I’m always on the computer. It’s literally been like this since I was maybe 10 years old. I built a website about Hanson in 1997. I was 10. As hilarious/impressive as that sounds, it’s a little sad. While I should’ve been out playing with friends, I was making a website. Don’t get me wrong, I did play with kids on my street (some of whom I recently reconnected with on facebook!) but it definitely led to me now. Let’s be (brutally) honest. I spend about 90% of my awake time on the computer.
While a lot of my work is computer related, there is just no reason for me to literally spend 10+ hours a day here. On top of that I’ve noticed my back/shoulder/wrists hurting more frequently from sitting at this desk all day on my laptop. It’s a problem and I need a solution.
Honestly, I’ve gotten a LOT better since we moved to Tehachapi. On weekends when Blaine is here I spend MUCH less time on the computer. Some weekends I literally will not go online AT ALL (gasp) and some I’ll check on emails, blog, etc for a couple of hours. Either way, weekends and weekdays spend on the computer are incredibly different.
I want to live my life, get things done, feel productive, be creative. I end up browsing other peoples creations and blogs of other people living THEIR lives so much that I don’t seem to have much of one myself! I’m putting an end to this madness.
It may sound silly, but timers have become my best friend over the past year or two. I’m not kidding. I set that baby for 15 minutes and CLEAN and I get more done in that 15 minutes than a whole day of timer-less cleaning. I get distracted by this or that or I get a text and it’s all over. Forget about finding old photos, I’ll stop everything and look at them for hours. Nope, when I set that timer I can do nothing but clean. No stopping for texts, phone calls or reminiscing about the good ol’ days.
I recently downloaded a desktop timer. In fact it’s telling me I have about 29 more minutes of blogging/surfing time before I have to move on and do something else. This is my solution. It totally makes me sound like a child who’s parents have to time their internet activity, but hey – it works.
It’s silly that something as simple as a timer helps me manage my life better and now that I’ve vowed to LIVE my life, it’s going to be crucial in the weaning off the internet phase. How will we know if it worked? Well — I assume I’ll start blogging about the exciting things I’m doing, instead of links to thinks I wish I was doing/did/etc.
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