My Year of 30-day Challenges

Three days left. I wasn’t really sure how I’d feel after this month. Would it be totally eye opening?  Not such a big deal?  What kind of things would I notice?  Would I miss it?   I think it was eye opening. I realized what a crutch my phone and social media had become. It was my default. I couldn’t focus on work or watching tv or anything without also checking my phone. On breaks, during commercials, etc. I find after this month, I’m less inclined to pick up my phone while watching tv. I definitely don’t need it open during work. I’m much more focused although I did spend a bit more time on a message board I frequent just for some connection to people but that board is so so much better than Facebook.  I said before but I really do feel like I am sleeping better at night so I’m definitely going to continue not using my phone before bed. I’m going to continue not having Facebook open during work. I think I will limit my time on Facebook to 15 or 30 min a day. I...

 I can't believe it's almost the end of the month.  This has definitely been a good break for me.  It's gotten to the point where I don't really think about it (meaning Facebook) -which I was in the beginning, more than I was happy with.  Now I'll think about it when I'm sitting watching tv or when I don't have much to do - just like, I want to do some mindless scrolling.  I'll get that urge to check it and I normally would have, but now instead, I'll check the news, or just put my phone down and really watch tv without any other distraction.  I feel like not looking at it right before bed has been really good for me.  I feel like I've slept better, but man I've also been having crazy dreams!  Maybe I'm having more deep sleep?  I have no idea what that means.  Overall, I think I'll go back to Facebook, but maybe unfollow some people to keep it limited.  I'll continue to not look at it at night and also at work.  It was a huge d...

 So something that I've noticed is that I'm now more inclined to read the news and actually read the articles - all the way through!  Before, I would visit a news website and browse the article titles, but not really click on anything and even if I did, I'd read maybe a quarter of the article and then click out of it.  My attention span for reading articles was nil.  But now that I'm not getting splotches of news from Facebook, which sadly was what was happening more often than not, I'm finding I'm actually reading articles to get my information.  Gasp.  How crazy, right?!  Sigh.  Just another signal to me that taking a break was the right thing to do and hoping I pick up some better habits out it.  

I'm seven days in and noticing some things.  I'm definitely still thinking about what I might be missing out on on Facebook, but more like info that is shared on my local neighborhood groups or from local friends.  I definitely think I might cull down on some of the people I follow that I don't know, and instead just focus on people I do know.  I do kind of like that I'm getting used to not multi-tasking all the time - checking Facebook while working, or while watching tv.  I feel like I'm more focused on tasks (maybe just a little bit at least).  I still find myself checking personal email or DCNR or the news while working, but I am going to try and do that less and less as well.  Maybe focus on getting one task done before I do that, or focus for an hour and then take a break.  That's a whole other hurdle though.   I do find that I'm reaching out to people via text more.  I texted a funny article to a group of friends instead of sharin...

Not too bad. I am realizing I am thinking about what I might be missing a lot. It was like my connection to the world and other people. And it’s not so much what other people are doing — although that’s a little of it — it’s more about what info I might be missing out on. What posts someone might be making on the school family groups or the local neighborhood groups. The “insider” info. We’re supposed to have snow tonite into tomorrow and it seemed likely that school would be cancelled. Now I know that the info would be posted to the school county website but I still texted a neighbor to let me know if she heard anything since I knew that the news would make it to Facebook sooner. Now I see how ridiculous that was but in the moment I could not stand to think I might miss out on hearing about it sooner rather than later. 🤦‍♀️ It’s such a crutch. And I hadn’t realized just how much. It was a one stop shop. Which is kind of nice but the need to know “right now!” mentality is kind of scar...

Here we go!  I actually deleted most social media over the last week just to slowly remove myself. I had instagram but barely used that one. Twitter too. Tik Tok was fun but a total time waste. Facebook is the one I spent the most time on. I find myself thinking about what I might be missing but I honestly don’t think it’s much. And probably just stuff that I’d compare myself to. It’s kind of freeing not seeing all that. There was some good stuff too but I think mostly it was an overload of information. I know it definitely caused lack of concentration for me at work. I think I’ll see the most impact there which is really sad to say. It had gotten bad and I’d let it become a bad habit.  Looking forward to a day without it just to see how it feels and to see my phone battery last longer 🙂