DD 127.0.0.1

[giblets]

Day 1

Guess who is back, back again. I've been lurking on the forums for the better portion of the last two years, commenting now and again when I thought I had value to add to other people's process, but it's time to make another journal. My previous journal was such a success to give up games, and really gave my personal development a huge boost. Now though, I want to go for a significant digital detox (DD) on myself (127.0.0.1). I am becoming very self conscious about the amount of time I spend on my phone around my kids, and I don't want to set that example for them. I was going to buy a LightPhone or a feature phone to swap to instead of a smartphone to help limit my usage, but neither of them are an option. So, I need to be held accountable. So here we are. It's a bit ironic that I am doing a digital detox journal on my computer, but I find it much quicker to type, and by making smaller shorter entries when I feel urges to mindlessly surf the web or excessively check the news or send people random texts, then I will post here instead. Listening to Penn Julliette's podcast (Penn's Sunday School), he mentioned he has journalled every single day with about 4-5 missed days for over 10 years. I always feel sharper and more relaxed (read: less anxiety) when I journal, but it continues to fail to be part of my daily routine. I think it has been about 70 days since I have journalled properly. I figured this should help keep me accountable, and help me stay grounded by reading how everyone else is going.

I have ordered a new phone as my current one is starting to show issues (it is 3 years old - I was going for 5 years), but when it arrives the first app I want to install is one of those screen monitoring apps to give me alerts or restrictions from spending too much time on it.

The other thing as mentioned briefly above is I want to text people less. I suffer huge anxiety spells when people don't respond to my texts. I can't control what they do when they get my texts or how they respond to it, but I can control how many texts I send out, to make them more powerful or worth while, or force myself to call people to discuss things instead, that way I can't misinterpret tone or language.

So here we go!

[royal panda]

Hey, welcome back, I think that's a great idea, spending too much time on any screen related thing is not only unhealthy but it can also cause headaches and some similar withdrawal symptoms as a gaming addiction. I am glad you're being self-conscious already. 

Good luck on the detox

[BooksandTrees]

Very excited to see you back. I'm on a digital detox myself to prepare for studying. It's been helpful. I hope you find what you're looking for in the detox.

[TheNewMe2.0]

Welcome to the forums. Good luck on your DD. Journaling is chill. It can be therapeutic to get your thoughts out on paper.

[giblets]

11 hours ago, BooksandTrees said:

Very excited to see you back. I'm on a digital detox myself to prepare for studying. It's been helpful. I hope you find what you're looking for in the detox.

All the old regulars seem to have disappeared! I have watched their journalling slowly drop off over the years but you're still going strong, congrats. Studying takes some practice, when I went back to studying after I think was a 5 year hiatus, I found it really hard to sit still and just read journals. I used Cam Adair's philosophy of "just sit with it." I would refuse to let myself do anything else until I did my study. Quitting social media will help you in that aspect. I also find a lot of value from the pomodoro technique, as it lets my brain have a prize after forcing it to stay focused and learn. I have now migrated that method across to work now after reading about "deep work", and achieve far more in my day than I did before.

 

Day 2

So today's detox not going so well, while sitting in the car waiting for some food with my kids in the back seat, I found myself mindlessly scrolling some information that was not important. My brain just thinks "oh I've got a few spare minutes, I'll research that now", where really it is not urgent. Because I tend to be very forgetful these days (which I feel is a result of having such a stressful life for the last 5 or so years), I am in the habit of when I remember to do something I want to act on it right away (someone else highlighted to me that it might be the Buffet 5 minute rule). What I should try instead is carrying around a notebook to write down my tasks to get onto later. I am going to look into a to do list app on my computer to try to help with that as well. I did hear on a podcast a while back that this tendency to always have information at our fingertips has reduced our desire to try and remember things (how many times have we heard "Oh I'll just Google it later"), which may contribute to my poor memory. So aim for tomorrow is to start carrying around a notebook again.

I decided to stop drinking alcohol as well. I don't drink very often, maybe once every two weeks, mainly because I hate how tired it makes me which reduces my productivity. But now, I don't like how sluggish it makes me the following morning, even if I have only had 2-3 drinks. I really like to exercise in the morning as I find that is the only time of the day that I can consistently do it, so anything that makes me sluggish in the morning really impacts that. I've combined it with trying to drink 6 litres of water every day, achieving it yesterday. Let's see if I can get a streak of that happening as well as with this journal.

