What if I have a family member who needs to reach me when my phone is disconnected?

If it’s an emergency they will be able to contact you somehow. They can leave an urgent message contact a friend neighbor other family member. That was how we did it in the “Olden” days before cell phones. I miss those days. Puck 1 Day a weekend to turn your phone off fro 8-5. No cheating. The relief and calm you feel is invigorating. Release yourself. Be free. Cut the ties that bind you to technology

I will keep my do not disturb mode enabled at night, with the exception of certain family members who will be able to get through to me regardless (setting on my iPhone, allows emergency bypass).

I will not be disconnected forever they can leave me a voicemail or a text, I will also let people times I usually disconnect me phone so they know it’s hard to get me during these hours

Before the times of mobile phones we survived as well. My take is: if something really bad happened nothing will change if your phone is off line for some time. If nothing really bad happened it doesn’t matter anyhow.

You can tell the family memeber about why you do this. Tell them it’s important to you that you disconnect at this time on this day and hopefully they will be understanding of your lifestyle.

So for my phone I have “Do Not Disturb” on every day. The only exception is my favorites in my contacts, which is my family. I prefer that way so in case they need to reach me, I can answer the phone.

A lot of phones have settings you can add to silence incoming calls/messages, but allow those from certain people. On iPhones you can enable “Do not disturb” mode but allow calls from your favorites. I often use that feature when I wanna tune things out for a while and I can do it without stressing because I know my family can reach me if needed. Alternately you can give your family members another number like a home phone if you have one that they can try in case of an emergency.

I would put my phone on do not disturb, but allow the “favorites” on your phone to be able to call you during that time. You can go to settings on your phone to set that up!

My trick is to put my phone out of my reach or out of the room. I focus on clearing my mind and recognize that I'm not at fault if I miss an important text. Self-care is full of sacrifices.

You should add him/her to your preferred contacts and then switch the phone to “do not disturb” instead of airplane mode. If I remember correctly, if the try to call you twice within 5 minutes, the second time your phone should ring. It only works with your preferred contacts

I always give my family my roommates’ numbers so if it’s a urgent matter I can still be reached along with having my emergency bypass on for the people who might need to reach me in a serious situation! Hope this helps 🙂 you’re doing great and I believe in you <3

Tell them before you disconnect, they should understand that this is good for you. If it’s an emergency, then make sure there is a way for them to reach you. Like if your phone is on silent, only silent those who aren’t important. I’m sure they would reach other family members if they can’t get a hold of you. Sorry, I don’t really have those kinds of situations but hopefully this helped! Good Luck

There are settings where you can allow specific contacts to be allowed even when in “do not disturb” mode. On iPhone this is located under “Settings” then go to “Do Not Disturb” you can then select who is allowed to call when no one is activated. I personally have a favorites list that is my husband, sister and mother. So I allow my favorites lists to be allowed to call when my phone is in “do not disturb” mode. I also select the option for is a contact calls for the third time in a row their calls will not be silenced.

If it’s an emergency they will find a way to reach you (friends, neighbors, actually go there) how did you think people managed to survive before cellphones happened?

If you have the do not disturb feature on your phone but it says it ring twice And you tell your family they can ring twice if it’s an emergency another thing you can do is add them to your favorites list and then add favorites called then they can call through then you can put notifications off and do not disturb but your family can still call through

I understood the ”disconnect and unplug” differently. For me, it means no screen time. I keep my phone on. If a family membrany calls me, it is pefrectly fine! It can help you unwind. The real problem with phone is the dostraction and business. Ping! Another notification. On Facebook or Reddit. You start to scroll, and you wake up an hour later drained.
I propose this. Disable all notifications except phone calls. If someone writes you an SMS or messanger message, it is safe to answer the next day. If it is urgent, they will call you anyway. Leave it that way for the entire day. You can answer all of the problems in bulk when you decide it is time for it. In the evening put the phone away to charge in other room. If someone calls – cool. If noone calls – also OK. Having the phone away will make sure, you don’t reach for it mindlessly. With the sound on, you won’t feel the anxiety that you miss important calls.

Rather than use airplane mode, I use the do not disturb feature. Under this feature if someone needs to reach you and they call you twice the call will go through.

