Plokmn's Journal

[Plokmn]

8 January 2018 First official day

Today was my first official day of no-gaming. I plan to do the 90 days detox first then see if I’m pursuing it after that. 

The reason I decided to finally quit gaming was simple. Game aren't fun for me anymore. I mostly played them by habit since they were a big part of my life since I was a kid. Recently I got more frustrated with them so I assumed it was the right moment to start this adventure.

 

It was a pleasant surprise to see that my friends were supportive to this, I totally expected them to say its a dumb idea since they are for the most part all gamers too. I don't think they believe its going to help but at least they are okay with this. Also, we regularly meet for board game, drinking and movie night so it's not like I say my farewell to them. 

 

I need to plan a strategy to help me in this adventure. So far, I uninstalled all my games but decided to keep Steam. I use it only for chatting with my friends. Same for Discord. If I feel I can't hold back because of them I will obviously uninstall them. I also installed a tool to track how many times I spend browsing certain page like Reddit, YouTube and gaming pages. I then realised that I also spend way too much time browsing mindlessly the Internet. Thus, I decided to set a daily limit of 1 hour excluding obviously the time I need to spend for homework and studying. I'm starting with 1 hour first and plan to reduce it to 30 minutes in the future.

 

There is another activity that I felt was important to limit myself with. If I’m not playing or browsing the Internet I’m generally watching anime or series on Netflix. I feel it's a lesser problem than gaming but I don't want to stop only to spend my time on Anime or Netflix instead.  My limit is the same as for browsing the Internet so 1 hour a day. 2 hours a day for doing non-constructive activity is a lot but I plan to reduce the time when I feel like I’m ready for it. Of course, I’m allowing myself to do these activities only after I’m done with my homework and studying. Furthermore, I plan to do these time-waster activities only when taking break from school work.

 

That is the end of my first entry in my journal, I decided to write it in English to get better in writing skills and get a better vocabulary. It also might be helpful if I decide to study in translation which is something I'm interested in. Mostly from French to English. 

 

 

[Remigjus]

Hey @Plokmn!! Glad to see that you've set up your journal, it will surely help a lot in the future ( just make sure to write here daily). I want to congratulate you that you've decided to open a new chapter in your life. A new begining, a start of an adventure. You seem to have a plan, wich might be handy in the future ( but you have to stick to it).  The only advice I can give you is to take one day at a time!! That's  the golden rule Have it always in mind.

[Plokmn]

9 January 2018 Second Day

Today was harder than yesterday since I had more free time. School start tomorrow so I don’t really have something to do and I’m currently unemployed.

I knew that I had to find new way to pass time and I did a list before starting my detox. Today I did some research for books recommendation and made a list of 10 books I want to read. I’m going to start with 1984. I did spend a bit more time that I expected but I’m happy with the list.

I also started learning the piano which is way harder than I expected, I’m going to practice a bit with my sister before spending on a real teacher but it was fun.

My short-term goals for this week are:

1.       Finishing Easy Way to Stop Smoking to start reading my book list. I don’t smoke but the book was recommended and parallels are easy to do with the gaming addiction. Pretty good read.

2.       Keep practicing the piano and see if I like it.

3.       I want to start learning a new language but I’m going to check how much free time I have when school start. Probably Japanese.

4.       Not procrastinating and doing my homework/studying for the exams. I think its important to at least finish my first session with ok grades before giving up. Plus, there is only 1 month left, just need more discipline.

5. Building a good balance of school works and hobbies.

 

Time spent browsing for fun: 1 hour

Time spent watching anime/series: 1 hour

2^nd day over!

[Plokmn]

January 10, 2018 Third Day

 

School started today and it make It harder to not think about gaming. The fact that I’m studying in something I’m not interested isn’t helping either. It's probably why I think so much about playing game or wasting my time during classes. The worst is when classes are over, I keep thinking about how nice it would be to play games to relax at home. It's been only 3 days so I do think its normal to have these thoughts. You don’t break years of unhealthy habits in only 3 days!

So far, the craving is easy to handle. I thought it would be harder. Because of that, sometimes I think about how maybe I’m not addicted or maybe I could only reduce time instead of stopping.

I guess its part of the gaming trap ? I won’t come back thought!

 

Pretty normal day

School in the morning, saw a movie in the evening. I really need to balance my school works with the hobbies. Not an easy thing to do since gaming was my only thing before.

Time spent browsing for fun: 30 min

Time spent watching anime/series: 1 hour

3^rd day over.