Dawn Noordam, seen in Calgary on April 7, focused on unsubscribing from 'digital clutter' related to her career in the health and benefits sector before retiring. She said the process helped her focus on her next chapter.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
As Dawn Noordam neared retirement, she began purging the non-essential e-mails that kept piling up in her inbox. Event invites from the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute, company and product updates from insurance giants like Sun Life and Manulife, and industry publications – she unsubscribed from all of it, freeing herself from the pressure to stay on top of the latest trends in the benefits industry.
Unsubscribing from the digital clutter “allowed me to focus on the real critical things I wanted to get done for myself and for the company before I left,” said the Calgary-based 54-year-old former senior director in the health and benefits sector.
But for retirees whose sense of identity is strongly linked to their profession, moving on in retirement may prove more difficult. That’s where digital detoxing – a deliberate effort to minimize time spent on smartphones and computers – might help. The process can help reduce stress and make space for fostering more in-person socializing interactions. For retirees, that might involve limiting LinkedIn usage, cleaning up their e-mail inbox, or opting out of e-mail connected to their former career.
Only eight months into retirement, Ms. Noordam remains curious about what’s happening with her former colleagues and keeps in touch with some of them, both on LinkedIn and in person. However, she’s mostly digitally disconnected from her former workplace. While she might read the rare industry-related headline, she doesn’t follow her former company or its competitors on social media or in the news.
“That chapter’s done. I’m ready for the next chapter, and I don’t need to fall back on that,” she added, noting that she never felt her identity was wrapped up in her career.
If retirees keep a tight hold on the past, it “won’t allow them to move forward into their retirement life because they’re … not allowing themselves to see what’s ahead for them,” said Jennifer Rovet, retirement coach at Retire Ready Canada in Toronto.
Experts agree, however, that there is no one-size-fits-all to digital detoxing in retirement.
For those entering “old-fashioned” retirement, meaning they’ve moved on from their former professional life, a digital detox can be productive, said Susan Latremoille, co-founder and partner at Next Chapter Lifestyle Advisors, a retirement lifestyle consultancy in Toronto.
“It’ll help you declutter your mind, declutter your computer, declutter your space of papers that you might have lying around and help you see the world anew,” she added.
“It’s so easy to get caught onto mailing lists and subscriptions that you think you need, but you’re actually creating more work for yourself if you feel you have to read it all.”
However, for retirees considering part-time or consultancy work, which many retirees do, staying up-to-date may still be necessary, said Clay Gillespie, managing director of Vancouver-based RGF Integrated Wealth Management.
Ms. Noordam has taken up photography as a hobby in retirement.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
“If you’re out for a couple years, it’s like you never existed in [your] industry,’ he said. “You can be forgotten pretty quickly.” For those entering a new phase of life, it’s important to be intentional about which relationships to maintain, Mr. Gillespie said. For example, many retirees keep their LinkedIn active for at least a few years while updating their profiles to reflect their retirement status.
“The problem with social media is, your contacts are just people that happen to post, but those may not be the people you want to keep in contact with,” he added.
Mr. Gillespie recommends refining your connections to include only those you truly want to stay in touch with and then finding alternative ways to connect. That can include e-mail, phone calls, or other social media apps used more personally – especially with those who may be approaching retirement soon, in case they do their own digital detox.
He also suggests a social media content shift, focusing on areas relevant to your non-professional activities in retirement – such as travel, gardening or painting – rather than work-related topics.
In the year leading up to her retirement, Ms. Noordam developed plans to connect with friends and family, travel, volunteer and start an online thrift resale business.
When her new chapter began, that plan helped her spend time online intentionally.
“I completely disengaged from any kind of industry, work-related e-mails and articles, but then completely engaged with all these other topics that I didn’t have much time to spend on while I was working.”