Past the Pasture and Beyond The Hill

[Endeavors]

Day 0

I've been having a hard time lately finding joy in doing things, probably due to laziness, having no goals, and consuming too much rather than creating/learning. I have many ideas of what I would like my life to look like, but right now I really feel the need to start with a good, basic foundation which I can build upon.

Rule:

• No mindless consumption of content before 5 p.m. every day. This includes useless YT videos/shorts, news websites, reddit, streaming, tv, etc. Basically, anything that I would previously mindlessly consume automatically due to habits. After 5 p.m. the world is open.

Hmm, it's a bit iffy to define what qualifies as "mindless" consumption, but I trust that future me can figure that out.

Goals:

• Sleep: Turn off laptop/PC and put phone away for the night at 10:30 p.m. at the latest. Wake up at 8 a.m. (no snooze)
• Exercise: Do a little exercise every day, 10-30 min., aim for 30 min.
• Mental health: Meditate for 5-10 min. every day, either guided or not.

That's it.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Endeavors

[D_Cozy]

Hey I'm on a similar situation here, going through a similar journey to stop mindlessly net browsing. I recommend two things; first is an extension that can help limit distracting sites; and second is separating your work and personal browsing histories.

If you use Chrome or Edge to browse the net, there's an extension called "StayFocusd." I use the nuclear option on it so that I am not allowed to browse specific websites (youtube, reddit, etc) until after 5pm. If you use Safari on Mac, there's an extension called "WasteNoTime" and works similarly.

Both are free (at the time of this writing) and help with managing your time on your laptop/pc on sites you set up.

Personally, I also separate my work profile from my personal profile, and that includes in my browser too. Most browsers let you set up separate profiles. Alternatively you could always use two browsers, one for work and one for personal use (so for e.g. Chrome for personal browsing, Edge for work). Since I am a programmer, working in front of a computer is a requirement, so this separation of the two profiles is necessary for me.

As an example, if I'm on YouTube using my personal profile on Chrome, I am probably not doing anything productive 🙃 But if I'm on YouTube on Edge, I know I'm looking through coding and math videos, or similar to help with my job.

However you choose to do this, make sure you always keep your personal logins on your personal browser/profile, and work ones similarly on the other one. Setting a hard line like this, along with restrictions on my personal profile during work hours, is what really helps make it clear in my head when I need to focus and work.

Edited August 8, 2023 by D_Cozy

[Endeavors]

@D_Cozy

Thanks a lot for the suggestions! I actually remember using StayFocusd a while back when I first quit gaming, and it worked really well as far as I can remember. It's definitely a recipe for disaster to rely on willpower alone, so I'll have to look into setting it up again ^^

Also really interesting idea to use different browser profiles to separate work and other stuff. I currently have a lot of bookmarks all mixed up with study, work, entertainment and such, so it makes perfect sense to have separate profiles.

[Endeavors]

Day 1

☑ Sleep: Woke up at 9:45 am instead of 8 am, but I'm still gonna count that as a success since it was earlier than yesterday ^^ One step at a time
☑ Exercise: Worked out for 10 min
☑ Mental health: Meditated 5 min

Woke up a bit late, but the day was surprisingly filled. Did more work today than expected and various other things popped up. Overall today was fine. I'm happy that I set the time for exercising and meditating so low, it makes it easier to accomplish on days with limited spare time. A little is better than nothing.

I really want to watch The Office right now, but it's time to wind down. Oh well, perhaps I'll have more time for that tomorrow. G'night.