Retiring to the Walden zone for some deep breathing to energise the lungs, quick palming to refresh the eyes and calm meditation to quieten the mind, for a few precious moments in a day will leave you with that feeling of being pampered.

Create a technology “Walden Zone”:
Designate a room at home (or at work) technology-free. Banish all computers and put a basket by the door for phones and other devices.

Even libraries are having a hard time of it, according to a new piece, circulating online, called An Unplugged Space. Marc Truitt and Amanda Wakaruk, who are librarians at the University of Alberta Libraries in Edmonton, make a call for Walden zones in libraries to temper all the Web noise, phone calls and Skyping.

Zoning is way overdue for a comeback, a digital revival, and it’s surprising it hasn’t happened yet. Thoreau could be the model. Our situation is different from his, in that the crowd is no longer just nearby — it’s right in the home, wherever there’s a screen. So our zoning has to be interior. Every home could have at least one Walden Zone, a room where no screens of any kind are allowed.