I had to count the days to make sure it had only been a week. It feels like it has been so much longer. I have been making an effort to be more aware of time and how I’m spending it. I’m using timers a lot for things like watching tv so that I realize “hey, I just spent 45 minutes watching youtube videos”.
I’m filling my time with reading (fiction and non-fiction), writing for this blog as well as journaling and writing notes for the non-fiction books that I’m currently reading. Something I wanted to make an active effort to do is learn from those types of books. In the past, I would read them and tell myself I would remember the info and then promptly forget it. By taking notes I’m slowing down my reading pace and I actually feel like I’m retaining what I read. It also has the added benefit of allowing me to go back and review my index cards for a book without having to read it again.
I’ve had to adjust how I get my info for things like the weather. That has become an active process that I’ve added into my morning and evening routines. I will check the weather in the morning before I go for a run and then in the evenings before I go to bed to see if anything has changed on the long-range forecast.
News has been something else I’ve had to adjust. I think my consumption of news was more toxic than my social media habits if I’m being honest with myself. I would definitely read more left/left-leaning sites. A couple of years ago I found All Sides which seems to be pretty good at just presenting the news from left, right and center. I’ve been actively staying away from partisan sites as much as possible and that’s definitely something I’m going to continue to do.
I certainly feel more productive in that when I want information about something I actively go find it. I’m not going down as many information rabbit holes about random things. Only the rabbit holes that I’m actually interested in. I feel like my brain isn’t as tired or overworked as it has been.
All in all a good experience so far and I’m curious how I will feel when these 30 days are up. My thought right now is to just do away with social media altogether but I’ll leave that decision for later.