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Going back into Focus


ToastyMuffin

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Hello, this is very strange for me but I feel I need to at least start this.


I joined Game Quitters today and today is the first full day I have gone without playing or watching someone play any games. I didn't think it would be this hard to NOT do something video game related but it's like fighting with myself to do anything else at this point.


I'm not too worried about having other things to do. I'm reading to learn about starting my own business and learning python programming hoping that I'll be able to make more money than any min wage jobs. I'll try to get back into running and cooking too when i'm able to get the energy.


I don't know what I'll do about my friends though, now that I'm not doing the one thing that we like to do for fun I'm worried about how our relationship is going to turn out down the line. Hopefully we can find something else or I can find other people through new hobbies.

So for right now.

Goals:

1.walk outside for 30 minutes each day (Get that sun back into my life.)

2.Make a real Dinner (No more ramen noodles.)

3.Read 30 pages each day of any book. 

 

I'll update this every few days and hopefully there will be progress.

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3 hours ago, ToastyMuffin said:

I don't know what I'll do about my friends though, now that I'm not doing the one thing that we like to do for fun I'm worried about how our relationship is going to turn out down the line. Hopefully we can find something else or I can find other people through new hobbies.

Welcome to the forums, @ToastyMuffin, and congrats for quitting!

Don't worry about your friends too much. 😁 If they really are your friends, they would eventually understand why you had to quit gaming. My college friends quit ahead of me too, but we didn't lose connection since we've been in touch once in a while to check up what's up with our own lives. And yes, as you go on with this new journey, you'll definitely meet new people—maybe on your future business, who knows! 😂

Good luck man, take it easy! 👌

Edited by chiliflavor
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Hi, welcome to the forums! Those look like good goals. I've also been trying to exercise 30 min each day and I think it has done wonders for my mood. If you get tired of walking, try going someplace different or do some other exercise (I like dumbbells, running, and skateboarding.)

Python is also on my list to learn. Right now I am doing Princeton Algorithms 1 on Coursera. It's Java but I am learning a lot about algorithms and data structures. I'm planning to do Part 2 and then maybe try to pick up Python or start doing more Project Euler.

I also enjoyed reading but right now I don't know what to read! If you have any suggestions let me know, I'm open to pretty much anything.

Edited by apatton090
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Hey, thanks for the welcome. Right now I'm reading some of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series by Robert Kiyosaki where he talks more about the mindset you need to be in to be successful even though one might think the book is more on how he became rich. It's giving me a lot of insight as to why certain people can do amazing things while others simply think about it and don't take action.

OK...It's day....3 and it feels like it's been a week already.

First issue I ran into is now that I have all this extra time with no exciting tasks to keep me awake, my sleep schedule of going to bed at 5 am is downright killing me.  Last night I went to bed at 10 pm and I'm feeling 1000% better, but getting my sleep back in order is now definitely in the top 3 of my to do list.

I haven't been able to focus on reading and coding for more than 10 minutes at a time, but I feel that is from the sleep deprivation and will get easier in a couple days. This morning I already read 20 pages and I'm going to try reading a little every hour to keep up with my goals.

Boredom is going to be a problem. I have stuff to do, but right now with the low energy levels it's hard not to just lay down on my phone and watch youtube all day.  I've been keeping it down though and started making D&D(Dungeons and Dragons) Quests just to fill in some of the time when I can't avoid procrastinating. 


Goals:

1. Sleep on time at 10 pm (I can't emphasize enough how dead I've been.)

2.keep reading 30 pages (I'll bump up the numbers when I can read for longer)

3.keep walking for a few minutes everyday.

 

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@apatton090 Try 'The Happiness Advantage' or 'The Slight Edge'. Those are good self help books. They made me feel better anyways. 

Toasty, you're doing good. Some energy down ness is normal for a lot of people on here. You'll slog through it. You can try using the Pomodoro method for studying more: https://open.buffer.com/science-taking-breaks-at-work/

Edited by Erik2.0
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@ToastyMuffinHello, and welcome to the forums. It all takes time, keep that in mind. But it is wonderful that you made the first big leap, and now you are on the journey to change towards better habits. For me, the sleep schedule was one of the most significant improvements once I managed to actually fix it. It took me weeks of struggle to finally make that change. Also, I would recommend focusing on easy, relaxing tasks which can still lead to a state of flow. Coloring worked well for me, while listening to audiobooks/music. It is relaxing, but once I got started, I had the urge to finish the whole page or at least make some progress. Same goes for reading, I find it easier to get lost in fiction compared to non-fiction. One thing that constantly popped up throughout my journey is that small steps lead to significant changes over time. I wish that we could just snap our fingers, and things would turn 180, but after endless struggles and failures, I got to acceptance with this fact. All the best and good luck on your journey!