[giblets]

Day 3

 

This detox is going to be a lot harder than I thought! Ok, at least I am on the path and aware that I need to change, but the actual effort to make it change will require more effort than what it felt like to give up games. The difference is I just changed my environment when I got the cravings, but that is not possible with your phone. No matter how great I'll fight some urges when I am paying attention to it, subconsciously I will reach for the phone and waste time, then realise what I am doing and stop. Rinse repeat. Maybe with a different job I could leave my phones behind, but while I need  to stay contactable the itch is going to be there as I can feel it in my pocket. I have had great results from leaving them in a central place in the office/house, and then only coming back to it if I get a call or message. I am going to try to use my smartwatch again to read/dismiss notifications, so then I shouldn't need to look at it very much.

RescueTime indicates I had 6.5 hours of screen time today, including working on my laptop. That's not too bad, though most of it was spent on e-mail. I will never forget a quote I heard on a podcast - "your inbox is a to-do list that anyone can write on". I used to only have my inbox open in the mornings so then I could conduct deep work in the afternoon, I think I might have to try doing that again and see if I can see/feel a difference.

Back running today after hurting my ankle. It is still not full recovered, so not confident I can get another marathon in this weekend, but I will at least try to get a half marathon. I hate that my distances are down, but I am juggling so many concurrent activities right now that it is a necessary sacrifice. It is also forcing me to train better in the time that I have rather than phoning it in, which is timely as there is a race coming up that I would really like to do well in, so it is forcing me to pay close attention to my pace.

Don't forget to back up your computers!

[TheNewMe2.0]

I gotta try to figure out how to backup my MacBook. That's good advice. That must be awesome to be able to run that much. I can't really run, I get too tired usually even if I try. Trying out biking though which seems less tiring. I hope your race goes well. I think your ideas for moderating phone and inbox use are good and you'll have good results from executing them. Stay strong, juggling a lot of things is part of life sometimes.

Edited September 7, 2020 by Erik2.0

[giblets]

22 hours ago, Erik2.0 said:

I gotta try to figure out how to backup my MacBook. That's good advice. That must be awesome to be able to run that much. I can't really run, I get too tired usually even if I try. Trying out biking though which seems less tiring. I hope your race goes well. I think your ideas for moderating phone and inbox use are good and you'll have good results from executing them. Stay strong, juggling a lot of things is part of life sometimes.

Try CloneZilla. I set it up as a live OS on a USB, reboot your PC into it and then follow the prompts. It is free as well.

 

Day 4

The longest journalling streak for probably six months! Baby steps. The detox is a lot harder than I anticipated, I somehow remember giving up gaming to be easy (the second time around). Not really sure why it is so much more challenging, I am sure it is because there are less barriers to wasting time than there was of having to sit down in front of a computer. I forgot how much my brain tries to 'justify' why I should be able to waste time or use my devices. "You've been working hard" ... "It's quiet and you don't get much time to yourself" ... "Being relaxed will make you more focused".

It's all bullshit. The only thing it does is stress me out because I am losing time that I need to spend doing chores, running, or studying. Bill Nye just said it one a podcast I just listened to, "time only moves in one direction".

So I need to think how I can up the ante. Maybe I need to have two separate phones. Maybe I need some kind of punishment for myself. Maybe I need some new type of mantra to keep me focused. I do need to look into buying some Theanine (I think it was called). Maybe a new hobby?

[Zarvic]

Hey, just read through your journal here, can you narrow down what sites you spend most of your time on? Maybe you could use parental controls to limit what you have access to? Maybe you could also turn off you phones data and internet, this will create enough of a barrier that when you go to turn it on again you can catch yourself and think "is it really necessary that I turn on my data right now?" Also, we put too much reliance on email I believe, schedule yourself a very limited time to check your email each day, if something is so important people should be calling or texting you, email is more of a "when you have a chance," and to ensure people understand this put in your signature line what days and times you check your email. Even have an auto reply saying "Thank you for emailing me, if this is urgent please call as I will not be checking my email until x."

Just a couple suggestions, I know some places use internet to make their calls and texts but not where I am from so turning internet and data off on my device is plausible.

[TheNewMe2.0]

Get into hiking. It's free.

