What,Why, How ...are the three questions I use to evaluate all my actions and in case I am not able to answer any of these,I avoid doing those things. 

So if i start introspecting on one of my recent action then here is how i will do it. 

What I did? Yes i didn't use my WhatsApp for a week. 

Why I did? To cutoff communication channel and find my sanity. 

How I did it? Using the "focus mode" of my phone. 

All this sounds so out of context so if I have to make sense,I have to start narrating things from start of this week and here I go.....

I have been feeling restless from past few months and as per my understanding that is due accumulation of many disturbing and unresolved problems which includes personal life emotional break point and professional life burnout along with fomo (for people like me,fomo stands for fear of missing out). Although I consider myself as a strong person when it comes to controlling my emotions but this time around it not that easy for me. Maybe because the factors affecting me included loosing on people and things which made me a strong person in past few years ,Also I was caught off-guard by that while tackling other things of my life. 

Source:Google

This may sound depressing but honestly it was not because I knew the things happening around were not in my control so I decided to not dwell on them in my own mind and do more of an emotional damage.Also,for the kind of person I am,It will take a world war to actually make me depress but having said that it was a serious concern since I was not able to sleep for continuous nights and have to wash my face multiple times to avoid those teary eyes from which I was not letting tears to reach till my cheeks.

At that moment I decided to take back control of life steering and the action I took was to not to use my WhatsApp. 

Small action 

Pretty small step,but as I learned from one of my reading of last year "The atomic habits" these small/atomic actions actually makes a difference and till this point I think it actually did. 

I call it a small action because for me WhatsApp was about talking to 1-2 people at most and all other hundreds of messages were all complimentary so I decided to disconnect with them temporarily.I turned on "focus mode" in my phone while keeping whatsapp in the list of disturbing applications along with Pinterest. Also,to support that i have all my notifications off for other applications like sms. 

Learning from another of my read "The compound effect" ,I knew it couldn't be done so randomly.I have to support this with an alternatives which were less distracting so installed back Snapchat after 3-5 years just to have one way communication and to stay aware about the happening around my work place in an invisible mode. 

Since Whatsapp is the easiest and fastest way of communication and for people of my age,it is almost impossible to get rid of it.Afterall cutting off people permanently is not a solution and also, the messages in office ,family and college groups are actually something we need to keep up with in our life. Not to forget about whatsapp calls from cab driver,family members or messages which need your urgent attention but not making all these a reason,I decided to stop using whatsapp for a week.

What happens when you don't use whatsapp 

What actually happens is that you get extra time of your day for yourself and also are able to eliminate the not so necessary messaging and consumption of disturbing news. Another important thing is that since you have eliminated the communication channel you are in no position to take help of other shoulders to get temporary relief from pain and not the permanent solution which comes from within. For me particularly,it is not possible to replace a person who holds place in my heart so there is no point of giving time of theirs to someone else in your WhatsApp chats or in life itself.Not everything is replaceable, atleast not humans.

So what and why are clear so far,now let's come to the practical part which is how to achieve this communication barrier because you cannot isolate yourself completely which can hamper your overall growth,even for a week. Who knows, if universe planned something special for you and not able to reach you,just because there was no communication channel,haha. 

So here were the alternative communication channels for me: 

To stay connected with my mentors or people I am curious to learn from. I follow them on Instagram and through this channel I can just reach out to them at any point of time. (Because you can't call them always). I ensure only to follow people whose post I am actually interested to see in my feed and not to just follow them because they are your colleagues,friends or are known to you and sent you requests.

To keep the professional networking going,I have my LinkedIn and even decided to improve my Engagement there directly with people. Although wants to avoid consuming too much content from LinkedIn feeds because that creates a sense of professional fomo .

The difficult part:

Ah, there is an urge to be felt part of crowd and community around you and I was kind of suspicious on my end that I will end up opening the whatsapp just because of this urge, so I created an alternative and installed Snapchat temporarily to have one way communication, communication where i decide to post things of life and not to consume information from others.Also,no unnecessary chats. The method is working so far but I think I am in better state to control this urge so I can get rid of snap again today.

Also,I believe if something is very urgent,people will call you for that and even calling is free just like messages in india so messengers are not essentialls,they are just more convenient form of communication.

What after a week

I am enjoying this process so far.Initially I decided to do this for a week and I have already achieved that but I am kind of liking it so will continue this for a little long.Also, I feel this has helped me on emotional level and I am in better state to focus on important stuff of life. This has added a little more stoic behaviour in me which I need just so not to be affected by each and every thing happening around me. 

I am still having some sleepless nights but I am using them to learn something productive.By not using WhatsApp for a week I have realised  the power of one way communication. When I started blogging my motive was same,to achieve power of one way communication because in that you are able to express without without being dependent on another person.Now with this action of not using whatsapp has improved on my faith for expression without seeking for reaction or attention. 

Few facts from this week: 

1) At midnight before I stopped using my WhatsApp I reached out to one of my elder brother like friend mentor when I was chocking out of fomo for some career advice and he immediately called me back and gave me the needed counseling. Feels great to have such figures around you. I have taken a screenshot of that call  and have placed it as my Mobile display to remind me of few stuff ,one of which is " that everyone's story is different and you are in competition with no one". 

2) I clicked few good pictures of myself in my friends phone and had to actually use a Bluetooth after ages for taking those pictures, nostalgic...it's still that slow.

3) I actually has to open whatsapp on Monday for 10 minutes,to wish my friend for her important day and see location of new cab mate to pick her up for office. 

4) My phone vibrates with no notification when someone calls me on WhatsApp and I kind of enjoy guessing the person calling me in naughty way instead of replying (which i cannot obviously,if i am not using WhatsApp). Good thing,the person always called next time on my phone and I got to know the answer about who was calling,In most cases it was my mother or a cab driver (important people) 

Curious now:

Are there still people who write letters to their dear ones? ,Will I ever receive a hand written letter

Tada till next time.