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User_11_11_2002, my journal


User_11_11_2002

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Although I'm writing this journal completely for myself, so I can write down what I did today and how much progress I've made, feel free to leave any comments or share thoughts. It is also more of a diary kind of thing and not really like an essay so sometimes I won't really go into detail about my thoughtprocess or the way I did something.

I started this journey because I play video games, or do other things on my phone or laptop, whenever I have nothing important to do. I do things with friends sometimes, I play a teamsport, I go to school and do homework but besides these, +90% of my time is spent on gaming or other forms of 'digital entertainment'. Especially now, during summer break and Corona, and most of my friends not being home, I spend 10+ hours doing things that are not really useful in any way. Yes, I enjoy them and it fills the day, but I feel like I am really going to regret the way I spend my time when I'm older. I am not planning on removing games from my life completely, I just want to reduce those 10+ hours into something like 1 or 2 hours and want to stop procrastinating things like homework or studying because I am too busy with playing videogames. 

Edited by User_11_11_2002
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Day 1 (Friday, 31st July - 2020)

Woke up at around 10:30, checked my phone for about 10 minutes and read 30 pages for my driving exam. Got downstairs between 11:00 and 11:30 to eat breakfast and started some research on my first replacement of gaming: Speedcubing. I did a tutorial for about 45 minutes and did everything correct until the last step but it didn't really matter as I did learn the basics and was able to do the first few steps by hard. Then I did some research on what speedcube to buy as my old one is very low quality. Bought a budget 3x3 called “YuXin Kylin V2 M” which will help when I want to set better time records which will arrive on Monday. Ate something after that and sat outside in the sun for about 10 minutes while trying to complete my cube again. Completed it after 2 tries and read 20 more pages from the driving exam book. I did play some mobile games now and then but only for 30 minutes. I do think that I will play some more in the evening or I’ll probably watch YouTube or Netflix. Started writing this blog after setting up my computer again and are going to do some research on where I want to start programming. Other hobbies/activities that I want to start this holiday are: reading, playing an instrument, maybe something to do with cooking, programming and speedcubing, on which I’ve already made a bit of progress. I do not plan on ‘boycotting’ gaming, I just want to reduce the amount of time I put into it and make room for new hobbies or activities. After continuing practicing with my cube I had dinner with my dad while we watched a documentary on movies with time travel. I went upstairs again and practiced some more with my cube and I am becoming a lot faster at it and can memorize some of the algorithms. I still haven’t done any research on a good website to learn programming so I’ll do that in a bit. I also started watching the Netflix documentary "The Speed Cubers", to learn more about speed cubing in general and to have something that I can do this evening. Evening: I finished the documentary, which was very inspiring and I really recommend watching it! I played around with my cube a bit more but mostly spent the evening watching YouTube or Netflix, so it was a pretty useless evening. It is not very hard to keep myself from gaming, but it's still hard to put myself to useful things. Went to sleep at around 1:30 am, which is also something that I really want to do something about in the near future.

Edited by User_11_11_2002
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20 hours ago, User_11_11_2002 said:

Thanks! I've read some of your posts, seems like you've made a lot of progress. Impressive!

Oh, thank you very much. Now that I think about it as I look back I have come a long way from the beginning. There have been a lot of times when I struggled but I've kept making it through and adding to my counter. Coming up on 9 months next.

