There was a time quite a few years back that I had to make a promise to myself to get
No.
More.
Speeding.
Tickets.
Because it was becoming a little habitual.
And the folks at the insurance company don’t like that.
So.
I slowed down.
I just plain did.
And it wasn’t actually that hard.
I just had to start thinking of myself as another kind of driver.
The, um, careful, law-abiding kind.
So this week I’m re-thinking a different kind of recklessness.
The tooling-around-online-all-the-time kind.
The facebook-google-multitasking kind.
The time-sucking-work-justified-email-obsessing kind.
(And how is it that even still, I can’t clear my inbox??? Oi. I digress…)
Seriously, though.
It’s like speeding — you trim very little time and you miss all the pretty stuff along the way.
Y’know?
I’m sort of tired of technology telling us how much we need it.
Aren’t we supposed to be in charge of this relationship????
So, I’m doing an experiment.
(I even told my kids about it so they would hold me accountable.)
I am turning off the computer at 2:30 p.m. every day this week, right before I jump on my bike to pick them up.
And I am leaving it off until around 9:00 when they’ve gone to bed.
Maybe I’ll discover that that puts me way behind and makes me crazy busy — crazy busier than I already am.
But I kinda doubt it.
We’ll see….
Count me in! I’m gonna do it with you! 2:30-9:00 it’s going off! xo, erin j.
Oh, yeah!!! I should’ve made it a challenge. Maybe I will, now, and see who else wants in on it!!!
Liz: I WANT to follow in your bold footsteps. I truly do.
I just don’t know how to break this habit.
It’s awful.
It’s wonderful.
It’s both.
It’s 10:08 pm. I wonder if you will see my palm-slapping post tonight, Monday, or Tuesday night?
I love the kinship during the computer hours. It’s like working in a library filled with writer friends. We’re all passing notes and whispering in the shelves and borrowing homework and class notes.
That’s not SO bad, is it?
It’s just all those darn extended coffee and bathroom breaks that kill the work flow! Those have got to stop! {}
Good luck to you, Liz. I hope you find the offline serenity you need. {}
-Pamela
Pamela — I, too, truly relish the community that blogs and facebook and such provide. I really do. What I need a break from, though, is feeling like it is necessary (not just nice, but necessary) to be always on. And to remember that when I pick my kids up from school, our kinship can come from each other! Balance, balance, balance…
Stay tuned…
I’m in
I have tried it randomly and it is truly amazing. The other thing I have done here and there is to TURN OFF THE CELL PHONE. Even when I choose not to answer it, the buzzing takes my mind away from what I am doing. When it is off and the computer is off I am present and connected to the people I”m with and the task at hand. And that is the ever constant goal.
Thanks for the reminder Liz. And I know you will enjoy it.
Bernadette
Re: I’m in
Interestingly, my phone doesn’t ring hardly at all. I think BECAUSE I’ve become such an email freak. So. Yes. I am already enjoying it…. Same to you!
Can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Yesterday I walked BY my computer a few times during the off hours, wondering what was going on there 🙂 But I survived and had a very sweet time with the kids…
Tanita Says 🙂
Sara Zarr is completing a similar self-challenge; she wrote that she was feeling that much of her world was consumed by the internet, and she desperately wanted to go back to doing some of the things she used to do before she substituted them for digital. Like reading an actual paper newspaper. Like writing actual, pen-and-ink, please-place-stamp-here letters.
Frankly, I love letters. And stickers. And paper newspapers. It wouldn’t be hard to let this computer go, if we weren’t in the UK. We have no TV here, and sometimes the computer seems the gateway to home. But I am looking forward to spending some holiday time in the U.S., and looking forward to stepping away from my machine interfaces, too.
I hope you find that free time and restfulness and adventurous life returns to you, bigger and in vivid natural technicolor.
Re: Tanita Says 🙂
Oh, thank you, Tanita. And I think I’ll head on over to Sara Zarr’s place right now and get inspired…
I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes. I am SO THERE with you. I have had eye strain this week from too much computer use, and something. has. to. change. Of course, I was working on a book proposal, but still…I should try your routine. Hmmm….
Keep us upated. Please?
Jules
7-Imp