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| How I Step |
As I wrote in my last post, I am taking steps to unplug (de-plug, turn off, step away, whatever word fits best) myself from the e-world and even just computers, period. I use a Mac Mini in my study; I turn it on only when I am working on matters like Justice Bus, paperwork for my dad, Hyer Percussion (my husband's business), tracking our monthly grocery spending (Spoiler alert: we're not going to hit that $200/month average!), typing this blog, or when, related to any of those things, I need to print something off. I turn it off when I am done using it for the day, which sometimes is by mid-morning. I use a Chromebook for more casual things (checking email, for example), and have gone back to shutting it off by about 5:00 p.m. I have a smart phone, but since getting it a little over a year ago, I have steadfastly used it for texting and calls only—no social media, no emails—so it too stays silent most evenings.
Unplugging sounds right and I know from past experience that it is the best thing for me to do, so that I can use my evenings for more personal tasks and matters. That being said, the habit of constantly checking things online is hard to let go of. Here's an immediate example: this afternoon I have a phone conference with Dad's longtime financial advisor. I will be joining Dad in his apartment and taking notes as we go. Last night, as I was penning this post out, I knew there was an email from the advisor touching on topics he knew Dad wants to address. I had to tell myself more than once that the email could wait until the morning. The meeting is not until 1:30; there was no urgency to go over that email in the evening. And it was a short email, not a detailed one, to boot!
Vlogger/writer Anthony Ongaro used to have a site, Break the Twitch, in which he talked about this very point of constantly checking our phones, our emails, our whatever and how our brains were accustomed to doing this so much that it was an automatic reflex. Hence, the twitch and his suggestions for breaking it. (The site is still online but it is no longer updated.)
I get the twitch concept. It hit me hard last night with regard to that email. I had to talk myself down from the twitch cliff. There is reading, writing, household tasks, paperwork (physical not online; Dad had massive amounts of papers in file folders that I am still sorting through): anything but jumping online to check that email, look at this, look at that.
I'll get there: step by step.
4 comments:
It does get to a point that the machines take over.
Admittedly, I am overly attached, stuck even, to my phone. Texts, emails,- multiple mailboxes. I need to figure out how to step away from it and know the world won't fall apart. I missed calls and texts the night my husband died. I wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway, but I think that's part of my attachment.
Don't get me wrong, Kim. I KNOW machines are important (look at your work, for example!) and they have their place. I just know my tendency to wander, drift, dally, meander too much time away when I have more meaningful or pressing things to spend my time and thoughts and efforts on!
Oh, Sam, hugs. Your situation is very different: that feeling of missing texts and calls when your husband died and, as you say, even if you couldn't have done anything, it still hurts. My pulling back is more the realization that I can easily spend way too much time just wandering through the internet ("Oh, look at this! Look at that!") especially in the evening. I feel better about approaching the next day if I cut off the e-world the evening before and focus on tasks at hand, reading, writing, whatever.
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