My Experience (90 Day WIP)

[Soap]

How "Day 1" went:

I'm currently busy with the 90 day game free life (I'm also stopping youtube). At the time of writing this I am currently on day 2, meaning I have completed my first day. From my first day I can already say that this isn't easy, if you even played only a few hours a day then suddenly having to fill that up is difficult. Not because there aren't enough things to do, but for me personally the problem was that everything else required some thought and or motivation to start. For example even though sketching is something I enjoy, it's way easier to sit down and start playing a video game. Thus, even though I didn't intend to do so, I ended up just doing nothing for parts of the day.

My Plans for "Day 2":

Today I'll be using an organization app to help me plan out my day and thus not leave me thinking: "What now?". I'm also going to think of a long term project I would want to do, either a creative project such as some form of writing or something more practical such as fixing a broken computer. I'm also considering telling some more of my friends about it as that may help me be more motivated to go through with this.

[WorkInProgress]

Welcome to the forums. If you have any questions feel free to ask them here, we are happy to help out.

[Soap]

4 hours ago, WorkInProgress said:

Welcome to the forums. If you have any questions feel free to ask them here, we are happy to help out.

Thank you

[Soap]

2 Days in!!!

Why I put 3 exclamations for 2 days I don't know! But I am indeed 2 days in and not missing gaming and youtube too much. Today is day 3 so I'll be talking about yesterday.

I do think I need to find more things to "Go and Do" like I mean getting out of the house. Because most of my current plans for things to do involve just staying at home. Which even though I did say that I'm not missing / having cravings for gaming and youtube, I still want to get out for later when I might have those and I feel like getting out more would do me good (Can't really explain what I mean though). Being a homeschooler who spent a lot of time on games and youtube means that I didn't really get out much especially since a few years ago when I started homeschooling due to being pretty sick (Which lasted about 2 years) I also quit all the sports activities I used to do. My sports and activities used to include martial arts 2 times a week which also meant I had lots of events related to it happen on some other days as well a running which took me out of the house for a bit but the big thing was I attended running events on weekends specifically trail running. Those things would take me out of the house and bring me into more social environments. Now although I am running again, I don't do the martial arts and running events anymore in addition to the fact that I now home school. I have considered joining a school again since I am no longer sick. But I find the opportunity to finish my studies early an appealing one. Which leaves me with the other things I used to do. I can't start a sport right at this moment but I'm adding it to my 2018 to do list. Running events tend to continue even over the holidays so I'll make it a goal to start attending more of those. I might even join a running club if there is one open over the holidays.

And since my post is already long I'll just quickly cover some other points:

-For a project that I mentioned in my previous post, I'm still not sure of what to do to be perfectly honest 

-I've been reading other posts on this forum and found lots of inspiration in them!

[WorkInProgress]

Running is great. If you have a Laptop you could maybe go out to a coffeeshop or library to do things on it you would otherwise do at your home. Changing places can really help to break old habits. Check for meet-ups like the mentioned running club are a good idea. They are a great way to learn new things and meet new people while beeing away from home. Especially people who do other things then just gaming.

[Soap]

4 hours ago, WorkInProgress said:

If you have a Laptop you could maybe go out to a coffeeshop or library to do things on it you would otherwise do at your home.

I do have a laptop although it needs a new battery . Thanks for the advice, I'm thinking if I solve my battery issue I could even go sit in a park (Have lots of them near my house) and do some of the things that need doing .

[missmagic210]

Wow. It is very interesting

[Soap]

Day 3

Now on day 4! What I want to mention about yesterday is specifically a walk I did. Now I've seen a lot of suggestions on this forum and else where, one that I keep seeing is take a walk. Well, I did just that... I didn't think much of it at first, but it was an amazing walk. All I did was go out of my house and walk around for a bit, but I ended up seeing a street / neighborhood that I've never seen before even though it was just 2 minutes walk from my house. I also realized that previously when I would go on walks which would be rare, my mind would always be clogged which thoughts of the game I just finished playing or the Youtube video I'll watch this afternoon when it comes out. Thus I found the experience really surprised me, I found myself really appreciating the world around me. I also felt more grounded... to well... the ground. I actually felt like I was in the real world!

While I was out on the walk, I walked into a homeless guy. I ended up having a bit of a conversation with him and I was able to help him out by giving him some old shoes. And that just felt amazing: talking to a random person, getting to know them and even helping them with something. That would have never happened had I been sitting at home gaming or watching a youtube video.

I'll be doing it again! Enough said  

[Megaman]

14 hours ago, Soap said:

While I was out on the walk, I walked into a homeless guy. I ended up having a bit of a conversation with him and I was able to help him out by giving him some old shoes. And that just felt amazing: talking to a random person, getting to know them and even helping them with something. That would have never happened had I been sitting at home gaming or watching a youtube video.

