Endeavors

Friday, 26 June 2020 - Day 29 What I did today 10:00 Woke up, morning routine 11:00 Mindlessly browsed reddit on my phone 12:00 Work 14:30 Lunch 15:00 Miscellaneous tasks and preparation for a party this weekend 18:30 Piano practice 20:00 Dinner 20:30 More prep 21:55 Current time Thoughts This morning I made a list of tasks that I wanted to do today, and them split them up into must-do and nice-to-do tasks. I managed to get all must-do tasks done, and also did all but one nice-to-do task, which feels nice, but I'm quite exhausted right now. Tomorrow I will not be home all day, and I might not even have time to write my journal that night. But today was alright despite my laziness snoozing until 10:00 and actually starting my day at around noon. Something I learned today I learned a bit about midnight sun, which is basically when the sun stays up 24 hours a day. In some places in northern Norway the sun doesn't set for over two months during the summertime. It's quite funny if you google "alta norway sunset", you can see the sun doesn't set for another month in that area. Habits Wake up at 08:00 - Nope Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - Will right after Write journal - Check No electronics after 22:00 - Close enough Tomorrow I'll Be away all day so not much to write here See ya

Thursday, 25 June 2020 - Day 28 What I did today 08:00 Woke up, ready for gym 08:30 Gym 10:30 Breakfast n stuff 11:15 Work 14:30 Lunch 15:30 Wasted time on youtube and the world wide spiderweb 18:00 Back to work 19:30 Dinner 20:00 Work 20:30 Mowed the lawn 21:30 Current time Thoughts Closing in on a month without doing anything related to video games. The closest I've been to them in this period was probably listening to some animal crossing lofi music, which is surprisingly pleasant to listen to while studying/working. I've really come to enjoy life without video games. The main improvement is definitely that I've been experiencing a lot less anxiety and stress. Well, I'm still a bit stressed about some stuff coming up this weekend, but it's manageable. I've been able to focus more and be more calm overall. Before quitting, my main problem was actually not actually playing video games. Rather I would spend a crazy amount of time everyday watching gaming livestreams, mostly esports. I would follow my favourite teams like you would follow a sports team. I would constantly be thinking about the game, read news regarding the competitive scene and follow all important games. Even when I wasn't doing something related to the game, it would always be in the back of my mind... when is the next match, next tournament, some recent transfer news etc. It was all I thought about, all I did in my spare time. I guess I'm just writing this to remind myself how bad it really was, it took over my entire life. I do still miss some aspects of it though, but the bad outweighed the good by far during the time I was addicted. Maybe someday I'll go back to watching it in moderation, if possible, since I did have good moments and it was entertaining and exiting. But not in the near future. My goal for now is to stay clean until September 1 which is 68 days from now, 96 days clean total. By then I'll evaluate and decide how I want to continue forward. Also, just deleted youtube from my phone. Nothing but a time waster. Something I learned today When the actors from the sitcom Friends experienced something in real life that would change their physical appearance, the writers would incorporate it into the show. For example, one of the actors broke his arm, and instead of postponing the shooting of that episode, they fit it into the storyline, and the actor actually had a broken arm when shooting the scenes. In another case, one of them got pregnant, which caused the writers to focus the story on that aspect instead of what they initially had planned. Habits Wake up at 08:00 - Check Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - Nope Should have done this after lunch, but my brain decided not to. Write journal - Check No electronics after 22:00 - Nope Started writing this at 21:30, but some work stuff came up in the middle, so now it's almost 23:00. I really need to get a better overview of what I need to get done when I start my day so I can prioritise better. Tomorrow I'll Do stuff (hopefully) Au revoir

@chiliflavor Hi! Thank you for reading 😄 I really like that section of the journal as well. It reminds me to keep improving everyday and move in the right direction, even if it's just babysteps. Take care! Wednesday, 24 June 2020 - Day 27 What I did today 08:00 Woke up, morning routine 09:15 Work 11:00 Would have practiced piano here, but I got caught up in youtube videos... 12:00 Piano practice for tonight 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Went to the mechanic to change from winter- to summer tires (I know, I'm a bit early 🙃) 15:00 More practice 17:00 Dinner 17:30 Band practice 20:30 Miscellaneous stuff, cleaning, snack... 21:50 Current time Thoughts Woke up at 8 today and was pretty tired but I powered through. Piano practice took up more time than planned, but that's okay. Overall pretty satisfied with today, the only thing is I often find myself spending a bit too much time watching meaningless youtube videos to relax after I've been working or doing something mentally exhausting. In these situations I should rather go for a walk or do some cleaning to get my mind off of work instead of going into "entertainment mode". Also should probably delete youtube from my phone. Something I learned today I learned that a tritone on the piano is two tones 6 semitones from each other. (only click this link if you don't mind a dramatic decrease of your IQ) Habits Wake up at 8 a.m. - Yes! Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - Will do right after Write journal - Check No electronics after 10 p.m. - Yes (actually it's 22:09 right now but whatever it's close enough) Tomorrow I'll Go to the gym Work Finish that song (for real now) Apply for university (hopefully for real now?) See ya!

