Experimental July: Week 1 Reflection
A few days ago I decided to set myself some goals to hopefully achieve this July and write about my progress every weekend.
- No manually extending any app's time limits
- Daily screen time of 2 hours for my phone
- Opt for a book, podcasts, or writing when I'm about to reach for my phone to procrastinate or "relax"
I started on Thursday morning; so until today, it has now been 4 days. How did I do?
I wasn't able to adhere to these rules completely, and it should come as no surprise. Unfortunately, drastic changes come slowly unless one is able to exhibit strict discipline -- I certainly don't -- but fear not, I've already observed many positive changes in my screen time and daily routines and I'm confident it will only get better each week after this.
My daily screen time hovered around 2 to 3 hours each day, and that was a good improvement from June where it could surge to 4 or 5. There was only one occasion where I extended an app's time limit, but it was only once, and by 5 minutes.
What I'm slightly concerned about, though, is that I've found myself opting for the desktop/web version of a certain app when the time limit ran out on my phone. This defeated the purpose of that first goal I set, in some ways, but it was still better than nothing because using the web version both introduces more friction, and makes me more conscious of my actions, and hence prompts me to get off the platform as soon as I can.
To improve my progress on the second goal, I've decided to lower the time limits of certain apps. This, coupled with my stronger desire now to achieve goal 1, should be able to decrease my overall screen time quite well.
This week, I was able to make some progress on some podcasts I listen to and a few books I was reading, so that's a plus. I'm still reaching for my phone by-habit when I'm looking for something to fill up fragments of free time, but that will change soon; I am sure of it.
I am not so much of a "inbox-zero" person, but I certainly don't like to keep seeing todo-lists and reading lists getting filled up, either. I found that writing down, by hand, a list of to-do tasks in a bucket-list-style (ie, unordered, pick what you want to cross off) works quite well. There's no guarantee I am able to finish all the tasks each day, but I've come to terms with myself in carrying forward past items into each new day and live each day with content despite the overdue tasks. They are not entirely a sign of incompetence; rather, they're a sign of ambition, which, I should assure myself forgivingly that, ambition is a good thing.
On Thursday, I sat down and went through every single unread item in my RSS feed reader. That is, going through each item and either directly marking it as read, save it for later, or read it immediately. Pulling the total unread count from the hundreds down to 0 was a huge weight lifted off mentally and that also later, going through new unread items is a much more manageable task as a leisure activity. In some ways, this can be viewed as unhealthy -- treating my feed reader like a to-do list or email inbox, but it works because, again, I am perfectly okay with "missing out" on some articles I didn't give a chance to reading before immediately marking as read. And that change made all the difference in the way I approach going through my feed reader regularly.
My current count of unread items in my browser's built-in reading list sits at 22. I'm ready to make use of the same approach to get that count down to 0. There's certainly a reason why "past"-me saved it to read for "later", but if I can't think of the reason anymore, I should be happy with removing the item off the list and proceed with what I wish to do next in my day. Same goes to my podcasts up-next queue, and even my unfinished ebooks. If I got them easily, I can let them go easily too, as appropriate, and that also means if I ever feel like giving one a second chance, and I can get them into my e-reader again, just as easily as I did initially. There shouldn't be much of an emotional baggage attached to letting something go. Life is full of opportunities and experiences left to explore, elsewhere.
Cheers to a better week ahead.
#experimental-july
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