I feel like I've been in a holding pattern most of this break. I got sick last week and have had this head cold that kind of waxes and wanes. One day I'll feel pretty good, the next day bleh....One night I'll sleep really good, the next night bleh.... So it's been a weird week. I've also been eating too much because I have basically zero activity level. The highest steps I've gotten all week is a little over 5,000. Not great. And yes, I use my knee as an excuse but the truth is my knee feels better when I am up and moving, so that excuse is BS. I have been having dessert every night during this break. We had pie. We had cookies. We had little red velvet bites. Hubby keeps buying them and I keep eating them. Last night I finally had the presence of mind to say no when he asked. Finally!!!! But it really is the small steps.
But I really want to talk about habits. I discovered one yesterday that kind of opened my eyes to a bunch of others. I was reading through Facebook and someone mentioned something they had purchased and included a link to the item. I immediately clicked on the link and went to see it with the ultimate intention of perhaps buying it. Whatever it was, and I've forgotten now which tells you how important it was to me, was something that I really didn't need or want or have room for, and yet I was honestly considering buying it. I was having trouble most of yesterday trying to find my 'habits' and this opened a door. I realized that anytime I see someone post something they bought, I immediately go look for it and seriously consider buying it. That has to stop. I'm not sure exactly how to stop it besides sheer willpower, but it absolutely has to stop.
But that goes to a far bigger problem of how much time I spend on social media. When I come and sit at my desk, almost the first thing I do is open FB. Before I go to bed at night, I always sit for 15-20 minutes cruising FB and looking up people I have zero interest in and reading their post. WTF????? There is a game I play through FB and I've used that as an excuse for being on it, well, I'm playing the game. BS!!!! Do I really need to spend 2 or 3 hours a day playing a stupid game? So I'm thinking it's time to go cold turkey on FB. I want to completely remove it from my life, but I do get some good things off there. I have some teacher groups that I follow and get really good stuff from. So how do I use it like an adult? How do I not spend hours scrolling? How? I just removed it from my phone, that's a step in the right direction.
I have this cool little app for my desktop and my phone called Forest. You set how much time you are going to work and it times it for you. If you do the work and don't screw off, you grow a tree. The idea is to grow a forest. I like it, it's a cute idea and I think I need to start using it more. Also, it plays into that Pomodoro method where you focus for X amount of time then take a break.
I also have games. I have Animal Crossing. I have Pixel coloring on my iPad. I have an Oculus headset - now I'm not sure I consider this truly wasted time, it gets me up and moving which is good. Animal Crossing I can sit for about 30 minutes and play. Wait a minute. Why don't I use Forest for playing games? I could set it for however long I want to waste on game play. DOH!!!! The coloring I don't consider a bad thing, I generally do that while I watch TV. But that has led me to wonder if I'm getting to the point where I cannot sit and do one thing only. But then that's not true either because I'm doing this.
Back to habits, as I was writing out my morning habits yesterday, I noticed that many times I get on here to blog and I end up checking FB first. That made me think of things I could do the night before to set myself up for success. So last night, as I was going to bed, I closed all my browser windows. That way FB wasn't open and staring me in the face when I got on this morning. I had to open a window and then went straight to Blogger to get this out of my head. So I think a good rule is that FB does not remain open in a Window ever. If I need to look up something, I go, I look, I close the window. That's a good rule.
Another thing I noticed is that I use the computer in general to waste time. I guess that's not a revelation, but it is something I don't always acknowledge. So when I sit down at the computer, I will need to have an intention ready to go. I'm going to hang a sign on the monitor that I will cover the monitor with every time I am done. I must have an intention and I must have a time so I can grow my forest. I have a mountain of other things that I want to do that don't involve the computer. I need to get away from this thing more. Oh, I like this a whole lot. Since I wrote about Forest above, I grew a tree.
Okay, I believe that I have a decent plan as follows:
- whenever I sit down at the computer I will have an intention (playing a game is not an intention)
- whenever I sit down at the computer I will determine how long I will work and grow a tree
- when I am done I will pull the sign down that reminds me of these things and over my monitor with it.
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