Mel Greig and Heather Maltman went on a digital detox together. Here's how it went down.

My friend Heather Maltman and I decided to rent a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and live off the land for 48 hours without communication to the outside world. Okay, slightly exaggerated…it was a house near Bowral and we did the grocery shopping on the way.

We needed to clear our minds and get our shit together to start fresh so we turned our phones off and let the magic happen.

The first hour took some adjusting, we had posted that we were doing the detox and the natural habit for me was to grab my phone to check my notifications; this was a sign that I was doing the right thing. Put the phone down, Mel.

So, I decided to just sit still and listen.

It’s quiet.

My hearing changes and it’s honestly like I was just given this super power with heightened hearing because I was hearing things differently and noticing things that I hadn’t for a while.

I could hear the leaves falling from the trees and I became mesmerised looking out the window. How could something so simple be so beautiful and why had I stopped noticing this?

The breeze.

The animals.

The rustling of Heather's chip packet.

By hour five we had spent enough time with our colouring-in books (the super cute and creative adult ones) and we were due for a cheeky wine and game of pool. Growing up I played pool with my family, it was a nightly family tradition after dinner and I again realised that I couldn’t remember the last time I had played it.

We were both good on the table, but there had to be a winner and I whooped Heather's butt and won three games in a row which means, yes, Heather dropped her pants and ran a lap of the house. God, I wish I could have used my phone to take a photo of that!

Day one was drawing to an end and we had completely forgotten about our phones and the outside world.

There is so much to do if you just stop.

I go back to reading my novel, Girl on the Train. I’ve been attempting to read this book for months and without any distractions, I was a quarter of the way through by 9 pm. It is a bloody good book and I’m in my happy place.

At the start of day two, we didn’t have our phones to set alarms or to have the morning scroll through, but naturally woke up at 8am and cooked a big beautiful breakfast and sat outside in the gorgeous green garden and started the day with clear minds.

I won’t go through the next 24 hours with hour by hour action but I’ll wrap up with the highlights.

After breakfast, we decided to wash and clean our cars inside and out. It’s something a lot of us get too busy to worry about and the feeling of accomplishment when you finish an everyday chore was actually really rewarding.

The rest of the day consisted of a nature walk, a singalong with cans as microphones, a girly facial, writing, more colouring, cooking, eating, drinking wine and having real conversations without distractions.

Over those two days, we enjoyed the simple things again, noises and nature that we take for granted because we don’t allow ourselves the time to enjoy them anymore.

I’ve never felt so refreshed and clear heading into a new chapter of my life, and when I turned my phone back on, I discovered that the world hadn’t ended and I had the standard amount of notifications.

I had missed nothing, but I had gained so much.

When you do your list today or tomorrow for 2017, do yourself a favour and put a digital detox on there.

Discloser: For anyone wondering, the photos in this post were taken before and after the allocated detox period.