Tuesday, 23 June 2020 - Day 26 What I did today 10:00 Woke up, made the bed, got ready for gym 11:00 Went to the gym 13:00 Lunch and chill for a bit 14:00 Work stuff at library 18:00 Dinner, mini-nap 19:00 Spent time with friends 22:30 Current time Thoughts I hate waking up at 10 a.m. with the feeling that I've already wasted half a day. Waking up early and getting stuff done early in the day is really important to me to feel like I've actually accomplished something that day. Win the morning, win the day. Anyway, considering I woke up late I'm quite happy with what I got done today. The early work meeting got postponed, so I could make it to the gym first thing despite waking up late. The reason I woke up late is last night someone held a party close by, so falling asleep wasn't exactly easy. Also, I had a hard time laying still when trying to fall asleep because I don't think I moved my body enough throughout the day. Something I learned today The library has crazy download and upload speeds. I mean, at home I have 100mb download and 30mb upload, but that seems sooo slow when compared to the library speeds. Crazy times we live in. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nope Changing this to 8 a.m. from this point onward. The final goal is to wake up at 6 a.m., but one step at a time. Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - Will do right after Write journal - Check No electronics after 10 p.m. - Nope Tomorrow I'll write this journal before dinner, since I don't have much time afterwards. Sometimes I wonder how I spent so much time gaming before I started this. Feels like I have no time now. I guess if you're really addicted to something, you're gonna find a way to make time for it, even if that means making sacrifices. Tomorrow I'll Wake up at 8 a.m. Finish that song Apply for university Practice for band practice Have band practice Also want to produce some sick music if I have time That's all folks

Monday, 22 June 2020 - Day 25 What I did today Woke up at 8.45 Did a home bodyweight workout Worked way more than expected That's pretty much it Thoughts I didn't expect there to be a lot of stuff I had to do today, but I was wrong. Work filled up pretty much all the time I had, so not much to report. Feeling a bit... bummed out? since I didn't get to do much of what I wanted today. Tomorrow'll be better. Something I learned today I learned about ISBN and how they work. Very exiting stuff. (not really, but good to know I guess?) Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nope Tomorrow I have to wake up at 7 in order to make it to the gym and back home in time for work. Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - I'll do after posting this Write journal - Check No electronics after 10 p.m. - Yessir Have a good one.

Sunday, 21 June 2020 - Day 24 Thoughts Didn't write yesterday because it got late and going to sleep was the better choice. Today I woke up around 10 a.m., but despite that I actually had a pretty productive day. I worked a lot on the big project, which is closed to finished at this point. Spent some time with my family and chilled out a bit. Played some piano and went for a walk near the beach. Tomorrow I'll have a lot of time on my hands, so I guess it's about time I proceed with the respawn program. Also want to go to the library and do some programming stuff. I don't write about gaming that much. The reason for that is simply that I'm not thinking about it that much. I just realised that over three weeks have gone by since I quit, which is great! Time has gone by pretty fast since I've been keeping myself busy with different projects. I do miss some aspects of video games though, most notably the community, but more than anything else I'm glad that a community like this exist to remind me that I'm not alone and that in five years, I'll look back and thank myself and this community for changing my life for the better. It's all about getting a little perspective. What I did today Had brunch Did laundry Worked for around 5 hours Played piano Went for a walk Chilled Something I learned today I learned what a blues scale looks like on a piano. It's kind of fun to mess around with, although I don't completely understand the theory behind it yet regarding chords etc. Really want to learn more about jazz music and the theory behind that among other things. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nope Make the bed - Check Work out - Off day Meditate - Nope Walk the dog - Check Write journal - Check No electronics after 10 p.m. - Yas Tomorrow I have to Do my habits before anything else Apply for university Finish a song Continue with respawn Go to the library and do programming stuff (got a specific project in mind) I'll see you lovely people tomorrow!

Friday, 19 June 2020 - Day 22 Thoughts I'm kinda in a hurry right now but today was not really as productive as I would have liked. Spent too much time watching recommended youtube videos on my phone. Some were interesting enough, but not really what I wanted to do with my time today. Got some good things done too though. What I did today Short home workout Continued work project Got a haircut Made music Made dinner Watched a bad movie with the fam Something I learned today Hairspray makes hair... super stiff. Like, wow. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nope Woke up in the middle of the night because of thunder, and didn't really sleep well overall, so I woke up at 9 a.m. Also went to bed late so I'm not gonna beat myself up because of it. Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Gonna do right after posting Walk the dog - Gonna do right after meditating (doing it like this kinda feels like cheating, but whatever) Write journal - Check No electronics after 10 p.m. - Nope Watched a movie after dinner so currently writing this at almost 11 p.m. It's all good though, I'm gonna cut myself some slack. The movie was kinda bad though, I should have just stopped watching halfway though instead of wasting my time finishing it. In the future, I want to my habits in the order above (maybe except taking the dog for a walk, since it's a nice way to wind down). Tomorrow I have to Go to gym Practice piano Continue song Chill So long.

