Defining what digital well-being is a rather tricky task. The concept is based on the idea that technology can bring us benefits and problems - from a sore back to insomnia, from difficulty communicating with family without a mobile phone to attention problems.

Martha E. Cecchinato and her colleagues that many people use technology more than they need to - it is a ubiquitous toy, a tool to stave off boredom, satisfy curiosity or the need to communicate. The problem is the fear of missing out if we don't use technology enough. This is generally true of all applications, which are designed to make users spend as much time on them as possible and to enjoy them as much as possible. This configuration leads to the fact that technology can put our health at risk.

As defined by the digital capability framework, digital wellbeing can be defined as: 'The ability to take care of personal health, safety, relationships and work-life balance in a digital environment; use digital tools to achieve personal goals (e.g. health and fitness) and participate in social. And community activities; act safely and responsibly in the digital environment; negotiate and resolve conflict; manage digital workload, overload and distractions; act with respect for the human and natural environment when using digital tools; understand the benefits and risks of digital participation about health and well-being outcomes." This original definition was expanded to include the social dimension and is now more concise: "Digital wellbeing considers the impact of technology and digital services on people's mental, physical and emotional health."

Both of these definitions have the problem of being too broad. When you think about it, it's a competency or skill encompassing anything related to technology and working with it. The first version is interesting because it clearly defines potential problems to address. For example, work-life balance is a big issue in the context of digital technologies. And yet these areas are significantly affected by technology and could be very easily regulated by employers, for example, mainly because this balance or satisfaction significantly impacts overall work performance, creativity and many other dimensions of working life.

The reason we cover the topic so extensively is apparent - without mastering digital well-being, we gradually fall into more and more problems, which can take various forms, from procrastination through loss of motivation and concentration to health problems.

Digital well-being aims to help find a certain balance between being online and offline, using technology and working with "paper" tools. This is not some pop psychology invention or a journalistically exaggerated problem, as it is one of the 21 most critical digital competencies the European Commission has listed as one that every citizen in the EU should have. This in itself is a pretty strong reason to address the issue. People from Google, Apple and other companies are talking about it, and there is a lot of research on it. For example, the University of York, under Susan Halfpenny, is devoting an entire MOOC to Future Learn.

Manfred Spitzer talks about digital dementia, a bit far-fetched concept, but shows that technology can influence how we feel, think and solve problems. Everyone is familiar with some of the manifestations of using technology more often than we should - problems falling asleep, feeling stressed or needing to respond to emails late at night. Henri Bergson wrote of the caricature of man as homo faber - a person not wise or rational but a worker. On the one hand, technology has dramatically reduced the amount of physical work we have to do, but at the same time, it has increased our mental workload. Shorter working hours do not mean more leisure time. The boundary between leisure and work has become blurred and indistinct for many people. When Tony Buzan wrote about the 21st century being the century of the brain, it probably didn't occur to him that by the early 2020s, we would have to find ways to 'not go mad' from work.

Other exciting data shows how labour productivity is rising and that the intended less work, freer working weeks and longer holidays, even flexible working hours and the possibility to work from home are not leading to more rest. On the contrary, many people find relaxing, taking work home and on the road difficult. Although everyone knows that if someone works twelve or more hours a day, they are unproductive and probably sick.

Digital well-being aims to find a balance between work and play or between when and how we use technology and when we can do without it. In this material, we do not want to be critical of technology or its implementation in various areas of human life but instead of unmanaged psychological hygiene and work habits. Medicine works with social or public health, i.e., specific environmental determinants and processes that can be reflected in an individual's health. And digital wellbeing undeniably belongs to this field.

Tim Cook, Apple's boss, has said he has turned off notifications on his iPhone. That feature made the iPhone famous, bringing it several users and completely changing how humans interact with apps. The reasons are clear - he wants to be able to focus on what he's doing and not be constantly distracted and interrupted. Google first started looking into digital wellbeing in 2018 when it put in a feature to monitor time spent in each app on Android. This has now been followed up with a set of Digital Wellbeing Experiments tools, which aims to give users feedback on how much time they spend and help them reduce that time.

You might wonder why two tech giants like Apple and Google care about digital well-being when their goal should be to ensure users spend as much time as possible in their apps and on their phones. But it turns out that if they do nothing, many users will stop using technology altogether, as their productivity and general wellbeing collapse to the point where they start rejecting technology.

