Founder's story
Anastasia Dedyukhina - coach, start-up mentor and founder of Consciously Digital
Hi there! My name is Dr Anastasia Dedyukhina (just Anastasia is fine, too :), and I founded Consciously Digital in 2015 — ironically, after spending more than 10 years in senior digital marketing positions around the globe, both in large internet corporations and small start-ups, and getting paid to convince millions of people to use technology more often.
Typically for people who work in tech, I used to be connected 24/7. In my last corporate position, serving as a Client Director for a world's top-3 internet company, I got to the point of sleeping with my phone in my hand even if I switched it off at night. At one point, I started feeling the phone vibrating in my pocket while having no pockets. This is when I realized I needed to change my lifestyle if I wanted to remain mentally sane.
After long consderations and some inspiration from friends, I decided to give up my smartphone altogether. It took me about 5 months, and I now have a very basic phone that can only call and send text messages. This is the single best thing I've done for myself in years. It helped me free up space in my head and focus on what really matters. Since that time, I've done more to grow my business than I had done in all the previous years.
As I shared with people my story, they kept asking questions, and this is how Consciously Digital was born. I wrote a book, appeared in BBC, The Guardian etc, blog for Huffington Post about digital well-being and have spoken and taught all around the world about the impact of tech on our health, well-being and productivity at major tech events, including World Mobile Congress.
Let me be very clear about it: I am not anti-tech (in fact, I run my business from my laptop), and I don't think everyone needs to give up their phone. In fact, now I use smartphone as a spare device, when I need to call a taxi while travelling. However, it has no sim cardand is off 98% of the time. In short, for me, it's just a tool, and while I am not trying to convince everyone to unplug, I also don't think that it's a good idea to spend 16 hours a day being connected - because if you are there, you are not here. So it's all about finding the balance, and that's what we at Consciously Digital help people with.
Lately I am focusing on preparing the next generation of coaches to help others be consciously digital, because when tech is taking more and more influence over our lives, we need to be reminded what it is like to be humans.
You can follow me on Twitter @ConsciDigital (yep, I schedule my tweets ;)) or get in touch using the contact form (I read all submissions and normally get back to you within a few hours if they are relevant). If you'd like to book me as a keynote speaker, please use the same form.
Typically for people who work in tech, I used to be connected 24/7. In my last corporate position, serving as a Client Director for a world's top-3 internet company, I got to the point of sleeping with my phone in my hand even if I switched it off at night. At one point, I started feeling the phone vibrating in my pocket while having no pockets. This is when I realized I needed to change my lifestyle if I wanted to remain mentally sane.
After long consderations and some inspiration from friends, I decided to give up my smartphone altogether. It took me about 5 months, and I now have a very basic phone that can only call and send text messages. This is the single best thing I've done for myself in years. It helped me free up space in my head and focus on what really matters. Since that time, I've done more to grow my business than I had done in all the previous years.
As I shared with people my story, they kept asking questions, and this is how Consciously Digital was born. I wrote a book, appeared in BBC, The Guardian etc, blog for Huffington Post about digital well-being and have spoken and taught all around the world about the impact of tech on our health, well-being and productivity at major tech events, including World Mobile Congress.
Let me be very clear about it: I am not anti-tech (in fact, I run my business from my laptop), and I don't think everyone needs to give up their phone. In fact, now I use smartphone as a spare device, when I need to call a taxi while travelling. However, it has no sim cardand is off 98% of the time. In short, for me, it's just a tool, and while I am not trying to convince everyone to unplug, I also don't think that it's a good idea to spend 16 hours a day being connected - because if you are there, you are not here. So it's all about finding the balance, and that's what we at Consciously Digital help people with.
Lately I am focusing on preparing the next generation of coaches to help others be consciously digital, because when tech is taking more and more influence over our lives, we need to be reminded what it is like to be humans.
You can follow me on Twitter @ConsciDigital (yep, I schedule my tweets ;)) or get in touch using the contact form (I read all submissions and normally get back to you within a few hours if they are relevant). If you'd like to book me as a keynote speaker, please use the same form.