Very nice. Keep on going!

[Soap]

Day 4

Hard to think that I'm already on day 5. When I first started it felt like doing this was going to take a century, yet now I'm actually surprised that I'm already on the 5th day. Yesterday went really well for me! I did much better in my studies than what I have for what must probably be the last 2 months, I also stuck to my workout schedule. I feel as if I'm more aware of what's happening around me now, I see the little details that I failed to see in my gaming and youtube fog. When I went to bed last night: I actually felt happy, I felt content with how that day went, I was excited for the future and I was thinking about meaningful things as I fell asleep. I'm planning to start doing an online Photography course pretty soon! Then I'll be practicing Photography over the Holidays, which means I'll have something where I could see progress and achievement over the Holidays.

My next big thing I need to tackle is getting into more social environments. I used to mostly settle my social needs by playing a game while on a call with someone. Now I realize that wasn't much of a way to be social.

On 11/22/2017 at 3:37 PM, missmagic210 said:

Wow. It is very interesting

Thank you :). Good to know it's interesting!

 

9 hours ago, Megaman said:

Very nice. Keep on going!

Thanks and I'll do that! I'm genuinely enjoying sharing my experiences on here.

[Cam Adair]

Hello!

[Soap]

Day 5

I don't actually have much to say about day 5. Other than being lazy in the afternoon, the day went well with little thinking about games and youtube.

At the moment I'm a little concerned about what I'll be doing this weekend. The weekend was actually where I'd mainly play games. But I know I can do it ! 

17 hours ago, Cam Adair said:

Hello!

Hello Cam! Thank's for starting all this! (Game Quitters)

Edited November 25, 2017 by Soap

[Hitaru]

Welcome! About to reach a week, how does it feel? 

How about doing that photography course on a physical place or academy? You could still check the internet for reference and expanded material but looking for real world experiences could help you to go outside and meet people with shared interests. To be honest, right now the less time you spend in front of a screen, the better: you may find a lot of reasons to justify playing as entertainment, time filler or reward, and the devices would be right there. Or is it just me? 

[Soap]

Day 6

I got through yesterday without too many problems. It was a very different Saturday without the games I'd usually play, but it was "good different". I found that exercise really is an amazing distraction because not only does it help with boredom but it gives you goals to work towards. And what I found funny is that, not playing games helps me with exercise and exercising helps me stay away from games. Basically it has happened twice already where I really don't feel like doing my workout but then since I'm bored, I just go "Well I have nothing better to do" and then I do it! Admittedly I used to just skip the workout if I was busy with a game and didn't feel like working out. Yet I never regret working out, it's always fun if I can only get myself to start.

Out of this I've learned that boredom isn't actually a bad thing, the problem with boredom is if you have easy quick escapes to quickly go to then it's too easy to just do those (YouTube, Gamings, Mindless Internet Surfing, Netflix etc). But if you use that boredom to get yourself to do stuff, it's actually a very powerful tool for better productivity.

Anyway it's very well and good to say all that, but how do I intend to implement this? Well my idea is that I'm going to write down 3 tasks in the evenings that I want to focus on the next day, then put them on my wall. And instead of trying to avoid boredom constantly (By finding stuff to do 24/7 which anyway often ends up being time wasters) I'll use it as a motivator to do my 3 main tasks by starting one of the 3 tasks (At random if I must) when I start feeling bored. Thus this is a sort of experiment. I'll do updates on how it works out, later on!

16 hours ago, Hitaru said:

Welcome! About to reach a week, how does it feel? 

Thanks and Great!

 

16 hours ago, Hitaru said:

How about doing that photography course on a physical place or academy?

I'm actually going to be doing some courses at a place near me next year. But unfortunately through out the holidays there aren't many academies open. Although there may be people offering lessons through out the holidays so I'll ask around. But at the very least I do plan to go and practice Photography at many different locations including hiking trails, nature reserves maybe even a zoo.

[Soap]

Day 7

This is pretty cool! I'm done with my first week, which is actually pretty hard to believe. The first 2 days of this felt like they where taking forever but yet I got past those and now it's 1 week!

Now time for week 2! 

[Soap]

Day 8

A suggestion I have was learned the hard way... So when you're already trying to stay away from stuff, in my case gaming, youtube and to a lesser degree junk food as well as introduce new habits such as frequent exercise; then don't add too many other things that need self control such as buying a big box of candy and telling yourself you'll use it as a reward for when you complete your work for the day and it will only be a few pieces. I like to think of self control as a power gauge that produces or uses a certain amount of power based on what activities you do. So for example a good sleeping habit adds +10 while staying away from a slice of cake reduces the day's self control by -2. I remember reading something about how self control is actually a limited resource which can be depleted and in my experience I definitely find it to be true. I'll see if I can find it again so that whoever is interested can take a look.

