Next week is a very important week in America—a week during which we all unplug ourselves from our computers, video games, televisions, and other electronic devices and get outside (or on the floor—or whatever) and turn ourselves off!

Okay, so this isn’t feasible for everyone. Many of us work on our computers or on telephones and require these things to make our living. But we can still turn off the things that we don’t vitally need for the week. For example…

Video Games: Unplug yourself from the console and go bowling, golfing, or whatever virtual sport you play for real! Play a board game, or go really old school and try some hopscotch, tic tac toe, or hoola hoop. I saw a hoola hoop at the store the other day for a buck—why not try that out? We recently bought a really cheap badminton set to use, too. Any of these—and thousands of other ideas—could be a lot of fun. You may find yourself unwilling to get back to the mechanics of it all…

Texting: Do you really have to text all of the time? Aside from how annoying it can be for others, it’s distracting you—and research says that multitasking like that all of the time isn’t good for your memory, either. Try having all of your conversations in the present—and in the flesh!—this week and really connect with people.

Television: This is one we could all do with turning off! Even me, though I profess to not watch much television; since we acquired our free DVR through our cable service I’ve been recording movies and episodes of United States of Tara and Law & Order: SUV every single week. And you know they have Law & Order marathons—not good! How about we add up the amount of time we spend in front of the TV—and next week we vow to instead spend that much time working out, playing with our kids, fixing up our homes, doing our to-do lists, whatever?

iPod: Music is a big part of our lives around here, so I know how much I’d miss music. But we don’t have to play it electronically, do we? We can make our own music with homemade instruments, sing our own songs (okay, or others’ songs that we happen to know), and play either our kids’ or our own instruments. Unfortunately, I have yet to learn one, but we have plenty of drums, kazoos, recorders, castanets and the like in our home to create a large band fit for a Wiggles show.