Thursday, 18 June 2020 - Day 21 Thoughts Today was alright. I guess I'm saying "alright" because it actually went pretty well in the early part of the day, but a couple of hours ago I got caught up in some music stuff and lost track of time. Suddenly it was 11:30 p.m. and now I'm suuuper tired. Actually... just as I started writing this journal my feeling of tiredness has disappeared because of the fact that I'm sitting in front of a laptop screen on a forum that has no night/dark mode (I think?). Anyway, no more chit-chatting. What I did today Gym Continued work project Went to the library to chill/read/work Wrote the verses to the song Rediscovered my love for making music (yea this happens about twice a month) Changed the headlight on my car Something I learned today I learned a bit about parallel compression in music. It's basically where you split a sound signal in two, where one is dry and the other one is compressed. Then you send them to the master and can change the levels of the two signals depending on how tight you want it to be. I've only learned about it theoretically, but definitely gonna try it out sometime. Oh and another thing: I get easily irritated when I'm hungry and when I'm sleepy, but when you combine those two... it's really not pretty. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Yes! Make the bed - Check Work out - Yep Meditate - Yas Walk the dog - Indeed Write journal - Yessir No electronics after 10 p.m. - Uhm no I need to get my priorities straight. After dinner I changed the headlights on my car instead of writing. Then proceeded to do music stuff instead of writing. Now it's late and I don't feel like writing. It feels like a chore instead of something I actually want to do. Tomorrow I have to Continue work project Complete a Respawn module (oops forgot today) Call some friends Gonna have a quick snack now (because I can't sleep on an empty stomach) then go to bed. Farewell for now

@mks Thanks for reading! I just recently started trying to learn this glorious piece from the Ratatouille movie (my goal is to be able to play from the start of the video to 1:39). Playing soundtracks from movies is probably what I love to play the most on piano. I've played piano for about 3 years, but this piece is the most challenging yet I think, so we'll have to see if I can power through and make it, I really hope so! How long have you played piano for? Wednesday, 17 June 2020 - Day 20 Thoughts Overall pretty happy with today. Woke up a bit late, but still managed to work out a bit before work. Got some work done. Played piano and had a band practice session. No real cravings or nostalgia. Tomorrow I'll have more time to do some more hobby/fun stuff, really looking forward to that. What I did today Called my hairdresser for an appointment Finished my book and returned it to the library Continued work project Practiced piano Had some band practice (So basically everything I had planned from the day before. Good job me) Also watched a few funny videos of some violin lads on youtube Something I learned today Buying a $30 violin is not something you want. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nah Went to bed too late and even used my phone in bed which did not make me fall asleep any faster. Today I'll wind down at 10 p.m. and go to sleep at 11. Tomorrow I'm going to get up at 7 a.m. and go to the gym first thing no matter how I'm feeling. I really need some hardcore discipline back in my life. Make the bed - Check Work out - Yep Meditate - Yas Walk the dog - Will do right after posting this Write journal - Guess I don't really have to answer this No electronics after 10 p.m. - Will do! Tomorrow I have to Continue work project Complete a Respawn module Write two verses in a song for my little sister's party next weekend Write down personal goals Bye!

