[Rasa's diary]

Dear diary,

Day 6/90 detox

Play games? No

Watch game related videos/?

No

Exercise? No (kinda a rest day since i'm slowly getting back into it)

Learned language using Duolingo? Yes, around 15 minutes in total.

This diary entry is actually for yesterday. It was a bit cooked but i'll get to it. Why does the detox day say 6/90? I think i'm being a little ambitious by lumping everything into my detox regime so I think i'll just stick to not gaming and not watching game related videos for now as my detox. I watched 2-3 hours of tv shows yesterday which is not very productive and you could call it a relapse into non productive activities.

I also ended up not going back to sleep so i pretty much stayed awake from 5am or so until I eventually slept due to exhaustion at 6pm. I slept the whole night until I had to get up at 7:30am today.

Before i went to sleep though, i did some research online since I felt that games were not the root of my problems. I stumbled upon this article: https://blog.iqmatrix.com/instant-gratification which i related to a lot. I didn't buy the package thing, nor do i think it would be particularly helpful.

The root of my issues seem to be being dependent on instant gratification and the dependence of those quick dopamine hits, rather than long term satisfaction and long term goals. I literally will try anything to avoid important tasks. Awareness of this has really brought a new light on things for me. It's about being aware and staying away from constantly stimulating myself, as well as always focusing on consequences of your actions, like how does looking at your phone constantly, or how does avoiding tasks, help you or hurt you? 'Dopamine' and my physical responses to it are the core of my problems and this will be my prime focus moving forward.

[Codepant's Journal]

@codepants, quitting games and cleaning your apartment seem like pretty productive activities to me so keep it up! I also completely feel you with how being present is so exhausting. Urgh, processing emotions and the stresses of life 😕. I guess it's the only way forward though and that it gets better.

[Rasa's diary]

4 hours ago, codepants said:

'Ayyyyy, I was just there! Currently day 13 for me. Yea, it's hard to know whether what you're feeling is withdrawal, or not enough sleep, or not enough sleep because of withdrawal, but... I think it gets better? It feels like it's getting better. And I'm been more motivated to do things I don't normally do, like clean, practice ukulele (my version of learning a new language), ... hang in there.

Well done @codepants, keep it up! Thanks for the encouragement. I haven't reached the point where I'm doin thing that I don't normally do, but I have recently started doing the things that I used to do when I lived a healthy life like exercise and not sitting on the computer overnight. I actually used to learn and play the piano but still haven't actually picked that up for a while. Playing music is such a great flow activity!

[Rasa's diary]

7 hours ago, MuMuMelon said:

Hey @Tabula rasa, I just wanted to say hi and wish you all the best. This may seem like a monumental task at the moment but I know that you can accomplish this.

I wish you strength and peace of mind as you continue at this journey to quit playing video games. 

Thanks so much for the encouragement @MuMuMelon
Today is my 6th day without playing games and i'm actually feeling it. Like complete shit (probably withdrawal symptoms). I slept pretty late, at like 2am and got woken up in the night at around 5am and haven't slept since. I prob need to go to sleep now...

[Rasa's diary]

Dear diary,

Day 2/90 detox

Play games? No

Watch game related videos/TV Shows? No

Exercise? Yes (30 minutes)

Learned language using Duolingo? Yes, around 20 minutes in total.

I managed to follow what I had planned yesterday, although it was literally only eat breakfast and write a gratitude journal entry. I still haven't planned a schedule or washed my clothes yet but I have done some more organisation in my room and sorted my lecture notes so that I am ready to start studying. Everything is sorted now and it's just a matter of making a start... Pomodoro has been my best friend in the past and I have the app already. I just need to overcome my fear of starting/fear of failure now 😕

[Rasa's diary]

17 hours ago, BooksandTrees said:

Get your tasks done first thing maybe? Might be easiest to get through the day afterwards.

You're right. I will try and move the most difficult activities towards the start of the day.

[Rasa's diary]

Dear diary,

Day 1/90 detox

Play games? No

Watch game related videos? No

Learned language using Duolingo? Yes, around 30 minutes in total.

I managed to do some weightlifting today and my workout was for around 35 minutes in total. I found that I have been resorting to distracting myself with TV shows so I'm going to add TV shows to my list of things that I am detoxing from, so now the list is Games, TV shows and Game related videos. I'm starting the detox from scratch! I'm going to sort out a schedule tomorrow, one for days when i'm working, and one for days when I'm at home the whole day. The latter is my biggest challenge at the moment. I still haven't washed my clothes :/. I'll be starting tomorrow by eating breakfast and then writing a gratitude journal entry. Then planning my day using a schedule, then following it.

[Rasa's diary]

Dear diary,

Day 3/90 detox

Play games? No

Watch game related videos? No

Learned language using Duolingo? Yes, around 30 minutes in total.

Didn't end up washing my clothes :(. Ended up being super distracted by a possible business venture. I seem to lack focus and I need to work on keeping to the plans that I set.

[Rasa's diary]

Dear diary,

Day 2/90 detox

Play games? No

Watch game related videos? No

Learned language using Duolingo? Yes, around 40 mins in total.

