In August I decided to only go on social media twice a month, and started the most ‘successful’ break from social media in my life. In October I mourned what I had lost. The win condition for me is that I’m in steady contact with my friends and the internet, and also write and paint regularly. Neither being online a lot nor being online very little got me close.
What do I try next?
Observations
- My posting brain only comes on a day into being online. Having one online day every two weeks makes me noticeably sad. I submerge myself back in an environment and activity I used to love… and the love is gone. Sometimes it starts blooming just when my time is near its end.
- I tore myself offline so I could have more slack to work on projects, but a lot of the motivation to work on projects came from my connection to people. Oops fuck.
- It is hard to keep other addictions like Magic the Gathering at bay when Twitter leaves a vacuum.
- I endorse doing things I’m addicted to specifically in the hour or two that I’m coming off childcare.
Time-of-day specific observations:
- My best work starts happening around 10pm or 11pm. This is unfortunate, because with a child I now have to sleep at 1am or risk emotional ruin. I have a pretty narrow window to work – a window in which it is rarely a good idea to be on twitter.
- I currently do childcare or cooking between 9am and 12:30pm, and from 2pm to 6:30pm. I’m pretty conflicted about whether it’s good or bad to be online then.
- When I am on childcare, I endorse having access to my friends and engaging in casual chitchat to maintain relationships.
- But I can get sucked in too easily, and spend time thinking about internet things when I’d prefer to be oriented to my child.
- When I’m recovering from childcare, gaming or tweeting are good for me – for 90 minutes. This means between 6:30pm and 8pm.
- Between 8pm and 10pm is another ambiguous zone. I’m recovered but not sharp. If I were living my best life I’d use that time to exercise, read, do cleaning that was hard while watching a baby, cuddle my partners. In practice I mostly do the latter.
- I think I shouldn’t be online on weekends.
What next?
Three different ideas:
- New set schedule. Allow myself to go online between 1:30pm and 8pm on weekdays. After 8pm, slowly shift into a working gear.
- Self adjusting periods. Be offline until I hit 3 consecutive days of no major work on painting or writing. If I’m not working on projects, I might as well have friends again. When I want to enter another work jag, go offline until my streak runs out.
- Longer posting periods. 3 days on (probably Wed, Thurs, Fri), 4 days off.
Which one? I agonized for a few minutes before realizing I should obviously try all of them. I don’t think order matters much, but I notice I’m least enthused about 1. I slightly prefer 2 to 3, so I’ll do that. When it fails, I’ll write down how it affected me, and move onto the next one.