[giblets]

On 9/8/2020 at 11:21 PM, Zarvic said:

Hey, just read through your journal here, can you narrow down what sites you spend most of your time on? Maybe you could use parental controls to limit what you have access to? Maybe you could also turn off you phones data and internet, this will create enough of a barrier that when you go to turn it on again you can catch yourself and think "is it really necessary that I turn on my data right now?" Also, we put too much reliance on email I believe, schedule yourself a very limited time to check your email each day, if something is so important people should be calling or texting you, email is more of a "when you have a chance," and to ensure people understand this put in your signature line what days and times you check your email. Even have an auto reply saying "Thank you for emailing me, if this is urgent please call as I will not be checking my email until x."

Just a couple suggestions, I know some places use internet to make their calls and texts but not where I am from so turning internet and data off on my device is plausible.

No sites specifically. If anything, it would be the genre of "news" or "information" by searching for or reading things I don't need to just to pass the time. I am going to go back to getting my news via podcasts to keep me from looking at screens.

I have looked into those parental controls in the past but being a concern about privacy I don't feel comfortable installing something that would track me online. I have tried to take a step towards not being so nervous about this with RescueTime, but I haven't been impressed with the data so far.

 

Day 8

So I missed a few days since I went out camping, but I still really liked my progress, as there was no phone coverage where I was staying. It was great to really spend more time with my family, and I took a "mental health" day by going fishing for half a day as well. It was amazing, I have come back feeling refreshed.

I have also changed a few things which I think has improved my productivity. I have swapped out using my phone late at night and early in the morning to wake up/wind down with my kindle. I have been reading Born to Run which is not something that I usually read (instead I focus on personal development and research essays) but it has been great to fall asleep to and to get my mind kicking first thing in the morning rather than mindlessly scroll. I have been combining it with drinking electrolytes just before bed and as soon as I get up, and I definitely feel a lot less sluggish, though I wonder what it does for my teeth. I had a dentist appointment last year where they pointed out the amount of acidic sports drinks I had been drinking was wearing away the enamel on my teeth. This is a different brand and isn't gels, which has that going for it, but I am sure there would still be somewhat of a similar impact.

I am starting to feel the "productive side" waking up in me much like when I gave up games so long ago. I enjoyed tracking my hours and keeping myself productive back then but it did drop off because it was a bit of work to maintain on a daily basis. I have tried RescueTime but it isn't as seamless as i thought so I don't think it is really helping much at all. One thing I have come to the realisation over the last few weeks is I need to start accepting a "good" solution rather  than the "perfect" solution in order to use that extra time for other things. I picked this up from the The Producitivity Show, where they talk about paying for gardeners etc as a solution to free up time for something you value more. For me, I always like to tweak the software on my phone and my computer to make it perfect, but I would spend way too many hours tweaking it and then keeping it tweaked. Now I am going to accept a state where I can do what I need to and spend my time on other projects or my family.

Hope everyone else is having a cracker weekend!

Edited September 11, 2020 by giblets
merged two posts

[royal panda]

I am glad you enjoyed the camping, it's nice to unplug for a bit on events like that, that's why i barely bring my phone when traveling. Hope the detox is going good

[giblets]

Day 9

So facebook is gone, or at least from my phone. Looking forward to one less reason to look at my phone.

Have been spending a lot of time today thinking about how I seem to try and do so many different things at an ok level, rather than only choosing one or two things and doing them at a great level. It has been a trait through my whole life, maybe it's a bit of ADHD, maybe it's a bit of being too scared to commit to something too deeply, maybe it's a part of thinking I am invulnerable and can do everything. Well I really don't feel invulnerable after my 2019-2020, and as a result I seem to not have an area of expertise or hobby/task that I am really good at.

Food for thought. Today went well, I feel more productive than yesterday, and I am hoping to up the ante tomorrow and become even more productive. I don't like going into full 100% productivity mode because it feels like I wear out and become the closest to playing games or wasting time, but at the moment I feel like I don't have any other option with the amount I need to achieve in shorter and shorter timelines.

Bit of a quiet post today, I think I left my journalling far too late so I feel very tired and lack motivation as a result. I will try to aim for an earlier post tomorrow.

[giblets]

Day 10

What a massive weight from my shoulders getting rid of Facebook turned out to be. I really underestimated this. This time around (I have a traditional love-hate on-again off-again relationship with Facebook) I didn't delete my account, I just got rid of it off my phone. That way the theory is I shouldn't feel FOMO as I can access it whenever I want, but it just requires a little bit more effort by logging onto my computer. Introducing just one extra step worked well for getting rid of games, so I am optimistic  that it will do well here too.