I don’t know how your phone works but try going into settings and see if you can set their contact to emergency override. This will allow calls to show up and ring even when the phone is on quiet. 🙂

There are other ways for them to reach you, I’m sure if it matters a lot, they can call another family member. And you do not necessarily need it disconnected when you’re awake, only when you’re asleep. So even if they did call you then, they wouldn’t reach you anyway because you’re asleep. Always unplug the phone at a certain time, and sleep at that time. If it’s necessary, then you can tell that family member, who might need you, you are going to sleep. This way they will have time to tell you the important thing they needed to call you about. 😊

We can’t be connected 24-hours a day. I will make it known that I’m not available after 10 p.m. that way they can have another emergency person on backup.

If it’s an emergency they will call my housemate or they will arrive to my apartment to reach me.. they usually can figure out where I am.. if it’s isn’t emergency they will leave a message.. or call a bit later or day after..

Some phones have a setting where you can select the calls that come through maybe you could look into this? Or give them the landline number and tell them when to use it?

I have a separate mobile that I leave in my lounge for emergencies or if I’m out and need to call home. My family and close friends has that number to call if they urgently need to speak to me

I’m not sure about other phones but on iPhone you have an option to add contacts as Favourites. And you have the option to allow calls and texts from Favourites.

I have my phone set to “Do Not Disturb” but my favorites can get through if they call twice in rapid succession. This way, if there is an emergency, I can still be reached but I’m not disturbed for trivial reasons.

Think ahead. If you’re well aware who is in need of you, provide some thoughts and answers you might think the person needs before you put away your phone. Make the person part of your routine. It requires a little preparation for you to do before putting things away. However, you don’t leave them empty handed. Simply mention when you will be available to check the persons messages/needs.

If a family member needs to reach me and my phone is disconnected, I can presave a recorded text response to thecall saying not available. If that person needs help you would expect them to call 911.

Very few issues are that critical that they need to disturb your down time. Maybe allow one person to be able to contact on the strict conditions it’s for genuine emergencies only

Set up your phone to help you. I have an iPhone and when I select do not disturb mode, I have set it to allow calls (but mute texts and emails etc) have a play with your phone to see if you can do something similar and tell family members to call if it’s important 🙂

If you tell them approximate times you would normally be home then give them the invitation to stop by and knock the old fashioned way to see if you are available to talk. If that’s not a possibility typically mail takes 2-3 days. So write a letter!

Then simply turn airplane mode off and call or text them, as long as it’s urgent it’s no biggie! Just make sure ya don’t get sucked into phone land again after

It is the problem I think of so many time. I think I will only disconnect with the internet, so that text message and notification from app can’t brother me anymore.

And people can reach me with a phone call.

Choose to disconnect when you know your family is fine. Remember when you had to be at work and couldn’t be on your phone? People still took care of your family.

I have it on night mode, and it’s set that if a member of my family (they know this) sends „urgent“ as an extra message, I will be alerted. This works very well for me. In night mode I don’t get any other irrelevant notifications. On my phone I can set it both manually (turn on when I want to) and/or automatically (turn on at certain time and turn off at a certain time). In that way, even though my phone is far across the room I get to know if someone needs me urgently.

Are you speaking about an young son? Are you speaking about an old parent? I guess that in that 2 cases you cant sleep disconnected, but you can sleep connected, pretending you are sleeping with your smartphone in flight mode.

You can label your loved ones as family and put them on favourite so even if your phone is set to “do not disturb” they’ll be able to reach you.

I never Disconnect my phone, I always have it on nighttime mode when I am “disconnected”. This way if someone needs to get a hold of me and it’s an emergency they can. That being said, it’s never happened.

I think that it’s not just about turning off your phone and other devices and putting them away. Of course, family members should not suffer from an item in your application. In my opinion, the habit of not hanging out on evenings on the Internet and social networks is more training here. my phone can run a meter away from me, just lie.

Well, you may want to let your family member know that you are having this routine, and it is best that they can contact you at an alternative time. There will be exceptions, but

1. Get back to your normal habit after exception happens;
2. Are they really exceptions? If you consistently cannot stick to your schedule, then you may want to change your schedule to adapt to the situation

I have my phone scheduled to automatically go into Do Not Disturb mode every night. All alerts will be silenced but if the same number calls twice in a row my phone will ring.

