HEY!

Hi!

It’s been awhile. I took the month of February off from technology as I try to do yearly. This year was different than years past because my use of technology has fundamentally changed. It’s hard to see how integrated we are with tech and screens until we try to stop using them. The general rules of previous years have been:

  1. No technology
  2. Unless it aids in socialization (FaceTime for example)
  3. Unless it’s needed for work – obviously
  4. Unless it dramatically increases efficiency (using my recipe index on my phone instead of trying to hunt down the originals in cookbooks)

This year I had to change the rules because my life is more wired. Examples:

  1. I’m reading a book on my kindle paper right now. I could go get the book from the library but occasionally I suffer from swells of insomnia and if I can read at night instead of using my phone – that’s aligned with the goals of the experiment.
  2. All GlowForge designs are implemented via a cloud service. Using the GlowForge is an exploration of craftiness, and the original goal of no-technology-February was to prevent wasted time, not to limit crafts.
  3. We have Alexa. That’s technology, but it doesn’t require a screen. Hmm. We’ll let it slide.
  4. Podcasts: this one I decided to go without. I have access to some educational CDs so I used those instead. It’s less information because I can’t listen to them at 1.5x or 2x speed, but that’s kind of to the point of the whole exercise? Chill with technology overflow? So maybe it’s good.

The biggest changes for the month were no reddit and no words with friends. I’m going to try to continue with limiting my reddit exposure. That’s probably the greatest sinkhole in my life of productivity. Better to limit that one as much as we can.

February was a success! I finished 1.75 books, and printed more GlowForge crafts than I had cumulatively in the previous months of ownership.

I hope everyone else has been doing well! Let me know if anything crazy is going on in your lives!

 

2 thoughts on “HEY!

    • 4/3/2018 at 4:26 pm
      Permalink

      WHAAAAT!?!?! Details please! Gender? First name? Has this child already participated in an orienteering challenge? There’s so much we need to know!

      Reply

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