Tuesday, February 12, 2013

moving toward a new normal (routine)

As I noted to a friend in an email earlier this morning, it's hard to change habits. But to routines, change does come. 

For years my waking duties have included tending to dogs (first), making coffee, then heading to the computer to catch up with the world. First it was emails. Then message boards entered the scene. Then online chat. With blogs and facebook, communication is less personal, but certainly economical in terms of time and message. The habit of being at the computer for an extended morning session has outlived its usefulness, at least for now. My world has shrunk significantly, and there is less blog fodder. If I'm not writing my blog, I'm tending not to be reading other blogs since I would link from my own page. That doesn't honor the people whose blogs I tend to read, for which I'm sorry. I need to find a way to adjust that.

My days still start with dogs and coffee, but now computer time has shifted to a review of emails (mostly subscriber feeds from web sites), then facebook, a quick hop to Huffpost, then Pinterest. I play a game of online sudoku, and then I'm done. 

The plan, at this point, is to take advantage of the quiet in the house at that early hour and get some reading done. I have resumed cross-stitching in the evening while we watch television, so that time is productive, but finding the right time to read has been elusive. Until now.

Wish me luck. 

 

3 comments:

The Bug said...

Oh I really really need to let go of my computer in the evenings. I think that I won't drop FB completely, but I'm setting a timer (really!) & I have to quit when it goes off no matter what. And yes, reading is one of the things I want to do with that new free time. And maybe cleaning. But probably just reading :)

Mary Beth said...

Wishing you luck! I don't tend to use the computer much in the evenings because I'm on it so much of the rest of the day. But I do tend to sink into a book or TV to the exclusion of what NEEDS to be done. Like The Bug, I'm setting a timer, but it's 15 minutes I spend doing something in the house. :)

Jayne said...

It really does become quite the habit, doesn't it? I check my email in the AM along with Fb and head to work. At lunch I usually also check in with both, and then at night, I might be reading or watching something on TV, but with my Kindle and my iPhone, I do find myself "checking in" on Fb several times. When I friend, who was very active on Fb, recently decided she was done with it for now, I felt anxiety FOR her and wondered how on earth she'd resist the temptation. Since my social life is so limited, it's become a lifeline of connection of sorts. I'd really miss it... really. But, I do worry that it becomes too prominent in our lives and wonder if there will be a day when I can simply walk away.

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