@apatton090 It depends on what you are into. I would recommend fantasy, especially Mistborn or The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. (My favorite genre and currently favorite author) So I might be a bit biased haha, but both series are masterpieces in my eyes. From self-help books, I would recommend Atomic Habits/ Power of Habit (best books on building habits imo.) or 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson. (I have not finished this one yet, but so far I can tell it is a great book, I agree with many points in the book that Peterson makes.) 

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@Marek Hey, thanks for the insight. I don't know if I'll do coloring books, but when i can I'm going to grab a puzzle to work on during those down times when I need to zone out a bit.

Day: 4/5

My computer died yesterday, but luckily all it needed was a good dusting.
Not too much happened on day 4. I was rather sleep deprived and so I spent most of the day walking around and doing things that would keep me awake, but I still got my 30 pages in so I call that a success.

Last night I finally got some good sleep and it shows, I'm feeling good today and I tried the pomodoro method that @Erik2.0 mentioned and was able to read 80 pages in one sitting before it became difficult to focus. So thanks Erik :).

I told one friend about how I'm trying to quit games. I believe I told him I was taking a break, but unsurprising to me he was not supportive about the whole thing. Making a longer conversation short, he pretty much told me I'm going to fail because I'm me...which is why I talked to him first oddly enough because I figured he wasn't that great of a friend from previous ordeals, but this was kind of the nail in the coffin for my decision to try and keep him around. I'll talk to my other friend about me quitting soon enough. They will most likely be a lot more supportive, even though they might be a little sad about it.

So right now, feeling great and motivated. Hope it stays this way for a couple days.

Goals:

1. catch up with my coding classes(the last few days have made it hard to learn)

2.read 60 pages (Turns out I'm reading a lot faster now)

3.Start jogging a bit
 

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Oh side note, I've been looking into getting a kindle so that I can get more books without having to fill the closet but I don't want to get the kindle fire because I don't need all the tablet features and I just want something for reading. 

So I guess the question is, does anyone know if the kindle paperwhite is worth the extra $80? or should I just get the normal kindle?

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I got the paper white. It’s decent. I don’t know what the difference is tbh. I had an old kindle before and it functioned about as good. Maybe the paper white looks a little better. Sorry about your friend being unsupportive. Some people don’t understand or support game quitting. But you gotta keep trying anyways because it’s good for you. You’re welcome on the Pomodoro. I’m impressed you read so much.

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Day: 9

Still alive and doing other things are getting easier. Church is opening back up in my area and I had a lot more support about me quitting and getting back into running, so that was nice. I got the kindle today and I got to say, it's really nice to not carry a thick book for reading and being able to choose the font size and look makes it a lot easier to read.

I started a 5k prep program from an app called zombies,run! and I'm hoping to be back in shape in a couple months, maybe even lose a few pounds while i'm at it. It would be nice to get back to 165 lb like I was in high school.

I did have a couple monthly goals in may that I will be failing. I didn't finish the book I'm currently on (short by about 100 pages) and I didn't fully finish my python coding class (I still have about 5 chapters left or 7 days worth of stuff), but I don't feel bad about it because I did make progress in those areas and I now am able to read much more per day than what I was able to do when I originally created those plans. I'm also able to work longer without having any brain farts which is going to make coding easier to learn and now that I've stopped playing games, I have so much more time to spend on those things that I want to learn.

So I'm just going to make some new goals and try to hit those, though I'm thinking of doing weekly goals instead. I don't feel like I need to do certain things as much with monthly goals, similar to having an essay due at the end of the month so you wait till the last week to start.

So, still going strong and looking forward to progress in June.

Goals:

1.keep reading 60 pages or 1.5 hours (that seems to be my limit for now but with the kindle I'll need to figure out how much that is)

2.stick to the 5k prep plan(I'll show my progress as I go through the weeks)

3.wake up at 6:30 am (I'm now able to get some decent sleep and having those few quiet hours in the morning allows me to go without distraction for reading)

4.Finish the coding classes within the week

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