No Internet November
As I wrote in my report at the beginning of this month, I am doing a challenge, in which I try to avoid "The modern web". That means I won't access instagram, twitter, tumblr, reddit, and limit my youtube consumption.
Why
The short answer is that I need a break from all the social media, which is what the internet has been mostly reduced to these days.
The long answer is that all the negativity that's constantly all over the web is getting to me. Jacksepticeye recently uploaded
a video in which he talked about how the internet has become angrier. And I have no counterargument for that. Plus I need to get
my shit together, since I've been spending way too much time scrolling.
I want to take the last two weeks of Nobember (18.11. - 1.12.) to do a dopamine detox. Not the viral version where you stare at
the wall whole day and the only thing you can do is drinking water and writing on a piece of papar. I mean dopamine detox in a way
that Dr. K of Healthygamergg describes it.
Another reason to do this is that I feel the semester slipping through my fingers, today marks the exact half of the semester, and
there are projects and tasks that I have not yet started. Also I feel like I have not learned anything yet and that means that the
exams are gonna be brutal. I think that not flodding my brain with happy chemicals whenever I have any free time whatsoever might
actually help me get shit done.
Rules
Whole November:
- No instagram
- No twitter
- No tumblr
- No pinterest
- No reddit browsing (single threads are okay, since reddit became vital knowledge hub of the internet)
- No youtube binge watching
The last two weeks:
- No binge watching tv shows or watching multiple films in a row
- No gaming
- No alcohol
- Absolutely no youtube
- No junk food
Expected obstacles
- I miss instagram already. I only followed my friends and I miss all the "microinteractions" I had with them. It has it's positives though, I reach out to my friends more.
- Boredom. Unless I come up with a solid plan to go through all this I WILL slip up and fail, just like many times before.
- Low energy. I became way too used to mindless scrolling whenever I came home at the end of the day or before falling asleep. I need to come up with ways to relax without tech.
Tools and strategies
Ways to spend time without browsing the internet
SCHOLWORK: Six weeks before the end of the semester, come on man, you got to put in the work.
STUDYING: This means things outside school - programming, cooking, maybe even German or some musical instrument...
READING: I've been already reading more ever since I bought ereader. Though I mostly used it for schoolwork and manga. I want to read more fiction and educational books. I started reading The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn last week and I'm halfway through it already.
PROGRAMMING: There's no way around it. If I want to become better at programming, I need to programm more. Sad bad truth. Gotta make that Github activity shine green, baby.
SELF-CARE: This include meditating, establishing regular sleep schedule, morning workouts and stretches, more frequent walks in the nature, spending more time grooming (I had extra time this morning and I shaved properly for the first time in months, I feel great whenever I catch a glimpse of my reflection)
COOKING: I want to save money on my launches, by bringing a bento box to school/work instead of eating in random fastfood restaurants. For that I need to research viable foods, buy ingredients, plan my meals, cook, etc. etc.
BUILDING THINGS: I love to create, I'd describe myself as a maker. I can just make the things I've been putting off for so long.
CLEANING: I should skimm through Marie Konodo's book again, clean my place, and get rid of excess stuff.
Strategies
PLANNING: I do my best work when I know exactly what and how to do it. That is exactly how I need to plan things. I need to come up with concrete task to fill my free time with.
RETROSPECTIVES: Inspired by my work, what I think would be helpful is to plan things I would do during the day, and do eveneing retrospectives, meaning I would think about how my day went, evaluate my progress and the things I've acomplished during the day, using it's output as a feedback to what works for me and what actions to avoid.
Tools
WEBSITE BLOCKING I use pihole at home, I'll add websites to avoid to a blocklist. I'll also install website blocker to my laptop so it's easier to catch myself slipping whenever I'm out and about.
MEDITATIONS I have Headspace app subscription. I need to get in the habit of using it more regularly.
PHONE: To make my phone less interesting, I unisnstalled all the distracting apps. I also installed one of the minimalists lanuchers on my phone, muted all notifications with the exceptions being phone, calendar, sms, school mail and messenger.
RSS I could pour the info I follow on the web to an RSS reader, to get rid of even more online distractions.
Closing thoughts
I am not gonna lie, this seems like a lot, and did get overwhelmed while typing this out. I can't say this month will be perfect everyday, especially
with all the work I mentioned beforehand. I have a feeling that my energy levels and desires to just simply turn off my brain are gonna be hard to deal
with, I feel like if there's something that would make me fail, it's that.
I hope to get a lot of thinking done, outside of all the stuff I really need to do. Lately I've felt this sadness, that I could not find the source of.
I really hope I'll get closer to getting to the bottom of it.