Oh FEBRUARY.
1. Deactivate Facebook. Stayed 100% off! And I still don’t miss it. I think I eventually will want to share some family photos and check in, but I think I’ll make FB involvement a seasonal thing and otherwise just stay invisible (i.e. deactivated).
2. Uninstall all social media apps from phone/tablet/whatever. Yep, stayed off. The barrier of having to reinstall was a great deterrent. Otherwise I would have cheated. I did miss Instagram and yes — plan to reinstall it.
3. Limit email checks to a predetermined number per day — I recommend 3 if feasible. I did well with this at first, but then faltered. However, I did sort of discover that (newsflash!) most of my email is not very interesting. I wasn’t really missing anything by spacing out checks!
4. No phone use in bed. I was not 100% with this while sick, but generally was much much better. This led to more reading in bed (in the evenings) and earlier rising each AM. I want to keep up this habit.
5. No phone use in car, with the following exceptions: maps app, podcast app. Success! I am really trying to be religious about holding to this one. The one challenge is call, and I am on call starting today (yikes). But I am DETERMINED to be strong. No text is worth an accident and any TRUE emergency will result in a phone call.
6. No phone use (or even out) while interacting with loved ones or supervising kids. I was not 100% on this. But I did improve. And Josh was quick to call me out on this when I cheated.
7. Blogs followed in feed reader are limited to 20 or less. Yes, I pared down the list. BUT — since things tend to seep in through the void — I read a few more links from Ana’s blog, and I read more NYtimes online. For the most part, I stuck to 2 short “internet breaks” daily – lunchtime or afternoon and evening.
8. Check in. I didn’t do as well with this as I would have if there wasn’t so much sickness this month!
9. Extra-special challenge: a totally unplugged day. Didn’t happen. I am determined to try this, though! Perhaps Saturday March 12 (I’m on call this weekend).
10. Keep some kind of record of how you are doing. Particularly the things you did other than scroll:
Again, I feel like this list would be longer if we didn’t spend so much of the month sick! But, I did:
— read more (most of the way done with A Fine Balance, which is a fairly long (600 pg) and FANTASTIC novel
— sleep more! (necessary due to being sick!)
— work more. (I think it was just a busy work month)
— feel more present with A&C. Especially in the evenings! Not only are they better behaved when I am not distracted, but the time goes much faster and is more fun.
March Goals
3 Comments
I think you did really well with your Unplugged 30 especially given the illness in your household. Hope everyone is feeling better soon. Here’s to a healthy March!
Plus, you have reminded me that I need to make some March goals.
I think you did really well, considering. I was strong at the beginning, then had some weird work days where I got a little lazy about my habits.
Here’s my run down
1/ FB for < 10 minutes a day, only two check-ins (AM and Lunch) – Did well with this during the work week. I liked posting to just my running group, and I pared down the people that I follow to just about 15 total. I might actually just de-friend the people I stopped following as I didn’t miss much!
2/ Personal Email checks < 3 times per day. I did a pretty good job, there were 5/30 days where I just checked email absentmindedly all the time!
3/ No phone use in car. This was my BIGGEST improvement. I have gotten to a point where I set up the podcast I want to listen to before I start driving, then putting my phone in my bag in the backseat. I haven’t used the phone to text, email, check FB, or otherwise in the last 30 days. I am so happy with this.
4/ No Social Media. I deleted the apps and never visited the websites. I miss both twitter and instagram, but I think I’m going to significantly cull the folks I follow on both sites (especially twitter).
5/ Reduced #blogs and time visiting them to 20 blogs and <20 min per day. I loved this. I really was intentional about which blogs / sites I keep in my reader and therefore enriched my interaction with those sites. Sometimes 20 minutes was not enough time when I really wanted to write a good comment, though! Then I’d allow myself a little more time (or I would save it to do in the evenings).
6/ No phone with Son, Husband, or in Bed. I was not 100% of NO PHONE but I did significantly reduce my screen time when interacting with other people. I will continue to monitor this! I didn’t use phone in bed and that definitely led to better and more sleep. I started keeping it on my dresser instead of my nightstand at night so it still acts as an alarm but isn’t in arm’s reach.
7/ ONE PHONE FREE DAY – I did it!! February 13th was no phone all day long!!!
I’m going to continue reduced email checks and 2 FB checks per day, limit myself to 20-30 minutes of blog reading/commenting, and I’ll have to come up with a way to limit or be intentional with the time I spend on instagram or twitter. Probably two checks a day or something. I’m leaving all social media sites blocked on my main work browser so I’m not doing it at work. I’m going to continue my goal of less phone useage in the car, at home, and in bed.
I also agree on the slowing down thing — life feels strained when I force the kids onto my rhythm rather than trying to respect theirs. It’s hard but I like to think I’m getting better. I find I don’t save very many minutes with the rush-rush approach and the ensuing fight/tension might slow us down.