New Thing #8- July 2010- Media Cleanse

It's finally over. For New Thing #8, I conducted a ten day Media Cleanse in which my rules included no television, movies, social media or flipping through magazines. I also couldn't do any aimless internet surfing. If I went online, I had to have a purpose in mind and I had to get in and get out.

The point was that I had been wasting too much time in mindless activities.

I would sometimes get online to check a couple of things and 2 hours later will realize that I forgot what I had initially been looking for. I would get swept away on Facebook or Twitter, wondering what was going on in the world (aka what my friends are up to). It's never really interesting. I don't need to know that someone just harvested truffles in Farmville or that someone else worked all weekend.

News headlines are a big time-wasting culprit, too, and the astonishing thing is that it's not the important stuff that I would spend my time on. Right before deciding to do a Media Cleanse as a New Thing, I found myself at the end of an article and scratching my head as to why I was there at all. The headline I had followed was called "Why the beard, Brad?"

I did, indeed, want to know "why the beard, Brad?" But is it important? Is it really relevant to my life? No. It's not even important or relevant to his life, apparently, because the answer to that question was that he was bored, so he had decided to grow a beard and put weird little beads in it. And I wasted my time reading about it. And you just did, too. :) The mindlessness needed to stop.

And it did. For 10 full days. (Mostly).

I did have a rough go of it a couple nights ago. I was stressed and tired and wanted to lay on the couch and watch tv. But, I knew if I did, I would hate myself in the morning. So I did what I always do when I don't want to hate myself in the morning. I called my mom to talk me down. It worked and the crisis was averted.

I have to admit, though, that last night I did go a little crazy. It was a little reminiscent of my Pepsi and Doritos incident during my Kind Diet (New Thing #2- February). I knew I was on the home stretch, but just couldn't take it anymore. All of the productivity and mindfulness of the previous nine days got the best of me and I threw all caution to the wind. I laid on the couch and watched Kathy Griffin- My Life on the D-List AND I perused msn.com. At that same time. Shocking, I know. I'm not even ashamed, though I know I should be.

This was an excellent New Thing to have subjected myself to even though it sucked most of the time. I learned that I can in fact survive without social media, television and other mindless forms of entertainment. I got a lot of great things knocked off my to-do list. (Though I'm only a few things shy of completing my Christmas shopping I didn't get that stupid recipe conversion done. I'm not worried about it, though. There will be plenty of winter months in which that project will sound appealing).

While I won't be continuing on in a media-free state, I will be limiting my screen time significantly moving forward and will be much more mindful of how I spend my time.

I'm now signing off to go steam clean my carpets. Ciao!

Starting New Thing #8- 10 Day Media Cleanse

One day last week I pulled into my driveway and thought how did I get here? I barely remember leaving work.

I try to live consciously and with purpose. I think before I make decisions. I set goals. I recycle.

But, far too often recently I find myself zoning out and escaping the present. I get lulled into unconsciousness by the mindlessness of my bad habits (watching too much television and screwing around on the internet) and hours later groggily coming back to consciousness. It may be a little like experiencing a roofie. Who's been roofie-ing my life? Apparently I have.

I get frustrated because I have lots of projects I'd like to finish and also feel like I have too little time to do things that I enjoy. I think, "If only I had time to hear myself think I could get something accomplished." Then I swamp my brain with a bunch of useless nonsense because I think I'm too tired to think. Ironic, isn't it? All this thinking about thinking.

I need to clear my mind of the clutter and be more purposeful with my time, so this concept will be New Thing #8. For the next 10 days I am going to do a media cleanse and here are my rules:

• No television.
• No movies.
• No flipping through magazines.
• I can only be on the internet for purposeful tasks and be on for as short amounts of time as possible.(I'm still going to allow myself to blog as that seems purposeful to me as I've had a goal to start posting more frequently).
• I am going to keep an activity log of all the things I can get accomplished when I'm not otherwise screwing around.

This media cleanse is going to start tomorrow.... tonight I have a new episode of Kathy Griffin- My Life on the D-List to watch. I have priorities, you know.  : )