AlexTheGrape

Day 8 of games & alcohol detox Things are going really well. I managed to not only get through, but really enjoy the end of year work event without any alcohol. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was grateful that my choice to of drinking a 0% beverage was met with interest or indifference, and I didn't get pressured to do otherwise. The first couple days after stopping playing games had me in a bit of a rut mentally, but that's somewhat expected after taking the toys away and the dopamine levels resettle. I'm aiming to get more productive with my time - this evening was great, and I aim to keep it up. I've found proper exercise makes a massive difference to my day. Perhaps I could do with doing it first thing in the morning.

Hi Yan, love the consistency of your journal. Awesome that you've kept to these commitments for so long, keep it up!

Hi @Hitaru, happy 9 years on your journal! Sounds like you're making a lot of changes to your life at the moment, so don't be too hard on yourself. Hang in there. As much as I'd like to trust myself to be self-reliant when it comes to games, I've had to make it as difficult to access as possible. I got my steam account permanently deleted, and that has been the biggest barrier to slipping when times get tough. I wonder if something similar would work for you. It's very difficult to be completely without digital technology these days. Reach out if you'd like any other ideas or more specifics. I'd be curious to know what are your priorities, to replace gaming? What are you aiming to achieve in the next few months? Might help have something to look forward to. Personally I'm aiming for certifications and building cool tech stuff. Best of luck with your week

Hi Game Quitters, It's been a while! 6 years, in fact. I've visited the forum briefly a couple of times the past few years, but I didn't post. I think I felt embarrassed to be experiencing trouble with games after having gone without it successfully for a long time. I certainly was at the start of this year. Thankfully my life is going fairly well at the moment, but video games had made their way into my life time and again the past few years. Although I kept focused for months at a time, there are times when I let down my guard, or gotten into a rut over a holiday season. I've found my priorities change if the easy and fun option is available, and my patience for productive activities (such as programming in my spare time) evaporates. This year has been quite successful compared to my last three years as a professional - I've made really great progress with my programming skills. It is in no small part due to kicking the habit again in Jan or Feb or so - it freed up a lot of time. I've just had a couple weekends of playing a few hours of games recently, and I've already noticed the pull to play more, and deprioritisation of activities I'd consider important. So why post now? I want to be held accountable for committing to zero video games. Making my intentions public adds an extra barrier of entry to playing games. Plus, it helps tracking this as a small win, that I can stick to something and succeed. Secondly, if I journal regularly, I'll be reflecting regularly, and that's essential for growth. That way I can continually refine my focus. As the saying goes, "what get's measured, gets managed." Thirdly, being part of a community committed to bettering themselves has only done good things for me in the past, and I will get the opportunity to encourage others too. I'm also going to take a break from consuming alcohol. More on this later, but I've been sober curious. I suspect it will help my wellbeing and productivity over the long term. That's all for today, being Day 1 of my 90 day games and alcohol detox.

The past couple days I got some decent studying done. I'm not getting to bed as early as I probably should. I'll have to focus on being in bed by 11pm. The school style routine kinda went out the window when I started doing practice exams. I need to make a two week plan of where I want to be in terms of my exam study, that'll put how much work I need to do into perspective. I haven't been exercising every mornung, but I'm starting to incorporate running into my study schedule to keep focussed.

Today has been a useless day in terms of studying, but it wasn't bad overall. I took a friend to the supermarket and went to go print some wallpapers for the flat, which I've been meaning to do for a while. I then studied for about 2-3 hours before heading to the gym for a really decent workout. I then went to support a friend at a comedy play they were part of. I didn't get anywhere near as much study done as I needed to, so tomorrow I;m going to restart my self-disciplined school-style study routine where I stick to the schedule I would have had at high school. This worked for me in my last study leave and will still work now. I'll also start the day with a quick run, which will be necessary to get me going quickly.