Right now I feel I'm in a pretty good spot, not perfect though as you'll see. I'll try and describe it here for my own benefit as well as an example of the above. As a base line I'd say I have +20 SP (Self Points that's what I'll call the points on the self control gauge). Waking up early is getting easier but is probably taking around -2 (SP=18). Day to day there aren't many things, maybe a few small things so I'll say that is -1 (SP=17). Then the big ones are staying away from gaming -6 and YouTube -6 (SP=5). Exercising is a weird one because just to start takes a lot but once I do it's as if I get more SP out of it than I use to start but for now I'll say it's surprisingly a 0. Then there is the school work one (I am a home schooler) and I feel that is where I am suffering at the moment because it's probably doing -7ish (SP=-2). But I'm not going to be using this as an excuse instead I'll try and find things that boost my motivation to do all this.

Other than that nothing much to comment on. I might start posting every second day or maybe doing a big update once a week because I try and only comment on things I have experienced related to my 90 day detox adventures which is getting harder because there is less to comment on. Don't worry I'm still trying new things and trying to keep my days interesting, I just don't have as much to say about the detox at the moment.

[giblets]

It's a good thought @Soap, not trying to overload yourself and do too many things at once. I recently did some leadership development where they identify a lot of areas for improvement or to work on, and their main tag line that follows that is - "Don't try to change everything at once, choose one or two things at a time, it is more likely to stick".

[Laney]

Reading this makes me so happy! The beginning of the journey is so unique. It is tough and easier in ways you'd never expect going into it. Love the updates. Love that you are noticing and appreciating the world around you.

[Soap]

Day 9

I'm starting to lose track of what day I'm on! (Right now I should be on day 10 meaning I've done 9 days) Thus I think I'm going to print out a calendar with the 90 days and then cross them off one by one. Although that might give the impression that I'm just waiting to play games again which isn't the case, it's more that I want to reach this goal. In fact I honestly don't think I should go back to gaming, even in moderation. I'm pretty sure that if I do I'll just fall back into the same hole I dug myself into before. "It takes time to climb a ladder but failing back down is another matter" -Soap November 2017

Oh and for that creative project I mentioned way back, I'm just going to be writing a sort of short story thing but It'll take quite awhile to do it since I'm going to be doing some research for it in addition to the writing and planning of it.

I'll try do a update on the boredom thing tomorrow or sometime soon...

19 hours ago, giblets said:

It's a good thought @Soap, not trying to overload yourself and do too many things at once. I recently did some leadership development where they identify a lot of areas for improvement or to work on, and their main tag line that follows that is - "Don't try to change everything at once, choose one or two things at a time, it is more likely to stick".

Really it comes down to; keep it simple! The simpler something is the less things can go wrong. In this case having less things to think about makes it easier to stick with the things you are currently doing.

 

10 hours ago, Laney said:

Reading this makes me so happy! The beginning of the journey is so unique. It is tough and easier in ways you'd never expect going into it. Love the updates. Love that you are noticing and appreciating the world around you.

Thank you! Also I really like your signature!

[WorkInProgress]

Congratulations on the week. We are all rooting for you!

[cordharel]

Very interesting to read. I hope you can do it! The beginning is often exciting so I hope you can stay away from games in the long term. 

[thehondasc00py]

Fellow South African ey? You'll have no trouble in that case. Love your ladder quote.

[Soap]

Day 13!!!

After today I will officially be game free for 2 weeks! Now about the last few days... I've been fairly busy these past few days but I've started having this itch for games even though I've kept busy with other things. Yesterday I posted about this on the Discord group and someone mentioned that there must be something that gaming did for me which I am missing now. So here is what I am missing about gaming; one of the biggest thing's is the creation part of the games I used to play. I mainly played Minecraft but I would also create things for the game. Such as the thing I'm missing most about Minecraft right now is the ability to create a modpack (Collection of mods) because right before I quit I had this very original idea for a custom modpack which would give a totally different experience to how you play the game. I've also had a itch to do other more creative sort of things within sandbox games. By now I think it should be obvious that there is a trend here, I enjoy creating things, doing projects and being creative. That's probably the reason I enjoyed games so much is because there are a lot of games that allow a lot of creative freedom. But when it comes to filling that gap in my life I'm not really sure how; I don't think all the obvious answers are very helpful: painting, sculpting, drawing, etc. I guess in a way it's really hard to recreate that same experience you get from creating things for or in a game. The closest I can think of getting to that feeling is programming but I don't know if it's really something I want to do. Part of why I felt the need to quit gaming is to get away from my computer and outside (Which I've done a lot of, from since I quit); programming needs lots of time to learn, practice, experiment and test which would put me right back in front of my computer again. I should mention I already do my school work in front of a computer that's why I'm so keen on staying away from my computer where ever else I can.

