Set a specific time hour where you get off all your internet screens, all together. Period. Done for the day. (To calirfy—I mean internet connected screens; phones, laptops etc. I think watching shows is something differnt.) And like going for a walk or a jog it is totally adjustable to meet you wherever you are at, you can set the time for your digital curfew to be whenever you want it to be.

The idea for this is just a modern updated of the German concept of Feierabend. In Germany feierabend means that at a certain hour you stop work for the day, simple, done. To persist in emailing, or working or even talkingto other people about work after 5 or 6 pm is seen as a bit rude and uncivilised. Over work and the grind is not respected in the unhealthy way it is in America. This practice gives the end of work, and the evening a clear and strong demarcation.

For the past week I have been trying out a digital feierabend. I am to be honest still finding the exact right time of day to make the switch. You could make it whenever. I have settled on 7 pm for myself, because I wake up at 7 am so I figure 12 hours is plenty of my life to spend looking at the internet each day. (Hell, it’s still far to much)

A 7 p.m. digital Feierabend gives me plenty of time to get all my work down during the work day, and then still have a few hours for reading the news, checking what’s going on with social media, and taking care of sundry browsing, surfing, whatever. Then at 7 pm sharp I shut down my computer and I park my phone and I spend the rest of the evening doing whatever I want — I just stay off my phone. If I need to look something up, or play music on my phone or whatever, I just do— the point isn’t to create logistical rules it’s really just about the spirit of the Feierabend.

It’s been interesting. I have found way more time to read actual books. I’m playing more music, doing more cooking, and even doing more like . . . spacing out not doing anything in particular, but in a good way actually. You might find time, for whatever slow hobbies it is you like to do, all the 1,001 things humans used to do before our phones sucked up all of our attention, grabbing our faces like the death-grip-squid-face-hugger-creatures from aliens.

The thing that is most interesting about the Digital Feierabend is that I can feel this shift in my quality of awareness, my attention, my presence that is really hard to quantify and describe because it is a part of actual existence itself. Its trippy. I just feel more present, more grounded, looser. All in ways that maybe aren’t immediately apparent. I think it’s like trying to describe the difference that happens from regular meditation or exercise. It’s hard to put your finger on what it is, because it is essentially — you are more you. You are more present. And that is worth giving up a few hours of doom scrolling.