There is always something that needs to be cleaned. If you’re in your workplace, your computer, your desk, the things that surround you, they all get filthy over time. If you’re at home, cleaning is a never-ending task.
So make it a positive experience.
If you’re struggling with online addictions, then make a note of the times of day when you’re at your worst and make an effort to stop, step away, and clean one thing.
- Clean the cat’s litter box.
- Clean your keyboard (you wouldn’t believe how nasty they get).
- Clean out your bag.
- Clean one book shelf.
Just clean one thing, one small area. Do this frequently. You’ll benefit from an improved personal environment and you’ll get time away from online and make physical contact with your immediate environment. You’ll see things, find things, that you’ve forgotten about or that distract you. Take action. Move things around.
Time you spend doing this is sharply different from spending time online. You might find that you enjoy it. And even if you don’t, you’ll benefit from the time away from the screen and the newly clean stuff.
More Tips To Break Your Online Addiction.
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Randy,
I want to express my thanks for this article and those that have preceded it. For most of my life I have considered myself a deep thinker. My reading habits spanned the fields of theology, quantum physics, leadership, biography, and fiction. For much of that time I thought I might even try my hand at writing someday. To attempt the challenge of deeply thinking and expounding on a subject that is meaningful to me and just might be interesting to someone else.
Yet, over the past few years that passion has faded and been replaced with distaste and avoidance of the very subjects I use to devour so easily. I use to think it was because I was losing my mental edge or that life with three young children just couldn’t support such passions.
However, since reading this blog on a regular basis and putting some of your suggestions into practice, I find my tastes returning. I find myself waking earlier in the day to read uninterrupted and retiring earlier in the evening so that my mind will be more clear come morning.
With that clarity i have felt compelled to write. More journaling for now than anything. I write about my prior day, my job, my kids, my fears, my struggles, my victories - and what I have found has liberated me. It has freed me to discover new tastes and new passions. It has led me to see that I am — an introvert.
I had never considered this before. I enjoy public speaking and am often the first person to speak up and share my opinion on any number of subjects. Yet, what I had failed to see for so long was that I grow weary from constant interaction and clutter. I lose my mental sharpness and seek respite from those things which might force me to think deeply or interact with others in any meaningful way. I withdraw.
Though I never anticipated this change, what I found through your blog and others like Patrick Rhone is that by choosing to minimize certain things I have suddenly and surprisingly maximized the things that I had long desired to do, but had always fallen short of achieving. My now uninterrupted time with my children and wife is more sweet. My journal is is more used. My mind is more clear. My life is more satisfying.
One day, I will be a writer and I just might owe it to a bonsai tree, a cleaner desk, and a man I might never meet.
With much indebtedness,
Brandon Cosby
Brandon,
Thank you for this. I sometimes wonder, even when I look at the weblogs, if what I write is actually read, if people really benefit.
Thank you for taking to time to let me know what this has meant to you. That means a lot to me.
Randy