opbagration20

Day 3 (6th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Time wasted on the Internet, or propaganda and why I hate it! I will be honest. I spent 3 hours on the Internet today. Mostly about politics and some controversial historical events. And I wouldn't call it a waste of time. Why? Because I understood that the amount of propaganda and lies that circulate on the Internet today is ridiculous. I do not want to read about it anymore. I do not want to be brainwashed (every country does this, every single of them). Everyone is a liar. I can read 10 different sources and I still won't find out the truth. Thus, from now one I refuse to read all this flow of hatred and negative emotions. Everyone says that he or she has a unique opinion and political views, but in reality that person is as brainwashed as everyone else. It isn't worth my time. Reading all this is even more stupid as playing videogames. It isn't even fun. it is just depressing to see how people hate each other, because they were told to. Hatred is unproductive. What happened in the past must stay in the past! And we must work today. To build a better society instead of creating more reasons for hatred. Oh, and if something really bad happens (like war) I will find out anyway. So: From now on I am going to stop reading about politics and politicians. I do not need propaganda. I do not want to hate. After all, as Napoleon once said: History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. All this stuff was a major timesink for me lately, so from now on I am sure, that I won't waste time on such nonsense anymore. I guess, there won't be another "time wasted on the Internet" paragraph, like today, next time. I finally figured out the problem. Habits: No new habits for now. Everything goes as planned here. I am very satisfied with my results so far. Especially, since I listened to music for only 1 hour today. It became much easier for me to study. I definitely learn faster without music and because of this I will have more time for other activities later on! So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Day 2 (5th of February) Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! Habits Actually, nothing special to share about new habits today. I am still getting used to those that I have started yesterday. I feel, that I shouldn't hurry too much, because if I introduce a lot of habits at the same time, then I will actually drop all of them. Something like that happened before. Eventually, it led to even more horrendous amounts of procrastination. 3 to 4 major habits and 4-5 minor per week is more than enough! I am also getting rid of old habits. I like music. The problem is, sometimes I listen to it up to 10-12 hours a day. It may eventually damage my ears. And what is more disturbing it make me less aware of my surroundings. Not only it slows me when I do some work, but it also slows my reaction times on the street (once I almost broke my hand when I was jogging, because I was inattentive). It can actually be very dangerous for my life. So, I decided to set several new rules for myself: 1) I will listen to music only AT HOME. Not when I am jogging, not in gym, not when I walk to university. Only AT HOME. 2) I won't listen to music for more than 3 hours a day (that is still a lot, I know). 3) I won't listen to music when I study. It distracts me. Though, it is acceptable when I simply rewrite something. Gorilla Mindset I also continue rereading and slowly applying the mindset techniques from Mike Cernovich's Gorilla Mindset. So far it is amazing - I actually improved my posture considerably and stopped my self-criticising rants, which were frequent during the time when I was addicted to games. I did like he wrote - found a mirror, took a voice recorder and started talking. After listening to it and seeing my facial expression in the mirror, I understood how ridiculous it was. And embarassing. Actually, the exercise was so effective that I can't help but smile, when my mind starts to return to old self-crititcism. I also do self-talk and mindfulness exercises. I feel less anxious and more confident now. Actually, I always though that I had low self-esteem and that I was a very nervous person. But it is not true. As I get rid of old negative thoughts and thought patterns, I start to realise that my self-esteem is pretty good and that I am quite a skillful and talented person. I also became calmer and I have more control over my actions. The last time I felt so good, was when I was 6 years old. As I see it now, gaming was like 12 years of some nasty fever. I had fun, I felt happy sometimes, but it still felt like my life was empty. It is the second day of my detox and I already feel happy and grateful. Grateful and happy that I am alive. That is amazing! Fiction, or why reading Game of Thrones is as stupid as playing videogames! So, I mentioned in my post on Reddit that I did a 3 month detox in 2012. So, why did I stop? There were two reasons: 1) I still viewed games as an acceptable way of entertainment and I still was eager to play some new titiles. 