mrmmartin

Day 5 Summary of day Had a great productive day, getting up earlier definitely helped with getting things done. I managed to tick off almost everything on my to-do-list and feeling a lot happier. I have 3 more assignments due, with the last one due on the 8th of October then I am hoping to do some DIY work around the house (Starting with building a dog kennel) and collectively set some SMART goals for both me and my wife. I managed to get some good drawing time in, really enjoying digital art. I have attached what I worked on today in my free time, a... rooster...plague doctor? I'm not really sure. Peace, hope everyone had a good day.

@Pochatok Congratulations on the scholarship! That is awesome. I can relate to talking to people whilst focusing on their physical appearance, I have never really thought of it that way. Thanks for making me more aware of this, I often find myself trying to impress women even though I have a wife. I have no intention of cheating on my wife but its like the attention I gain from seeking their approval is important to me. Hope you feel a bit happier moving forward.

Day 4 Summary of Day For the first time in a very long time I managed to start an assignment before the due date and it feels great! The stress and anxiety that comes with leaving an assignment till the last minute had almost made me throw in the towel for my degree a second time. Around 2012 I began studying a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching and I was expected to have that completed around 2015, I would have been a qualified secondary teacher. I had to end up dropping out of the teaching section after really 'struggling' with workload and a number of other things. Initially I blamed everyone and everything for dropping the teaching part of my degree, when in reality I only had myself to blame. I let gaming consume so much time that I could have spent studying and I would have finished the degree. It was this realisation that led me to enrol in a Masters of Teaching in 2020, I always felt that I had given up and I wanted to really prove to myself that I could do it. Now I am six months away from graduating and I almost let gaming derail my aspirations again. But I am here determined to not let gaming get in the way again. Overall I had less cravings today. I didn't have time to work out unfortunately, but, I have worked out a schedule with my wife that I will wake up around 4-5am and feed our son then go for a run whilst he and my wife sleeps. Seeing that I want to put more time into drawing I was thinking of doing a daily drawing journal and maybe uploading it will my daily post. I have noticed that being productive is harder for me in the afternoon when my energy levels start to drain so I have reorganised my schedule to fit in a lot of those important tasks early in the morning when I am at my best. Tomorrow's To-Do-List: Meditation Workout Study Spanish Speed reading course Draw Read Respond or like someone else's daily journal. Today I'm grateful for A loving, supportive wife A healthy son The Respawn program Onward to day 5.

Day three. Had another really productive day. I am trying to find hobbies that will 'Fill the Void' and alleviate some of the boredom that gaming helped fill. In my down time I am currently learning Spanish, trying to get my head around investing, drawing a lot more and looking after myself whether that be eating a bit cleaner or exercising. I have to admit though I really am trying to find a hobby that I am just drawn to like gaming, I love drawing and I want it to take over my passion for games, but I just am not getting that same feeling. Is that normal? Maybe I need to keep trying stuff out to find that spark. Gaming has always been a social thing for me as well. My friends play a lot of games and I guess that is one of the reasons why I am always compelled to return to gaming. Before I quit I had purchased New World an upcoming MMO RPG and had around 10 friends that were also going to play. The release date is on the 28th of September so I really need to start making gaming as unappealing as possible so that I don't pick it back up. I live in a part of Australia that is currently in lockdown. I have been in lockdown for around 3 months now, it makes quitting a lot it harder, however, my logic is if I can get through this whilst being stuck at home, when everything returns to 'normal' I should find it a lot easier. That's all from me today, thank you for the likes on my last post really appreciate it and I hope everyone had another successful day.

Day two. I spend a lot more time with my boy today and let my wife get some well needed rest. Also, I was able to contact my university to let them know that I need some extra time for some assignments. I had a much better sleep not being up playing games to all hours of the morning. I already feel so much better both mentally and physically. Both my wife and I have come to a decision to sell a lot of my gaming setup and use the money to do some well needed renovations to our house. Hope everyone had a successful day also.

Here I am again. I achieved 120 days last time I quit. One little slip up led to me playing again. I want to prove my family and friends wrong that I can achieve anything that I put my mind to. I have a beautiful wife and new-born baby boy, I must give up gaming for good this time. Day one done.

@alvayuso Atomic Habits absolutely brilliant book, would definitely recommend as well.

Head up Dennis, you'll get there mate. I myself wasn't into hardcore raiding as such but when I did play I felt as if my character needed to have everything, max professions, mounts, toys and decent rating in arena. It becomes a time sink every time you go back because you have to catch up to be relevant for anything. As you mentioned the nostalgia of first playing wow will never be there again, playing wow for the first time is unlike any experience I've ever had in gaming. The way I see it, that really helps me to not play, in 10, 20 years time will you be proud to tell your children or even family and friends that you are the most geared player on wow with almost everything completed? I certainly wouldn't be, and that is what stops me from pouring hours into the game again. I'd rather tell them about where I've travelled, what I've studied, the cool things I've done in my life that I've actually done not virtually. Best thing I ever did was delete wow, it's so hard considering the time and money you put into that account but I promise you it's worth it. Best of luck.

I can definitely relate to this as well. I had been playing WoW since vanilla, one of the best things I ever did though was actually deleting my entire battle net account. It was tremendously hard and gave me so much anxiety, but it makes it so much harder to actually play again if you really wanted to. Buying the entire game again including expansions, levelling a character to max (or boosting) and just the amount of effort you have to put in to actually get everything to that level you had before would almost be impossible, that feeling actually turns me off the game. @Tinni I too would be constantly wanting to get home so I could just play WoW, I was constantly angry when I had to do things other than gaming. I've turned to drawing and focusing on study since I have quit and its going well with very little cravings. I also don't feel angry anymore if I have to go do something, quality of life is so much better. Hope you guys break that chain.

@MuMuMelonThanks appreciate it, glad to know someone is in the same boat.

Hello everyone, my names Matt. I am 27 from Sydney Australia. I have finally decided, after many failed attempts, to give up gaming for good! It has held me back from achieving my goals and basically living the life that I want to live. It has been a determent to my education, relationship with my wife, and my career. I have been playing games from around the age of 8 on multiple platforms, it has taken up such a significant part of my life and I never really saw it as a negative influence until I started university. I am currently completing my Masters of Teaching, and also work full time as Student Learning Support Officer. When I finish work I find it so hard to dedicate time to my education and I am slowly falling behind, I struggled significantly through my Bachelors degree due to gaming. I also feel that my social skills are really underdefined, finding it hard to simply answer the phone or hold up basic small talk. Only during the last year have I really been putting an effort into trying to hone those skills and am finally seeing progress. My game time really fluctuates depending on how interested I am on the game, but once I am really enjoying something I can neglect the majority of other aspects of my life, sending me into a constant state of depression and anxiety. I really want to stick to this program to improve my life, I need to. I have started by deleting all my games, permanently, I really struggled with this because I spend so much money and invested so much time in these games it is hard to part with them. Anyways, thankyou all for the support, hoping to start my daily journal soon.