I also saw that the Pine Phone is getting momentum. I had been interested in a similar phone like this for years (even registering for the UbuntuTOUCH I think it was called years ago) but the price has always been prohibitive. This one looks like it will be around $150-200 US, which is half the price of a Lightphone. Plus you can turn it into a full fledged computer if you need to, I am excited. If they get some kind of layer to run open-source Android apps like AntennaPod, I am in boots and all. Sold out right now though but I can wait and learn some patience!

Really enjoying this productivity kick. I am now actively seeking out chores and tasks that I can do in five minute blocks rather than just mindless scrolling.

[BooksandTrees]

Getting rid of facebook helped me get rid of video games to be honest. I think getting rid of facebook helped me remove the emotional attachment I had to the internet and allowed me to have the courage to get rid of gaming and my attachments to the fake friends I had online there as well.

[giblets]

Day 11

Feeling quite horrid today. I woke up in the middle of the night with crazy bowel pains. It kept me up for a few hours. I didn't get on my phone though, which is good, and worked through a chapter and a half of a book on my kindle. This meant I was very sluggish today, didn't get my run in because I wanted to study, but then felt too poor from the nights sleep to even study, so just wasted time. It is quite clear  that the mental discipline or defense against our compulsions is at its lowest when I am tired or when I am feeling poor.

I have so many deadlines right now that I am trying really hard  to not get overwhelmed. As soon as I get overwhelmed I will feel the urge to drop all of them and not work towards any of them. I need to focus on breaking them down to bite sized chunks and make any progress - no matter how small - towards them.

[giblets]

Day 13

So I think I missed a day here somewhere, I think Day 11 should of been Day 12, and I had another gap at Day 11. So I have almost reached two weeks with only missing two days, that is a good outcome. Hey, it's no 100%, but it's not 0% either, so it's progress.

I think the main reason I missed a day is I have lost track of time right now from sulking a little. I am quite busy at work, but I have noticed I feel lonely and without a good colleague or peer that I can connect with and talk to. Without an outlet, I tend to withdraw and have far too much on my mind and I sulk a little. Last night at dinner I kept trailing off into my own thoughts even with my family about, as I had not sorted out my "mind pretzels". Now there is a term I have not used in a long time.

I am not really sure what the solution is this  time around. I feel reluctant to connect to people at work, a lot of the social groups have shut down because of the pandemic, and my attempts to get a penpal or similar online have come up empty. I am hoping it is because of this situation is so unique rather than it going to be my situation going forward. Maybe getting rid of Facebook was the wrong idea, and made this worse or drew my attention to it. I am not saying that Facebook made me more connected or less lonely at all, but it did mask it. Not the ideal outcome, but at least I wasn't focused on it so much. Maybe I need to do some work on being ok with being alone again, to work on my self esteem and/or self confidence that I don't need to have so much external interaction.

I hope everyone else is going well out there.

[giblets]

Day 14

I think I am going to abandon RescueTime. I am not really sure what it is doing for me, and it may be targeted towards multiple devices and multiple users, such as an office environment or a managerial position. I picked up a new phone (my old phone was 3 years old, I was aiming for 5 years) as the previous one had a broken camera, and it seems to have some screen time monitoring tool on it, so I am going to give that a go for a little while and see what that is like. Regardless of giving up on this service, I have noticed that with the removal of Facebook and Twitter, my use of the mobile phone has dropped significantly. This is a massive win in itself. I have also bit the bullet and reconnected my watch to the phone, so I can now dismiss notifications on my wrist without picking up the phone, allowing me to leave it somewhere else while I am home rather than carrying it, such as on the bench in the lobby or in the kitchen while I am in the office.

Enjoying the progress! Two weeks down, and it feels like only yesterday I decided to get back into journalling. 10/14 days I have forced myself to have some reflection on the day, which is great progress. I feel like my entries need to be longer, but something is better than nothing. When I get to 28 days, I am going to start reflecting on my thoughts and challenges were a month ago.

Have a great weekend!

[Bird By Bird]

Hey Gibblets. I use Activity Time. Its a free open source version of Rescuetime. Its still in Beta and not exactly user friendly but I like it.

https://alternativeto.net/software/activitywatch/

There are more alternatives to tracker type programs in the list above.

[giblets]

Day 15

Bit of a sluggish start to the day today. Last night was fantastic though, dusted off the pomodoro timer and smashed out quite a lot of study. I managed to go from 77 words to 600 words towards my assignment, which is great progress. I need to get to 2000 words by Monday. I am so far behind on my reading for my study (like 7 weeks or so) because of escapism really... trying to start something is the hardest task I feel like I have. Once I have started something, however, it is easy from there. It blows my mind that we can create so many barriers for ourselves (whether that is distractions, escapism or excuses) that will prevent us from starting stuff, but all that does is make the situation worse! Just get on with it dammit!

