Day 1

Alright, this is my official Day 1. I slacked off a bit and kept playing games unfortunately but now I'm for real. I'm quitting. I'm going to start meditating and hopefully I will learn to control myself around games. Today, I haven't felt the urge yet to play games and hopefully I won't get that urge as much in th is upcoming week.

What can you do differently this time? 

Yeah try something new. A new way to defend yourself from cravings. A different strategy at this time. Not the same way which was proven not working. A new weapon system.

I read Cam's 60+ hobby guide, ajask, for ideas on things to do. It's actually full of good alternatives to try to get your mind off of gaming.

Thanks all you guys for making me think about my approach. I think what I'm going to try to do differently this time is to Jory all every single day even if I can only get out a single sentence. I think spending as much time as I can writing about my thoughts is probably the best strategy to employ. I'm also going to try and start meditating as soon as I enter the gaming environment which I hope will help with the cravings. 

Day 2

Today I was actually really busy and wouldn't have had time to game at all if I tried. I was really focused on getting a paper done that's due in about a week and I also went to a seminar on LinkedIn and started my LinkedIn profile. I also took a class online for the GRE. I got some good resources from that like vocabulary.com, quizlet, free rice.com and more to help me out with the vocab section. I also got the chance to exercise for half an hour which I'm going to try and prioritize everyday so that I can be physically fit. One weird thing that happened today is I was looking through my notifications for YouTube and found that MIT open courseware offers a course on How to win at Texas Holdem which is quite ironic given my gaming situation at the moment. I'll keep you posted about what happens next. Thank you for listening.

Sounds like you kept really busy, ajask. That always helps! Yeah, journal every day and don't worry about writing a book!

Day 3

Its starting to get tough. My inner self is telling me to play but I am resisting. The weekend is coming up so if I can live through that I should be okay. Today, I tried to work more on my paper. I have about 1000 words and only need about 250 more. I hope I can finish it by tomorrow so that I can  relax for next week. I haven't started meditating yet but I will as soon as I put myself in that gaming environment which will probably be this weekend.

Weekends can be tough, especially if you have a lot of free time. Meditation will help and so will having plenty to do.

Day 4 and Day 5

Totally forgot to do yesterday's journal so I'm going to do it today. I worked more on my paper yesterday and also got to spend my time learning martial arts with other people. I survived Saturday without gaming. However, I felt the day was extremely unproductive. I just watched a bunch of YouTube videos and just kept wasting time. I hope tomorrow I can find a way to improve.

You avoided gaming so the day wasn't a waste. Think about some alternative activities you'd like to during that time. Hang in there!

Hang in there. You're gonna improve after couple of days.

Day 6

I made it. I tried spending my day playing basketball and working out rather than mindlessly browsing the internet. I watched a couple videos about goal setting. I think I'm going to grab a notebook and just list some things off that I want to accomplish and then check them off as I go. Long term goals I can put over to the side and short term goals I can just check off when I finish. I hope tomorrow I can get myself up early so I can do more things.

You sound really focused, ajask, and you've kept yourself productively busy. That's awesome!