I feel like I can never disconnect my phone because of that. I don’t live with my mom and my bf is from another country. So if my phone is disconnected they cannot reach me, even in emergencies.

If you have an iPhone there is a setting called “do not disturb” however, if you put certain family members’ contacts in your favorites located in the phone app, they will be able to successfully call you or contact you in case of emergency.

If you have an iOS device, you can use the Do Not Disturb mode and you can set specific contacts to allow their calls to go through anyway. Other devices may have a similar feature.

You can disconnect but not be totally unreachable! Just put your phone in a place where you can reach it if necessary. Disconnect from technology by focusing on not checking your phone every 5 minutes. If you have an iPhone you can put it in do not disturb mode which will still allow calls from specific people

If it is essential that they need to reach you very urgently, then do not disconnect your phone. If you need to disconnect because you are in a meeting, then it might be possible to have your phone on silent alert instead of disconnecting entirely. If the disconnection is due to poor cellphone coverage, would a temporary SIM card from a different network provider work? If it is only fairly urgent, then check your voice mail and or SMS messages when you can, or provide an alternative phone number. Depending on the circumstances you could also brief the relative as to what action they would need to take in a particular situation if they were unable to reach you.

Honestly this is a tough question, maybe try having other source like a laptop (where they could contact you) or a house phone, that way you won’t have the urge to use your phone and even tell your friends + family so they know not to contact you at a certain time .

I don’t know about this one. On one hand it’s good to disconnect completely to refresh and restore myself. On the other hand I’ll have missed opportunities to support my family when they are in crisis if I am disconnected for long periods. I think the balance might be to unplug completely for half an hour or so and then reconnect to check my phone to see if any urgent messages came in. This balanced middle way might give me the best of both worlds.

I would pre-inform this family member that you will be unavailable for the next … minutes or hours. But that s/he can always leave a message & you will get back at a later point.

Help them understand that it is important for you to disconnect and recharge and let them know ahead of time what your down time will be.

Tell your close family members about your routine so that if they try to reach you during mediation… they can simply left you text and you can also share your progress with them.

I believe it’s best to have an understanding that if there is an emergency then everyone should call 911 immediately. Also there are settings on your phone to allow specific numbers to get through DND.

Anyone trying g to reach me can leave a message. In the olden days before cell phones, they left a message on the answering machine at home and you got to it when you had time.

I have a landline that can be use in case of an emergency, another alternative will be to have a cellphone within an acceptable range only for emergency

I use the do not disturb function, so you can choose to let emergency calls in. You can also let people know that you’ll be unavailable before bed because of your routine, unless it’s an emergency

How likely is it? If it’s that critical they will find a plan B otherwise they will wait for you to be reachable. Emergency are 99% not real emergency, there is a tiny risk indeed but does not worth the sacrifice from my point of view. Hope this helps

I don’t disconnect, I put it on charge in another room, out of sight. So can hear it ring for this very reason, but am not on it before bed.

I get really really irritated by the perpetual dings and rings of texting and calls from people I don’t need to talk to when I’m concentrating.

Most of my expected communication comes by text. I have an iPhone. I’m fairly sure Android can do the same. I turned off sound and vibrate. I decided on whose texts I wanted to know about immediately.

I added them to my Contacts. I gave each of them a special ring tone. (There are only two for me.)
And I set Emergency Bypass on for them.

This means even if my phone is in silent mode, I still get notifications of those texts. I would think that if they called me I would get notification of that too (they just don’t call).

Everyone else who texts can wait until I’m willing to read and respond. Calls… they can leave a voicemail.

I’m good with this.

If I ever really don’t want any sound disturbances – I turn the phone off.

I don’t know about android or Samsung but IPhones have the “do not disturb” option. This can be customized to block everything except calls and/or texts from specified contacts. Like family! 🙂 I do this myself. Helps keep things quiet and I know when to answer emergencies.

I can make them aware that I am going “airplane mode” at 8:30PM, so they will know if I don’t get back to them they will know why. If it’s an emergency, then

They could always write a letter or if it’s a emergency they could call your job or contact your neighbor or close relative.

Most phones have a sleep setting nowadays, in Apple it’s the little half moon. It allows calls from favourite contacts, but blocks everything else. Also, if someone calls twice, the second time he will get through, favourite or not. This way, family calls are safe. If they usually contact you otherwise… let them know to call if there is something very urgent. That will prevent them from waking you up for an address for that nice high tea next week, at 2 in the morning…

Keep your phone on. I know it’s tempting to look at it every 10 minutes, but put it farther away so it’s harder to reach for it.

