For Lent this year, I am giving up The Internet.
I realize it's ironic that I am writing about giving up The Internet on the internet. (It's also ironic that I'm giving anything up for Lent, annoyed as I am with the Catholic Church right now, but that is a story for another day.) Here are the ground rules, set by myself, for myself:
1. I can log into this blog every day and write here. I have, however, deleted my blogroll, just so I won't be tempted to clickety-click around and see what other people have written. I realize I'm going to miss some great writing in the next six weeks. Such is life. (If you write something on your blog that you really, really want me to read, email me a link to that specific post, and I'll read that.)
2. I'll still check email every day. If I didn't, I'd miss things like quotes from our contractor, piano lesson reminders, messages from friends trying to make plans, and every single piece of news from Annie's school ever.
3. I'll use The Internet in a very limited fashion for things I can't do another way, like make a reservation for myself at a yoga class, find directions on my iPhone, check the bank balance, or check the weather forecast for a specific purpose. I'll also still probably keep track of the books I'm reading on Goodreads.
4. Things I won't do: Facebook, Pinterest, read news online, read blogs, waste an hour perusing real estate listings in my dream vacation spots, get sucked into the wormhole that happens when I open the laptop in bed at 8:00 p.m. and look up to realize it's 10:30 with nothing to show for it.
I've been feeling pretty blue lately, and I think part of the problem is that I don't feel like I'm working creatively towards something every day. I hope this might be a way to get me to waste less time doing things that don't really contribute to my happiness while also forcing me to write here more frequently. I'm thinking that, when Lent is over, I'll see which things I actually miss and want to consciously put back into my life and which things haven't been enriching my days after all. I'm thinking that this is going to be hard, but isn't anything worth doing usually hard?
"Deny yourself something. An important factor in happiness is adaptability. Because we adapt quickly to any improvement, we soon take it for granted, and a luxury ceases to be a luxury when we experience it often. One unenjoyable cure for this "hedonic treadmill" is deprivation. Deny yourself something for a while - your usual mid afternoon cookie, watching TV - and you'll enjoy it much more when you experience it again." - Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project calendar quote from Tuesday, February 21, 2012
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This is inspiring--I think it's a great idea. I, too, fall down the evening wormhole of aimless surfing, and afterward I always feel guilty that I wasted an hour of my life that I'll never get back. I'm glad you're going to keep posting here... looking forward to reading about these 40 days.
ReplyDeleteWhen the light comes back in a few weeks, I think that'll help your blues, too. :)