I hadn’t really planned on doing the first official check-in today, but — hey! It’s Monday. Today counts, too.
I managed to stick to all of the rules! It was an incredibly busy day at work, and so in some ways it was easier. However, I found several moments challenging:
– Not looking at my texts while driving (I know. But I am determined to stop this forever. And day 1 is the start of hopefully an infinite new streak.) This was incredibly hard for me, because I ended up having to see an off-site consult and thus there was plenty of driving. I had to keep repeating to myself that there was nothing that I could possibly NEED to respond to within 30 minutes — and if there was, the person could easily just call.
– Not whipping out my phone while waiting for the elevator. I don’t think I even realized that I did this so automatically! But apparently . . . yeah.
Other than that, it wasn’t so bad. I didn’t have enough free time to contemplate jumping on email or checking Facebook. I remain oddly relieved to have my account deactivated. Hmm.
There was no real excess time today because I did 5 new consults today, saw several inpatient follow-ups and saw 5 outpatients — and yes, in my world that is a lot.
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Hi! I haven’t had a chance to comment yet, but I’m LOVING the idea of this challenge!! Day 1 went well for me. The hardest parts for me definitely were no phone while driving (yikes – scary! I didn’t realize I’d become so dependent and unsafe!!) and also the no evening "zone-out" (which is the thing I loathe the most). And sticking to the 20 minute blog reading. But I did it!! And I used my free time to work on a house project I’ve been wanting to do for months!! I can’t wait for this to be my new normal!!
I think Day 1 went pretty well. I accidentally clicked on Gmail multiple times throughout the day, mostly because I had some down time at work and no energy to read papers so it’s time I would have wasted on FB, blogs, or other SM! I read the news instead.
I BLEW through my alotted 20 minutes of blog reading and commenting time though … I spent about 40 minutes doing it over my lunch (To my credit, I was also responding to work emails at the same time because my boss kept talking to me about things we needed to do).
The evening was nice because I wasn’t on my phone during playtime or when Dan and I watched our one show and i didn’t browse FB or twitter before bed, but I made good progress on my book club book (I"m in a parenting book club and we’re reading "Parenting without borders" about parenting in other countries – it’s an interesting book!). I biked to work today and wasn’t in the car at all, and i’m glad, that was an easy win for the first day but we’ll see how today goes!
It went really well! I made a rule for myself to keep my phone on the shelf by the door, and there it stayed. It was challenging to make sure to put it back immediately after talking to my husband, etc instead of checking my email and Instagram. I also set a timer for Internet browsing/fb (which I didn’t deactivate — yet?) and that worked really well. The real challenge will be keeping up the discipline/maintaining the habit after the novelty has worn off!
Loved day 1. I am tweaking a bit since I’m in the middle of book writing (AHHH) so computer time is greatly increased but I’m not mindlessly surfing. I felt such freedom not getting on FB or IG! IG is really the hard one for me, I don’t care much about FB. BUT it was nice just forcing my mind in other (important) places and actually working on things that matter instead of staring at other peoples lives. 🙂 Did I miss it on day one? No to Fb and a little to IG. 🙂
Day 1 was good for me. Admitedly, things are easier for me because I don’t have a smartphone so I don’t have all of the same temptations. No midless web surfing in the evening is what I am working hard on though and I didn’t do any last night.
I met a woman whose infant daughter and husband were killed in a car accident by someone looking their cell phone while driving. I never touch my cell phone in my car. Not to answer a call even. It’s not worth it.
The elevator thing is definitely a bad habit of mine. It’s like, really? Is it that hard to let my mind wander for 30 seconds?
I like the challenge idea. Of course, yesterday was a lot of social media because I have a political side interest and was following the Iowa Caucuses all evening — refreshing Twitter in bed. In my defense, the other activity I was considering doing was reading Runners’ World, and while I enjoy that I don’t think of it as particularly more rewarding than reading Politico and 538 online too.
I’ve been trying to stop myself from pulling out my phone at the sign of any waiting – elevator, red light, line at the grocery store, etc. Everyone does it, and I wonder how we became so unable to just stand somewhere without filling our time with something. I’m trying to just be and wait – but it’s really hard!
I did fine until the evening. I’m a huge politics junkie and I figured reading election results while watching the caucuses was a form of intentional leisure so I went with it! Back on the 2x 20 minute blocks today!