Moderating technology use is kind of like being mindful of what you eat, or how much you exercise. There are a lot of us who have problems staying away from the chocolate (or in my case right now at the beginning of fall, the apple pie...mmmmm...). Magazines, diet books, and our trainers are quick to say that you don't have to stop eating chocolate, you just need to exercise restraint in when and how much you eat it. Easier said than done, right? You can help yourself out, though, in a few ways. You can only have a small amount around the house. You can promise yourself that you won't buy things while you're out that have chocolate in them. And you can make sure that what you have on hand is the best stuff, the kind of chocolate that will be wonderful to eat slowly and savor instead of the cheap candy that it's easy to keep popping. When I was thinking about these tips, it occurred to me that they could easily be extended to provide some guidelines about technology usage! Crazy talk? Yeah, maybe...
1. "You only have a small amount of it around the house." We have three computers in our house, which is about two more than we need. My husband used to work from home, so having them around made more sense, but now that he's working elsewhere, I totally want to get rid of at least one of them. We also both have Smartphones, which are constantly blinging us and telling us we have messages that are urgent and dire. I recently realized that with all the automatic notifications most phones have now, it's really difficult to unplug at all from work or even well-meaning friends. I don't really want to be interrupted in the middle of dinner or playing with my daughter to be told that Nordstrom's is having a sale. So I'm turning my phone's notifications off, except for the texts and phone calls. That way I'm not constantly pulled out of my life and into my phone!
2. "You can promise yourself that you won't buy many things while you're out that have chocolate in them." When we're out and about doing things, it's super tempting to feel like you're "wasting time" by just walking down the street, or riding the bus, or eating lunch. I've definitely almost gotten run over, tripped and fallen on my face, and eaten way more than I intended to because I was multitasking on my phone. What if when we're out doing things, we just did things? No phone beside us during our workout. Looking around and noticing beautiful things on a walk instead of texting. This month I'm going to challenge myself to be really present, using the time I need to use my phone on my phone and no more than that. It's gonna be hard, which brings me to my last point...
3. "And you can make sure that what you have on hand is the best stuff, the kind of chocolate that will be wonderful to eat slowly and savor instead of the cheap candy that it's easy to keep popping." With my new Droid 3 I have access to a million games, applications and ways of connecting to people. I spent hours yesterday familiarizing myself with a handful of them, trying to decide what would really be useful and what will just take up time. Um...there's a LOT of things I could do on my phone that would purely suck up days of my life without really giving me anything in return. So I'm going to be really careful, and spend the time to research right now, the apps that would really feel great to use. Allrecipies.com has a great app that would let me find cool dinner ideas and get an ingredient list together so that I could stop at the store on my way home instead of having to make an extra trip. Inspiration, information-gathering and time-saving...that feel like good chocolate to me. Angry Birds doesn't feel like anything but time when I could be resting or doing anything else at all that would be truly refreshing, so instead of forcing a tired brain to go into overtime, I'm not gonna download that one.
I'm going to go hop on the bus now! I'll try to think about these guidelines I've come up with...think about them yourself, if there's a chance they might be helpful to you! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment