Dear Reader,

Last July, I closed all my social media profiles. This year, I asked: How else can I gift myself digital boundaries? I landed on ‘office hours’ for messages. For a solid week now, I’ve checked text messages from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM only. I call this ‘office hours’ because I treat my messages like a job, even if they’re for fun! It’s important for me to be in touch with friends, family, and colleagues across time zones and continents.

By creating enough of a buffer around my sleeping hours, I can be more present to people when I show up for them, and more present with myself as I start and end my day. 8:30-8:30 is a wide enough window to be attainable every day. I was nervous about expressing this to friends, not wanting to shut them out. So I phrased it like this: can you help me with this thing I’m trying?

Grace suggested we replace our weekly morning voice memos with monthly letters — which sounds even better. Kat suggested we start our Friday Night Dinners earlier (we’ve been watching Gilmore girls every Friday at 8pm for six seasons now!).

Cheers to clear, gentle, healthy boundaries — and cheers to supportive friends!

Until the Next Chapter,

P.S. This is a sample postcard from Everyday Wonderland, my weekly one-minute programme for finding wonder where you already are. Join us in making mini adventures out of the mundane, every day!

Call to Adventure:

Could you use a curfew for your digital communications? Try office hours for a day – and let me know how it feels!