Hi again friends! I'm just about halfway through my second year of university now, and things are going alright academically. I'm still working out which has been good out of that, but I'm facing the issue again that I'm not growing as a person and am lacking clear direction. I'm happiest when I feel I'm consistently working towards a meaningful goal and challenging myself. Lately I've been sticking inside my comfort zone a lot, which isn't good at all. First things I wish to change: I want to be exercising every morning, improve on my sleeping habits, phone usage, study more effectively, and waste less time. Daily reflection is a necessary part of not making the same mistakes over and over, so I'm returning here to have greater accountability to do so. I've only played some 10 or so hoirs of video games this year. I don't seem to find it very exciting anymore, and they now seem a little pointless. Recently I've been getting into reading more, and am loving reading The Maze Runner. Today I'm going to schedule studying time and break time, and make sure to get 6-8 hours of studying done. As always, feel free to leave a comment or another way to prod me if I haven't posted in a while!

Thank you Cam for your continuous and tireless support for myself and all the other game quitters. I've become a much better person with your guidance?

Thanks Hitaru! I hope you end up great places as well.

It's been a while! I think I'll make a post here for some self reflection and forever wishes to look. My holidays have been going relatively well, I've been working hard to earn money, keeping fit, and I've made sure to catch up with friends. I certainly could see more friends I haven't seen in a while, but I'm relatively happy with how I've spent my time. I have been gaming for a few months now and it has been good. I managed tk keep it at a healthy level and only play a couple times a week, and sometimes not at all during the week. It has been a great journey on Game Quitters, and I've learned a lot about myself along the way. This may be goodbye, but I hope to continue a journal here if I feel incmined once university starts again. Bye for now Game Quitters!

Nice! I wouldnt expect you to come here just for the run. What length of run are you wanting to do? Message me pls

Quick update: Sunday went well without games, and I haven't gamed since then. I spent more time with my brothers and did some reading. I've come to realise the nature of my relationship with games, and it simply reflects how I gamed before I quit. I was not addicted to games as I find it manageable to simply not play any, but I just played a lot when I have nothing better to do and no urgent tasks that need doing. I may also be naturally drawn to fantasy types of things as I find it fun to play tabletop games such as Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. Even the books I love most are about adventure in fictional worlds. Hence I won't reprimand or try to change myself for desiring these things. So far my week has gone well, I'm currently working full-time hours some 3-4 days a week. I've been spending a good amount of time with my girlfriend, but I should catch up with some of my friends sometime soon. I managed to sort out some of my previous tasks, but I am still short on goals at the moment. I talked to some family and it seems I'm not expected to have any big goals or achieve anything for the world to see, as I'm only a human after all. I don't wish to live a life of mediocrity, but it is comforting to know that I don't need to be constantly working myself to the bone. What does this mean? I'll be enjoying life as much as I can by having everything in moderation.

This looks great! I'll definitely ask around. Were you coming to NZ for it or something?

Exams are over. They have been for some two weeks now! A lot of change has happened in the meantime. When my holidays started I spent a lot of time reading and I made sure to go to the gym the normal amount. I spent a decent amount of time with my girlfriend. I started to do some full-time construction work to fill in my time, whilst also doing my part-time job. For the better or worse, I started gaming again. I believe it came of running out of interesting books and I then wanted something fun and easy to fill my time, so I grabbed the lowest hanging fruit. I'm sure there are many more underlying problems which I need to address, so I need to do that very soon. It'd likely trace back to not having any long-term goals at the moment, I'm not visualising, etc. I let a couple people know that I'm going to play no games tomorrow to see how it goes. I'll likely continue going cold turkey afterwards, but I'll have to see. Tomorrow I'm going to: Sort out my immediate tasks I need to do Make a few calls and do some reflection to figure out what I really want out of life (I'm finding it rather vague right now) Create SMART goals according to what I want to accomplish. Set goal time limits which I'll keep here for accountability Set up measures to keep myself accountable (e.g. daily alarm for GQ posting) From my repeated experiences with relapse, I've found that posting daily during the holidays is essential for my productivity and wellbeing. It may not be necessary when time is sparse during exams and such, but throughout the year I should be reflecting daily and keeping myself accountable for taking the more difficult but more beneficial actions.

