My attic office window faces East and most mornings I watch the sunrise.
Pretty amazing!
It's hard not to wakeup and jump right into work. I have a lot to do. I've made commitments. Taking a few minutes each morning and throughout the day to pause, disconnect, and let life in helps to keep me energized throughout the day. I am more focused in my work and less irritable when I remember to do this.
I thought about doing an April Fools Day post and making up some crazy story but I don't have anything to share that wouldn't be completely obvious.
Last night I deleted all social media and other timewasters from my phone. I didn't use them very much to begin with but I've found myself connecting more often lately. I've become part of a few pretty cool groups and started another. People have interesting things to say and I enjoy learning from them. I also enjoy contributing myself and it is really tempting to check in to see if anyone has commented on something I've shared.
I'm highly distractible. By now you know this. I was told by the psychologist who gave me the ADD under the table diagnosis that I have strong addictive tendencies and that I should be vigilant in life to keep them in check.
When I get an alert on my phone I've trained myself to not need to immediately see what's going on. But the notification takes up space in my mind. Knowing that I have something waiting for me takes up some of my focus bandwidth. I end up checking it a little while later just to get it out of my mind. By then there might be a handful of alerts all vying for my attention.
I don't like it.
I do like when I am able to learn from others and when people are interested in things I have to share. I love re-connecting with old friends and having a forum to bounce questions and ideas off of. What I can do without is the never ending connectivity. BING - BING - BING. Check it out, you don't want to miss anything!
EXACTLY!
I don't want to miss out on life because I was sucked up in the world of anti-social media. I want to make genuine connections with real people.
I say this all while preparing a post to send out to facebook and the blogosphere. Hypocrisy? Maybe a little. The fact is I don't see these things as bad in moderation and when used to enhance opportunities in REAL LIFE. I use it for business. I use it to manage a community and I use it to connect.
Lately I've felt it's claws digging into me and I'd rather be free.
So for April, and probably indefinitely, I'm checking out of social media. It's gone from my phone and I won't connect from my computer except for 1 day a week for 30 minutes. Wednesday by default. During this small window I will do all posts, status updates, replies, ... everything. Then I'm disconnected again for 7 days.
And not just social media. I'm going to look for ways to put the beat down on other time wasting garbage in life. I have so many important and meaningful things to do that I am just not getting around to doing. My TO DO list is hovering over my head like the anvil in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.
I'm looking forward to catching more of the sunrises in life.
See you next week.
