I finished my 30 day unplugged trial a bit over a week ago (9 days to be exact), and today was pondering some significant shifts in my way of thinking as a result of this trial:
-Internet and TV news: I truly want nothing to do with them anymore. I will listen to the news updates that last for 30 seconds on the radio usually on the way to work in the morning, but outside of that, I have no desire to look up or watch ANY news. It was a SERIOUS habit previously, I probably went to the local news site and CNN.com countless times a day. It was a time waster, and a constant source of discussion and gossip at work and with friends. Now, I find myself popping on the internet, and where I would previously type in cnn.com immediately to start a 'surf time', I just stare at the screen. I cannot make myself go there. I immediately ask 'what is the purpose of going there', and when I can answer nothing but stress and a waste of time, I either leave the PC or find something more productive to do. Its not a battle or struggle at all, which frankly has me floored. When I say I was a news addict, it was pretty bad.
-PC games: I have done nothing since I have gone back online last week. I used to play an online game (World of warcraft), not obsessively, but I am sure I was on quite a few hours a week all the same. Its been 9 days, and I have not even considered going online at all. I need to actually cancel the account, but seriously, I think so little of the game now, I just keep forgetting. That will be $15.00 a month saved, and who knows how many hours.
-Blogs: I used to visit many blogs. I had a variety of haunts, covering topics from self help to just humorous. I would say the majority of them I visited more out of curiosity and entertainment, and a good percentage were not helpful or inspiring in any sense I can find. As a matter of fact, some of the people I read previously just were so not healthy or balanced at all, and I found myself 'worrying' about them when not reading their blogs. Far too much unhealthy attachment. Since going back online, I cannot bring myself to visit them, AT ALL. I am going to clean out all my bookmarks and RSS feeds this weekend, and purge the system. I have decided I really want nothing to do with folks that are a negative influence on me. It almost feels like cutting ties with some friends, but really, I cannot come up with any reasons to continue down that path. This applies to twitter as well, although that was a minor distraction.
This is a very refreshing outcome. I was worried when I came out of the 30 day challenge, I might go on an electronics binge so to speak. Quite the contrary, its been easy to continue to abstain to some degree. It helps that I rolled into another challenge shortly after that continues to use my free time in a productive manner, so I do have to remember that keeping 'busy' helps this out tremendously I am sure.
I might post again in the future, after a few weeks at least, and see how this holds up. I know some habits are likely to slip back, but many of the above items I mentioned seem far far away from coming back into my routines.
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