Well this is actually an important question, however try thinking the reason why you want to disconnect from your phone in the first place, things like this are important but also understand that you need your own self importance + self care, hence getting off your phone, is truly important. Also think of it this way, afterwards your going to use your phone once more; then that you you could communicate with anyone that might need you, never forgot to prioritize.

Personally, I set up screentime on my iPhone and lock all internet access instead of removing it from my room. I think this goal is not realistic for many (sorry Fabulous)

You can always add favourites to your phone and review your settings. If you allow only loved ones to contact you on the second ring you know that they need you. I would suggest letting loved ones know that at certain times in the evening you like to disconnect but reassuring them you are there for them if desperately needed. Stress the importance of that time and how impactful it is in the wellness of your mind – allowing you to be fully present when loved ones need you. State that it does not mean you do not want to speak with them, you will make time for them of course. I hope that it helpful?

Maybe you need just to turn off the wifi and keep the phone lines open. I think it is the social media’s bottomless pit that makes us scroll endlessly 😅😊

Connect with a friend that lives close or work close to you. Ask that friend for their permission to have family calls sent to their phone.

If you have an alternate number, like a land line, you can ask them to reach you on that. With IPhone, you can also go to settings and choose to disable all apps except for select ones like calls, contacts etc. For other brands, you can download apps that let you do the same thing!

Hm. There is something (on iPhones, on Androids it mamy be different ;)) that is called a Night Shift which you can enable in the settings. It works that way, that when you get any notifications, your screen doesn’t automatically turn on. There is an option that when someone calls you more than 3 times, the phone will ring. You can tell that to your closest ones and then when an emergency occurs they will know they have to call you 4 times and then you’ll answer. I hope this answers your question 🙂

I keep my phone in my bathroom, so it is where I can hear it for emergencies, but not within reach of my bed and not emitting any light. I use the do not disturb mode, but I have a list of people, including some friends who regularly deal with suicidal ideation, that their calls will come through even when set to do not disturb. This way I don’t actually have to silence my phone because only emergency calls will come through. Also if the same number calls twice within 3 minutes it will still ring, which is also to safeguard against missing an emergency call. But my text messages and notifications and emails, none of those make any noise.

If you are going out with someone you know, you can always give them their number or just the number of yhe place where you are going so you guys still can be connected. Or you can with a public phone, but just try to tell them whenever you will call them so they will be available (: You can always send letters the old fashioned way!

They can reach me through my partner. If it’s an emergency, they could call my school. I’d be fine. Also, most people who need to contact me are in a different time zone. They would be very asleep when my phone is disconnected.

I believe that you can set up do not disturb on you phone with exceptions but you would need to let your family know that they should only contact you for emergencys at certian times.

Do you remember the time before cellphones? People managed. I think it has all to do with a given situation. Say someone in your family is very ill or there are strikes and your kids are traveling, you may decide to keep your phone on, to make sure everyone is OK. even emergency situations rarely allow us the time to get to where we need writhing the given timeframe. It’s a question of starting slow, and realising there isn’t really much to gain by keeping it on 24/7. Just my two cents and best of luck on your journey.

Cellphones should never be disconnected. That’s why companies invented dnd mode! You can use a filter that after 2/3 times a specific person calls you, you will get notified by a normal ringtone

Accept that you’ll be unavailable to your friends and family while you’re disconnected, unless they’re physically with you. Most likely they can wait a few hours to reach you, you don’t need to be available all the time!

When I “disconnect” I simply put my phone away and out of arms reach. I’ll also keep it on vibrate, in case someone does need to reach me for something but urgent I can hear if they are calling or texting multiple times. The biggest thing for me for disconnecting is not mindlessly scrolling through social media or other apps/games. Cutting as much screen time as I can out of my nightly routine. However I am still available in case of emergency. You can also put your apps in do not disturb mode individually or simply turn off the notifications for them. This way you will not be disturbed by unnecessary commotion.

You can put your cellphone aside, don’t use it! But if someone really need to reach you probably will call you not only send you a message so you can put in silence mode but not for calls