I'm sorry if this turned into a rant  but it helps to type out what I'm feeling at the moment. I should mention this itch isn't to the point of me feeling I'm going to relapse it's just a frustrating itch that doesn't want to go away. Such as an annoying mosquito bite that doesn't want to go away, you can continue with your life but it make's it more uncomfortable.

Really any advice would be helpful. Maybe this is something I can just wait out... I don't really know!

[giblets]

How are you going @Soap? You've been a bit quiet lately!

I understand what you are staying about programming, I studied programming when I left school but hated it. I hated the feeling of spending hours and hours in front of a screen only to produce what felt like a few lines of code. Then, ironically, I'd replace that with spending hours in front of a screen as a bunch of pixels in a fantasy world

Some of my friends I keep in touch with that stayed with their studies and now have work as programmers avoid computers like the plague when they are not at work - they removed desks from their houses, don't have laptops and avoid looking at their phones when they can because they feel enslaved to screens. If you are having those feelings now, it is only going to get worse so look into something else!

[Soap]

It's been a really long time since I have posted on this forum and quite a few things happened in that time. I had some goods and bads, for one I ended up relapsing right at about a month but even so, for the most part I've been playing very little games. It's only been in the last week abouts that I've actually been playing games to the point of where it's a problem once again. Although even so it's still not even that much compared to what I used to do. I'm not trying to make excuses, I'm trying to see in what ways I have improved; at the moment I feel I need to stop calling myself a failure and look at what has improved from the since the time that I made my first post on this forum.

So here it is: The one thing I'm pretty proud of is that I have been exercising very consistently for the most part. There are a few days where I lazied out but I feel like regardless of those days, I have still been doing good. Even though I feel like I'm still not doing good enough when it comes to eating healthy, when I really look at it, my eating habits are many times better than most people. I generally eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, tend to eat breakfasts that consist of eggs, fruit and vegetables sometimes with oats thrown into the mix somehow, either through a sort of granola or just cooked on it's own. Lunch is generally some vegetables with a sandwich or something of the sort while dinner is usually some kind of cooked meal with a salad and often cooked vegetables. The place I feel I'm failing at is when I'm snacking on things, which usually involves a bag of chips or chocolates. But when I look at it honestly I'm not even doing it that much, thus I guess I've gotten to a point where I'm not even giving myself any space but I'm not really sure. For the last few things: I've also started working on a website which although it's not done yet, it's still something that I'm doing. Other than the past week I've been doing very little gaming. From since the time I last posted on here till now I have read a lot of books. I have also done quite a bit of writing! I have been doing a Photography course and although I still have a long way to go, I do think I'm getting somewhere.

Anyway, in a way I don't know why I'm randomly posting on here again but I guess the fact that I am means I feel like things are going sour for me. Although I don't have any goal set yet, I do think I should stop gaming again before I fall all the way down again. As I stated it's only been this past week that I've really been gaming again and although it's not been the same amount of hours it was last year, it's still the start of a road that only goes further and further into the dark forest. I should honestly find another good book or series of books to read because I find books are a really good distraction which often get me completely addicted but a book has a end to it and although I could easily spend many hours reading a book, unlike with gaming I actually feel like I'm getting somewhere.

I feel it would be pointless making a post where I basically have no clear set goal thus I'm going to set myself a few goals now, for the next few days. 1, Create a schedule and follow it. 2, Find something new / different to do, a new creative project or simply a book about an exciting topic. And 3, Write in my Journal.

On 12/12/2017 at 8:59 PM, giblets said:

How are you going @Soap? You've been a bit quiet lately!

I understand what you are staying about programming, I studied programming when I left school but hated it. I hated the feeling of spending hours and hours in front of a screen only to produce what felt like a few lines of code. Then, ironically, I'd replace that with spending hours in front of a screen as a bunch of pixels in a fantasy world

Some of my friends I keep in touch with that stayed with their studies and now have work as programmers avoid computers like the plague when they are not at work - they removed desks from their houses, don't have laptops and avoid looking at their phones when they can because they feel enslaved to screens. If you are having those feelings now, it is only going to get worse so look into something else!

Sorry this is a very late reply . I've been someone who hates just sitting for hours upon hours and I hate doing that in front of a computer screen even more but yet I also have that irony of that I would spend hours in front on a computer screen even though I would hate myself for doing it afterwards. Honestly I'm glad that I've been gaming so much less and with this realization I also realize why I should stop this downwards path I found myself on this past week...