Last week has been an ok week in terms of productivity. During the uni days I went to the gym twice which was not ideal, but I made decent use of my time and ensured that I met my deadlines. In the weekend I had a couple dilemmas and effected my ability to study somewhat, I didn't get much work done as a result. This week I need to give my coursework and studying full priority, even cutting down on gym time if necessary to meet the exams as prepared as I can be.

Last week has been intense! I had another two tests and managed to get through the week well. I've been trying to achieve my highest during the tests, but in doing so I have been slightly behind in lectures. I'm pretty much caught up now though. I need to make sure I do these reflections on a Sunday, as I otherwise forget until I can hardly remember what I did during that week. I worked plenty of hours for my jobs, it is getting to be a lot to juggle though. I didn't spend very much time with my uni friends and instead spent a lot with my girlfriend. Its not a bad choice, but I need to be aware that friendships require consistent maintenance. I'm feeling good in general though, which is the best I could hope for in exam season. I only have two weeks until my exams are over! I haven't been meditating or anything like that, I am just not convinced enough that it helps me enough for it to be a priority. Perhaps because I'm doing regular exercise and progeamming I am already getting a good rest. Looking to my upcoming summer holidays, it seems like getting a temporary full-time job would be good to make use of my time, however I do want a bit of a holiday, so I won't rush into it.

I'm glad you enjoy it haha. Thanks for letting me know

@Cam Adair Will the meetup be on the 14th in Sydney near the same time as the show? I'm looking to buy flights right now.

Last week has been another blast of busyness. I did well to arrange my week days so that I didn’t have any clashes, but I made a couple of poor choices in how I spent my time during the week. I spend a little too much time with my girlfriend when I should have been studying or going to robotics, and I believe I’ve learned from those experiences. I need to keep my sleeping and studying routine consistent throughout the weekend during these important exam times, as it really messes me up when I stay up too late and get up too late. In general it has been a good and very busy week, and I know the workload will only ramp up from here. One of my pen pals wrote to me asking if we were still pen pals anymore, as I haven’t sent a proper email to any of them this year. It has made me feel a little sad and guilty that I haven’t put in the time to write to them, but it also shows that I’ve had a change in priorities. I initially wrote to my pen pals in the school holidays as I’d have a lot of free time, and it was a good way to keep myself from gaming. Now I am able to meet all my wants and needs without gaming or writing to people which is really good. It is hard to tell but I think I am happier than I used to be in general. Anyhow I will need to narrow down my active pen pals I write to down to just one or two, as I will simply be living my own life from now instead of reciting it.

Here's my weekly reflection: This week has gone really well. I managed to do fairly well to get studying done where it is needed, however I'm a little lacking in a couple papers. I made sure to get help when I needed it, and I did a good job of tutoring and working at the restaurant. Staying at university to get studying done has been helpful on the couple of days which I did do it, but I'm going to need to try a little harder on the weekend to study longer. I did however manage to get in intense exercise between 50min sessions whilst studying, which really helped me keep alert and engaged. I've been getting up consistently at 6am which has been great, and I've been trying harder than ever at the gym - things are going superb. My relationship is going very well, I could say I have a girlfriend now. I really think everything can only get more intense around the board, as exams are coming up and I'll be more pressured for time. I wasn't consistent with visualisation, I'll need to continue that. I'm going to stick with the weekly posts now, as I simply don't have the time every day to be writing a long post; every minute of spare time I can muster needs to be put towards my studies and social life.

I don't think I am currently, but I'll look into it

Doing improv sessions sounds interesting, I didn't know about them! You're absolutely right about the unpredictability of life vs. the predictability of video games. Keep at it, the results will come in time

What an awesome story! I hope you learnt a lot from hanging out with Cam and the surfers. I hope the relapse wasn't significant, and all the best for getting back on track socially. Great to see you're doing such in-depth reflections too!

Nice journal layout Looks like things are going well for you, keep it up man! Sounds like you had a good night out, and even better you could loosen up. Don't let it bother you if you can't do that all the time though, not everyone is suited to partying all the time

Well done! What kind of activities are you doing to replace gaming right now? If there aren't any, it may be a good idea to sort that out before a relapse can occur. All the best!