Bit of a random scribble today, but it at least brought my motivation back and I should get on with this assignment.

[royal panda]

7 hours ago, giblets said:

Bit of a sluggish start to the day today. Last night was fantastic though, dusted off the pomodoro timer and smashed out quite a lot of study. I managed to go from 77 words to 600 words towards my assignment, which is great progress. I need to get to 2000 words by Monday. I am so far behind on my reading for my study (like 7 weeks or so) because of escapism really... trying to start something is the hardest task I feel like I have. Once I have started something, however, it is easy from there. It blows my mind that we can create so many barriers for ourselves (whether that is distractions, escapism or excuses) that will prevent us from starting stuff, but all that does is make the situation worse!

Hey Giblets,

starting stuff is a difficult thing for me too. For me it's due to not only distraction but not wanting to do something for a longer time to get the dopamine, as my brain still wants the easy dopamine that you get from gaming. The pomodoro technique is always a good idea to combat this. Other great things that work for me is putting the things that distract me in another room, ( computer, phone, or anything else i wanna do in that moment besides what i have to do). For escapism, thinking about the reward I will get after I finish what's important also works for me. Whether that reward is having done the boring work, or your favorite snack food, or one of your favorite hobbies. Maybe those could work for you as well. 

Good luck on the assignment!

[giblets]

The hard part of putting the distractions in the other room @royal panda is that I need the computer to study! I need more discipline. We can all use more discipline.

Day 16

Had a really great afternoon and evening with the family, but now I am in a hole with this assignment. It is my own fault really for not starting it earlier, so trying not to get anxious about it which will derail my progress on it so far. I essentially need to complete another 1200 words today, so I have jammed the majority of the effort I need to get done into it into one day, so it will be rushed. The silver lining though is that it is for my lecturer to review it, so if I can get it done and to her in this timeframe, then I can relax a little bit and just focus on fine tuning it over the last week, so I shouldn't get anxious about it. Only two assignments are between me and graduating so I really need to buckle down. This year has been hard with studying, both from the sheer amount of work I have been doing, wanting to spend more time with my family and the dreaded time wasting. The only way to go is up from here, so I just need to get on that first rung.

Had a fantastic thunderstorm here last night. I love thunderstorms. I really hope that another one hits during the day so I can go out and sit on my balcony and watch it, or sit out there and do some reading to take it all in.

Only 12 days until I am going to start reflecting on the early entries of this journal, so I really need to increase the quality of my posts. Maybe I can introduce a habit during the day of coming back and editing or adding to them? Will give that a try.

[Bird By Bird]

Be careful. Returning to edit a journal more than once is procrastination. Anything you want to include can be added in tomorrow's journal.

[giblets]

5 hours ago, Bird By Bird said:

Be careful. Returning to edit a journal more than once is procrastination. Anything you want to include can be added in tomorrow's journal.

Without discipline. But that could be said for every task.

Strike while the iron is hot.

[giblets]

Day  17

"Discipline hurts in the short term, but regrets last forever."

Found one of the motivation audio files that I used to listen to while I was going through the gaming detox. I am trying to shake up my morning routine again, it seems to be a constant battle (battle maybe is a pessimistic word) trying to find one that works while getting me going for the day faster. Today I am listening to the motivation clip instead of scrolling or reading. Reading is for the end of the day, I need to use the sharpness of my mind in the morning for journalling and studying, or meditating while running (though that is on hold for the moment).

I am learning a lot about introvert personality traits rather than extroverts. I used to think that introvert meant I didn't want to spend time with anyone, that I never wanted to be sociable, but then wonder why I felt lonely, or allow myself to be set up where I am now, where I hardly know anyone outside of work and spend most of my time by myself. Instead, introverts get their energy internally, rather than energy from the people around them. Rather than feeling revitalized from spending a large amount of time with groups of people, I feel drained. But that doesn't mean I don't want to be sociable. I now have the daunting task of trying to create a friends circle from scratch at my ripe old age. But, just like studying, rather than shying away from it, it is time to get on with it and take the first step.

Time to finish off the draft for this assignment. Then free myself to go for a run to clear my head and untangle some mind pretzels, which will get me grounded and more resilient to go forward.