Tuesday, 16 June 2020 - Day 19 Thoughts Phew a lot happened today. Or I should probably say a lot work-related stuff happened. Got a big project going on right now. Barely had time for anything else, but that also means I didn't waste a lot of time today, which is not too shabby for my standards. I had a wave of cravings about a week ago, but these last couple of days I've had none. Probably because I've been pretty busy, but it's pretty great nonetheless. I think my brain is slowly returning to calmer state overall now that I don't play or watch games. I now actually have days where I can remember all of the stuff that happened and feel pretty good about it. Before i quit gaming, the days were pretty much the same: A big mess. Blurry. Feeling stressed and anxious because I felt like there wasn't enough time. Glad those days are over. Now that I really think about it, I don't think I ever want to go back. I didn't find time to continue with Respawn today, and I doubt I'll have time tomorrow either, so I'll have to put it off a bit. Same with writing down goals. What I did today Went to the gym Work Played some piano Took a walk at the beach at sunset Something I learned today A windbag is a person who talks a lot without really saying anything meaningful or of value. Glad I learned that word, that'll come in handy lol. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nope Snoozed until 8:40 a.m. today... just in time to get ready for my meeting af 9 o'clock. I guess it's difficult to wake up early when you're not motivated or have nothing to look forward to. The alarm-behind-curtain idea was probably not too bad, I think I just went to bed too late. Tonight I'll go to bed at 11:30 p.m. so I can get just about 8 hours in my bed and hopefully feel rested when the alarm goes off. Also, I put a couple (5) backup alarms on my phone. Hope that'll do the trick. I once had a period in my life where I woke up at 6 a.m. and it was the best way to start the day. So peaceful with no distractions. That's probably my goal, but for now 7 a.m. would be great. Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - Check Write journal - Check No electronics after 10 p.m.* - Nope Changed from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. to make it a bit more realistic. Didn't have time to write this journal after dinner (spent some time with my family instead), so now it's 11:00 p.m. Tomorrow I'll hopefully make it on time. Tomorrow I have to Call my hairdresser for an appointment Finish my book and return it to the library Continue work project Practice piano Band practice Complete a Respawn module (if I have time) I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Monday, 15 June 2020 - Day 18 Thoughts Well some time has gone by. I haven't been playing or watching games during this period, but haven't been particularly motivated to do something great either. Moving forward, I'll try to post here everyday after dinner. What I did today Worked out at home Played the piano Worked a ton Sat with my family and went though old pictures... always fun to look back Something I learned today Fast food became a thing not long after WW2. It originated in the US, which probably explain their obesity problem to some degree. Pizza Hut were the first ones to deliver fast food to the International Space Station. Delivery cost was more that 1.000.000 USD. Quite the price to pay for a 15 dollar meal. Habits Wake up at 7 a.m. - Nope Snoozed until 8:30 a.m. Got an idea toady of placing my alarm clock behind my curtain, so I have to open it and let some light into my room before I can even turn off the alarm. Hopefully that'll wake my lazy ass up. Make the bed - Check Work out - Check Meditate - Check Walk the dog - Check Write journal - Check No electronics after 9 p.m. - Nope Writing this at almost midnight... tomorrow I'll write journal after dinner to be on time. Tomorrow I'll Go to the gym Work Complete Respawn module 4 Write down short-term and long-term goals Goodnight.

30 May 2020 - Day 2 Finished another module of respawn today and took my graphics card out of my PC and put it away. Today was alright I guess, though I didn't really do anything too exiting. I've been wanting to watch the Godfather series for a while, but I just found out that today was the last day the movies were available on Netflix. Kind of a bummer. Don't really know why I'm writing this, it's kinda random. I guess I need some more structure in these journals and also not write them at night while I'm half asleep. The weather should be great tomorrow, so I'll be spending some time out. Also gonna finish another module of respawn and put a bit of thought into the purpose and structure of this journal. Night.

29 May 2020 - Day 1 I slept in a bit today because I stayed up in bed yesterday watching a little too much Netflix (whoops, bad habit). Got through the second module of Respawn, where I uninstalled everything gaming-related, deleted steam account and set up a website blocker. It didn't feel that bad or terrifying to be honest, but maybe it's just because I haven't really realised what I've done yet or what I'm getting myself into. I wanted to take my graphics card out of my PC and but it in a box somewhere, but it's a little late now so I'll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll also finish module 3 of Respawn. What I did well today Completed another module in Respawn Got some important work done early in the day Took time to hang out with friends and family Worked out What I can do better Wake up earlier Watch a little less Netflix Going to bed without my phone now. Goodnight.

I can't really say much at this point since I almost just started it, but the reason i bought Respawn was not so much for the program itself. I bought it to show myself that I was willing to invest not only time and thought, but also money into dealing with this addiction. I don't know if this makes sense, but buying the program definitely makes me feel more committed to quitting games than ever before. I recommend it so far by the way, having a clear-cut program to follow definitely helps.

28 May 2020 - Day 0 Just finished Module 1 of Respawn where I was told to create a journal, so here we are. Feeling pretty good about this whole quitting games thing. I'm glad that a community like this exists. I don't know exactly how I'm going to set these journal entries up yet or what I'm going to write, but I guess I'll figure that out along the way. Tomorrow I'm gonna complete at least one more module of Respawn. Excited. Peace out.

I'm 20 years old and have been addicted to video games for a couple of years at this point. At first I didn't see video games as a problem or addiction, but with time my need for games grew bigger, and I needed to play more and more hours every day to get the same level of satisfaction and feeling of achievement from video games. I don't hate video games, but i hate video game addiction. I don't like the person I become when i game. Competitive games make me frustrated, irritated and apathetic in general and towards the people who actually matter in my life. I have also realised that all the hours I've put into video games give me no long-term value at all, quite the opposite really, and that's why I've decided to quit. I just bought the Respawn program and hope to follow it through and detach myself from video games and instead spend my time improving. Also good luck to everyone else here, we're all gonna make it!