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Day 2 (Saturday, 1 August - 2020)

Woke up at 10, laid in bed for a while and went downstairs to have breakfast. Wasted most of the morning by watching YouTube and playing games on my phone, so I put a limit to playing games of 1 hour a day. I'll probably ignore it most of the time but it is an extra barrier 'to go through' before playing so it'll be easier to put my phone away. I just feel like I wasted a lot of time gaming on my phone which I did not really enjoy and this is behavior that I really want to get rid of, but I just procrastinate the things that I planned on doing because of this (which is why I put a limit on gaming on my phone). Also practiced my cubing skills a bit, I'm almost able to complete the cube without any help so I'm making good progress. I also did some research on which programming language I wanted to learn and I decided to start with Python as it's quite easy to learn and a good start to learning other programming languages (at least, that's what the internet told me). It is also used for scientific research which might come in handy at university (depending on what I am going to study) I found this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uQrJ0TkZlc) and I've done the first 30 minutes and I have been enjoying it. Will probably continue this evening. I also made some progress on my drivers license test. One thing that I forgot to mention before is that I want to start looking for a job again but I just don't want to put the effort in it for some reason, but I'll try to improve that over the next few days. I spent most of the evening having some interesting discussions on the r/stopgaming subreddit, programmed for a very short amount of time and watched tv. I also tried to do some self-study on the thesis I am going to write for school next year (video was about linear algebra) but I didn't really do a lot in the end and went to sleep at about 1:00 while listening to a podcast. Normally I just fall asleep because I am too tired but now that I'm trying to go to bed earlier I have some difficulties falling asleep and listening to something makes it easier to fall asleep.

One last thing I wanted to mention was that I still have some difficulty with expressing my feelings in English and writing it down but I guess this is a good way to practice and improve my English writing skills.

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Day 3 (Sunday, 2 August - 2020)

 

Woke up at 9 am, a bit early. Laid in bed for a while and practice my cube while laying in bed and did some reading on my drivers exam. I am now able to complete the cube without any help within a few minutes (haven't timed yet). Went downstairs and played some games on my phone again. I have been saying this a lot so I'll clarify a bit. I have mostly been playing Clash of Clans and I really like the clan I am in, since they're all active and talkative which makes it more fun to play. The nice thing about this game is that you can attack within like 5 minutes and go offline again since the game has real time upgrade and training times. I should start playing more 'efficiently' so I can enjoy the game to its fullest while still only playing 1 hour max. The good thing is that I haven't played any other games since I started. While eating my lunch I did a tiny bit of research on meditation on the subreddit and watched PewDiePie's very interesting video, "how to be Happy **tutorial**", in which he goes into detail about stoicism and his perspective on the topic. After this I learned how to do f2l which basically does two steps in one when completing the Rubik's Cube and is part of the popular CFOP solving technique. In the afternoon I watched Formula 1 which was very boring up until the end where Hamilton and Bottas got a flat tire in the last two laps, unfortunately Hamilton finished the race before Max could catch up, but it was still a second place. After that I finished reading for the drivers exam and am planning to do some programming and complete some practice exams for the rest of the evening. I'll probably also put some more practice into f2l.

One thing I haven't really clarified yet is why I want to moderate gaming. I really enjoy playing games and I have a lot of IRL friends that also enjoy gaming. Playing together is always a lot of fun and keeps us even closer together, which is why I don't want to quit gaming in general. I do want to reduce my time played but I think I've gone into that already.

 

 

 

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Day 7 (Sunday, 2 August - 2020)

Writing this journal already starts to feel like a chore, since I don't really have much to write about and writing this makes me realize that I'm not really making any progress. I did reduce my gaming hours on my PS4, only played for about 3 hours these last 7 days, and only when some friends asked me to get online. I did play a lot of CoC and the time limit did not really work and this made me realize something. I haven't really done any noteworthy things. Quitting games completely is quite impossible for me if there's not really something else to do. That's why I have to do more other things, like I said in the beginning. It's just hard for me to start with doing something else which is why I'm going to make some kind of planning to give my day a bit more structure. I will start with some 'loose' instructions and will restrict myself more over the coming days. This way, when i don't feel like cubing or programming, I'll have to look for something else to do and might find a new hobby. I also haven't done anything on the other activities that I had planned. I did do a lot of studying for my drivers test and I passed it, so I won't have to spend any more time on that, which is great. Some close friends will also start returning from their vacation so I can do some more social things again, which I am looking forward to.

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