This MOOC then makes the following recommendations:

• Turn off your notifications - here we go back to Tim Cook. Notifications are usually distracting, taking away from focused work. Even if we ignore them, we are delighted by the act of retrieving them.
• Take notes - this recommendation is based on principles similar to GTD - the less we have to carry in our heads, the more we can focus on what is in front of us. Plus, writing notes in itself helps with focusing on the actual activity.
• Write fewer emails - a rule that's hard to follow, but emails are among the most frustrating activities. It's worth considering whether using platforms like Teams or Slack instead of email is more beneficial for internal communications.
• Hide your mobile phone - if you have a landline forwarding service, keeping your mobile phone out of reach while working is ideal. Please keep it in your coat pocket, a bag, or a drawer. Again, this is a measure that goes towards better and deeper concentration.
• The 15-minute rule - when you come to work (or after work hours), take a moment to do an activity you enjoy. This could be listening to music, watching a conversation on DVTV, or even knitting. This will put you in a better mood, give you a bridge between activities, and give you space to start focusing on the next stage of your day.

Closely related to these rules is the ability to build a comfortable online environment, which may include, for example, the following steps:

• Do not participate in flamewars; leave quickly if you are already in one. Nothing is more useless than being involved in arguments that make no sense and still create a bad digital footprint for you.
• Only be in communities that bring you value and make you feel good. Try taking an inventory of your social media friends - are there any that annoy you, share content you don't want to see or are uncomfortable in some way? Hide or delete it outright, or you can set up a system to monitor only the information you're comfortable with.
• Try not to stay in an information bubble. These arise naturally on social media. Creating an environment where you can get information from the "other side" of the opinion spectrum is always good.
• Do not spread false information. The key is to share information that is true and correct. Before believing something, you should check that it is not fake news or a hoax.

Digital well-being includes the virtual balance component and the physical health and ergonomics of working with computers. It is fair to say that many traditional principles probably need to be reformulated - they were designed for CRT monitors. They did not consider that many users would work with a laptop or touchscreen device. Nevertheless, we will mention at least some points that can probably be generally taken into account to make a person feel as comfortable as possible at the computer:

• The distance between the head and the monitor should be approximately 50 centimetres, but it depends on the size of the screens and the specific desk layout. The screen should not be opposite the window, nor should it be directly illuminated by it. A perpendicular arrangement with shading is best.
• We believe that the most underrated device on a computer is the keyboard - so pay close attention to your choice. While two extra cores in CPU won't be familiar to many users, a good keyboard will. It is a bad habit of institutions to work with the cheapest keyboards or cheap keyboards with a card reader. A good keyboard can significantly enhance user experience, satisfaction and work productivity. We recommend buying keyboards priced from a thousand crowns upwards. The more the user types, the better the keyboard they will use.
• Even task organization techniques like Pomodoro's assume you work for approximately 50 minutes and then take a 10-minute break. No one (unless you're a sniper who has special training for this sort of thing) can focus more than 20-30 minutes a day. Fill the 10-minute breaks with exercises, especially targeting the cervical spine or arms. We also recommend taking regular walks to the kitchen for tea.
• If possible, invest in a quality chair or a gymnastics ball. It is comfortable, healthy, supports the muscles and doesn't hurt your back.
• Diet is also often stressed - you should not eat at the computer, and it is essential to consider whether coffee is the ideal beverage for computer work. if you have a problem drinking enough water, putting water in a jug and pouring it in gradually is a good idea.
• If you're working with your device in the evening, we recommend turning on a blue light filter (often a built-in feature on mobile phones, but on Windows, you can use a night light or lux, for example).

The purpose of digital wellbeing is to ensure a certain balance between man and technology. On the one hand, digital well-being significantly expands the possibilities for humans, but at the same time, it opens a Pandora's box of inappropriate use of individual tools. For example, notifications associated with new messages can cause us to be unable to concentrate well or to immerse ourselves in solving a particular problem—the need to stay up-to-date and well-informed leads to distraction and superficiality. And undoubtedly contribute neither to learning nor creativity.

So, the key is not to discard technique but to find your point of optimal well-being, which can change with time. It is understandable, therefore, that events such as digital detox or digital dieting emerge from time to time, the aim of which is precisely to take a break from the constant supply of new and new information. We believe that one of the skills we will need to rediscover is focus and the ability to work on a single task if it is complex and exciting enough.