I found this android app called AppBlock which essentially does the same thing as Cold Turkey but for phone. It's really helping! Today I collected my belongings that had been scattered across the house into my own room and organised it. I found something I had been looking for, for a while in the process.

The plan for tomorrow is to wash all of my clothes since I haven't for quite some time. I've also ordered something that will help with ironing my clothes. I will also need to study and catch up with school work. Thinking about using a pomodoro app for that.

I need to be sleeping earlier as well. It's pretty late for me atm as i got caught up with all the organising.

[A day at a time - Panda's daily journal]

3 hours ago, royal panda said:

Day 3 + Day 4 

 

Did I play games? No 🙂

Did I eat junk food? No 😄

Did I drink soda? No 8D

Did I watch porn? No 😄

Did I listen to music? No 🙂

 

Overall thoughts of yesterday:

Yesterday, wasn't that good. I had a good morning, then went on my phone again, making me miss another college thing. After that and crying for a bit, I took my phone and put it in the back of my closet. I won't use my phone unless I have to submit something or use it for school. I didn't think my phone would be such a distraction again, but I was proven wrong. Maybe taking a break will help.

 

Overall thoughts today:

Today was way better, i got a walk in, finished my homework, was very productive. I think I am noticing a pattern too. Once I wake up, I dont want to get out of bed initially, but then once I get out of bed, I am raring to go and enjoying my productivity. One thing I also realized today is that anything you can do in a game, you can do in real life. For the games where you shoot humans or like GTA, you shouldn't do it, but you still could, (not promoting violence btw). For example, like any of the 2k games, instead of pretending to be a superstar basketball, baseball, hockey, football, player, you could put the game down and practice with a real basketball and a real basketball hoop, and practice to actually be an NBA superstar. So I found that quite interesting. Also today I made it to a college visit.

 

Things to improve on:

Waking up early

start meditating again

have a morning routine

Keep it up! Being aware of what you can improve on has really helped me and it looks like you already know. Just on the wake up thing, i found it really helps to set an alarm at 9:30pm or so to remind yourself to start preparing for bed. Also electronics don't help you feel tired because they emit blue light which makes your brain think it's still daytime so you could try do some stuff that doesn't require your phone/computer. Forest for a 2 hr timer if you need to! Super keen to see your progress. 

[Rasa's diary]

@giblets @royal panda I'm currently learning Chinese since it's quite different to western languages. It feels different to me than playing games because I can barely stay on the app for more than 30 minutes since it's literally quizzing you every second and my brain starts to hurt. Compared to games when i'm sure all of us have experienced, we can play for half a day or more without any difficulty.

Thanks for the encouragement panda!

Forest is exactly how panda described. It doesn't track the time you spend on other apps and the only way you really use it is if you say to yourself you don't want to use your phone for the next x hours/minutes, then you open the app and start a timer. The app will try to discourage you from looking at your phone by reminding you. You will then grow a tree if you successfully stayed off your phone for the period. 

[Rasa's diary]

Day 3

Dear diary,

Today is my second day without playing games but my first 24 hours without watching any game related videos so I'm going to call this day 1 of my 90 day detox! I am replacing games with learning a language on Duolingo which has lots of game characteristics but has more real world applications and I actually feel productive after learning. Cold Turkey is still working like magic and I haven't hit Youtube for 24 hours now. Also, Forest really helps me when I'm out and about or if I'm just eating to keep me off my phone. I normally just browse my phone the entire time when eating but Forest actually helps so much. It's like my Cold Turkey for phone :D. I'm fixing my sleep schedule and not going past midnight so that's a start. Getting ready to go to bed now. See you tomorrow!

[Rasa's diary]

Dear diary,

Just checking in today to update on my progress. I've gone 24 hours without playing games but I'm still getting distracted by watching random unproductive videos on YouTube. I'm looking into installing an extension to block YouTube since I don't use it for anything else.

See you tomorrow!

P.S I just installed Cold Turkey and it's really helping with keeping me off Youtube on my computer. I also ran 3kms on a treadmill. Trying to take back my health!

[Rasa's diary]

Hi all. This is my first time writing a diary entry. Not actually too sure what to put in here though I hope it will be more structured in the future when I get a feel of what to do. Today is the beginning of my commitment to quit games. I'm feeling a bit nervous since I have played games from a young age and have never quit successfully in the past. Today, I'm just trying to get things organised since I have neglected organisation for a very long time. See you tomorrow!

~Rasa

[Taking back my life]

05/10/2020

Hi all. Today I have made the decision to take back my life and to quit games forever. I am 23 years old and from Australia and I want to quite games because it is negatively affecting my life. Apart from work days, I would just sit on my computer and never leave my room to play games, just to forget that I have commitments. I have lost weight and I just feel shit in general. I want to have time to do the things that really matter or will help improve my skills for my life that is to come. I am starting the 90 day detox today and my main goal is to fill all the extra time I will have with other activities, as well as maintaining not playing games. Wish me luck!

~Tabula rasa