Day 11: productive

On Day 11, events went exactly as on Day 10, with a small exception. 

I had to work with someone through Facebook and it took some time to constantly check my messenger, which if repeated every day, creates a dependency. 

Luckily for me, Facebook is not my preferred method of connection, so it's easy to stay away from it. 

Otherwise, it was a pleasant, productive day. I continued reading my book for the most part of the day and shake my body by dancing to favorite tunes. Pure bliss! That's exactly what I was looking for when starting my experiment. Let's hope I'll keep up and not go back to my old ways. 

I love that my brain is not filled with bits and pieces of all sorts of information. I put a 30 minutes timer to write and went beyond that. I'm starting to enjoy the process. Playing with words and images is fun! 

Day 10 of my experiment

This post is going to be short and sweet. 

On day 10 I was back to my usual routine. The long weekend is finally over.

I chose to spend my morning time on reading a book from my archived paid courses, listening to music on Spotify and doing a quick workout. I felt so energized that I continued dancing afterwards. 

Afternoon was busy with extra cooking and other domestic chores. Can't get around them and in my case, I'm kind of glad. As much as I don't like spending my time doing chores, it gives me a nice break doing something else and not being on the iPad. Awesome! 

I'm moving slowly with my experiment, but I'm definitely off the mindless net surfing. I like it. I do miss YouTube with the new weekly video postings, but not as much as it sounds. 

Cheers! 

Project No to mindless net surfing - day 9

 I spent most of the day 9 off the iPad.

 It was a really nice break and towards the evening I felt my own thoughts surge up. 

I did a short research on the oral health topic, but gave up on it before reaching out a conclusion. 

That kind of approach to research is a major problem and this is why. 

 Once I leave a page, I need to know exactly what I intend to do with the information, instead of just saying to myself that I'll come back to it later. It means I'm doing double work and sometimes even triple if I need to come back to the same page over and over again for the same type of info. 

At this point, before leaving a page, I could: 

- save the necessary info really quick in a program like Evernote or Notes 

- bookmark the page if I need to refer to it more often and really use the bookmark, not just forget about it 

- close the page, but make a handwritten reminder in a notebook if it's really important to me 

That's all I can think about at the moment, but it's better then living all these pages open that keep my mind distracted without any tangible results in the end. 

I always remember to visit the websites that are important to me without even any notes.

Also, maybe I shouldn't be afraid to let go of some of the materials I paid for but have no desire to revisit? It's obvious I don't have any desire to do it even if they are open for days on end, because I don't rush to go back to that page. Just a thought. 

Project No to mindless net surfing - day 8

Finally, on day 8 I started reading my archived materials. That makes me very happy! 

I have a ton of good material that needs some good implementation. Just reading this book alone has put my mind on a good track. I learned that our brain gets easily distracted and the technology only fuels our natural tendencies. Want to learn to stay focused? There are special ways to do that. 

Earlier in the day, I broke the rule and researched a few things off my list. But, to my defense, I was specific and it was for my own physical benefit. Also, I kept the time spent on research as short as possible. 

Between reading, researching and checking emails, iPad was still attached to my hip. 

Later at night, I watched a movie. It was based on a true story and it picked my interest. I so wanted to learn more about the real facts. Then I realized that as long as I watch movies, I get distracted from solving my own problems.

If only my interest would get picked to the same extent for my own life! 

My experiment - day 7

Day 7 was spent on domestic chores (cleaning, laundry) and connecting with friends (playdates, time outdoors, games). Great day overall! 

I still had time to listen to a podcast and linger a bit too long on my emails. I wasn't cleaning it, but checking every couple of hours what's new. 

To get myself off the email, I ended up watching some TV till the late hours with my hubby. In the end, he fell asleep before I did, but that's only because I was way more into the show we were watching than he was. ( Better things, in case  you were wondering) 

This experiment is quickly getting boring, but it's only 30 days and I will plow though it just because I'm curious where it will take me. Just don't expect it to make a lot of good writing. 

Day 5 & 6 of my experiment

Usually, any project at its beginnings is followed easily and to the T. 

That's not the case with my experiment. 

I'm constantly rethinking the terms and finding that they are not specific enough and not helping me do my project successfully. I'm still pretty much attached to the IPad even though I'm not mindlessly surfing the net. Maybe I need to figure out a way to use the Pad at certain times and bulk my usage instead of using it every minute to take a picture or put the timer, or follow a recipe or you name it. Would that make any sense time wise? 

I'm mostly finished with the remainder of the podcasts left from my open browser windows.   

Here's what has happened on the last two days. 

Day 5: Morning was busy at looking up natural remedies for 

a sore throat and cold, online and all other sources I had available. 

My child was not well and at home with me, thus I didn't have my usual routine. I read some books to my kid and loved it, continued writing a story, watched some good, light movies, baked some muffins and simply reveled in some much needed good feelings. 

Day 6 was pretty much a repeat of day 5. Not much to report. 

Day 4 of my experiment project of 30 days sans mindless net surfing

Day 4: I caught up on a few podcasts and mostly used the iPad for cooking. I store my recipes on the iPad.

 It felt nice not to be glued so much to it, yet I didn't do anything planned. I'll call it a resting day. 

In my offline life I got to: 

- sort my child's toys and anyone with children knows that's quite a task, if you're not a minimalist. 

- play monopoly, a game that requires a good amount of time.

- go for a walk in the rain in the evening. So beautiful, refreshing and necessary. 

- get into an argument with my spouse and use my child's peace place twice to get myself back into a good mood. 

Very interesting turn of events for a resting day. 

P.S. I've noticed before that on days where I don't use the devices so much and I don't have a project to work on, I tend to turn my attention to my emotions and it's not always a positive experience. But I no longer run away from uncomfortable, no matter how much I don't like it. How I deal with it is a different story.