HARD RESET?

A nervous SARA KEENAN attempts to wean herself off her phone by spending 48 hours offline in a rural Hertfordshire cabin

- By Natalie King

AS I place my phone in a small lockbox for the next 48 hours, I laugh nervously with my friends. Outwardly I'm joking. Inwardly, I feel a surprising level of anxiety.

I'm spending the weekend in Hertfordshire with Unplugged, an organisation offering tech-free cabins to help visitors escape their daily lives... and technology.

With more than 50 log cabins across the UK and three in Spain, it gives people the opportunity to go offline and enjoy a break from digital devices.

According to Unplugged, it only takes three days to rewire the brain and spending this amount of time offline and in nature can help reduce stress and curb the effects of phone dependency.

Before arriving, I'd done my due diligence of warning family and friends, and even posted on my Instagram story that I was goingoff grid - even for two days, with two friends, it felt like a big deal.

For emergencies, I’m given an old school Nokia at the cabin and my mum and best friend are given the number.

Recently, I've been trying to reclaim some control over my screen time, dragging my daily average down from a horrifying eight or nine hours to a more respectable four or five. I’ve already noticed the benefits of avoiding my phone for an hour before and after waking: better sleep, calmer mornings, fewer scroll sessions. But this weekend feels like the ultimate test.

There's a big psychological difference between thinking, ‘I won't check my phone; and ‘I can’t check my phone’. To help matters, we've brought along my friend’s dog, both for companionship and, if we're honest, comic relief.