2) I used wrong substitute activity, that as I believed was equal to games. In my case, I read literary fiction. I am not against fiction books, not at all, as long as they give you something useful, something that you may use in real life. I read fantasy books like Game of Thrones or sci-fi, like Mass Effect novels. Sometimes I read fanfiction. The problem with this genres lies in the fact, that it requires an insane amount of skill to make them useful. In most cases, they serve only entertainment purposes. It is just business. Most of the games are also made only to entertain you. So here is the catch: reading most of the fiction books (especially those, that are made for entertainment purposes only) is a waste of time. The only positive thing that books like that give you is an opportunity to improve your knowledge of language. But, you can read books that are more useful and that can teach you or at least make you reevaluate something in your life. Moreover, the language that is used in such books is more complex, than in those that are made for enternatinment purposes only, so you won't lose anything. A lot of 18-19th century literature is like that, so if you decide to read some literary fiction, than you should start looking there. The peak of my gaming addiction started, because I didn't understand a very simple thing: Reading Game of Thrones is as stupid as playing videogames! Time wasted on the Internet One hour and a half again. Bad, but I am not worried, because the next semester will start soon and this figure will drop dramatically anyways. I feel that it is acceptable to relax at times by reading some interesting article or watching a video. Especially, during winter holidays. But, I will do my best to cut the amount of wasted time at least two times. Daily Journal Writing detailed posts like this one every day like that is difficult and time consuming, so from now on I will write extensive journal entries only on Fridays or Saturdays. A summary post, of a sort, I guess. During other days I will only give details about the time I wasted on the Internet (or other time-wasting stuff) and some activities I did. Maybe, I will share something else too, from time to time, but I will make sure it doesn't consume a lot of time. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!

Hi, guys. Opbagration20 here! So, I've posted my story on Reddit yesterday: https://www.reddit.com/r/StopGaming/comments/43zexj/my_story/ I guess it is too long, but if you are interested why I decided to quit gaming, than the answer is there. I am not going to specify them here, since the reasons are actually quite simple and known to everyone who faced gaming addiction. So, let us begin! Day 1 (4th of February 2016) Technically speaking, I started earlier, but let's consider this day as the beginning of my detox. Surprisingly productive day. Surprisingly. Now, I want to talk about other things I decided to start doing: 1) The first thing I did in the morning was... morning gymnastics. Nothing special there, but I have gave up this "nothing special" habit long time ago. Now for it to enter my life again. 2) When I tried to learn programming I encountered a little problem - I type too slow. Thus, I decided to get rid of that problem by learning touch and type method. How? Program called Solo on a keyboard (Соло на клавиатуре). It is also avaliable in English and costs only 10$. There is a demo version too. So far It proved to be amazing. Not only it teaches you how to type, but also it teaches to control anger and to be persistent. There are 100 exercises and, hell, they are brutal. Extremely. And that is amazing. If you have problems with controling cravings to play games again, than I totally recommend you to give it a go. Why? Because it gives a challenge and it is merciless. It caters to competitive side of my personality. Oh, and if you decide to try it out, than here is a challenge for you: you do mistake - you redo the exercise from the scratch. 3) I started rereading Gorilla Mindset by Mike Cernovich. But in a very specific way - I read the book and... interpret to Russian or Ukrainian (depends on my mood), recording my translation on a smartphone. Then I listen to what I have recorded. This method increases perception of the text tenfold, because in order to interpret the text successfully I have to understand it. And if I understand something, I know how to apply it in my life. Also, it improves concentration and my interpretation skills. I started today and I already can see the results - I started making less mistakes. If you know a foreign language (most of us do), than I recommend to use it whenever possible! Don't let your skils rust! That all I have to share about habits, so let's move to something I did before the detox: 1) German. Studied it for about 3 or 4 hours. Should actually start tracking the time for better accountability, like it did it... 2) ...with Internet. I use Mind the Time addon for Mozilla Firefox. Wasted only 1 and a half hour on the net today. Used it to relax a little bit, when I was too tired. Plus, did some exercise on Duolingo for 30 minutes. Not the best result, but I will improve and cut the amount of time I waste. I still find it unacceptable. So, that is all for today! Have a good day (or night)! Good luck!