Thank you for joining me on this journey to a more organized life and home. Thanks to this series I am reading my Bible for 15 minutes each day, getting dressed nicely, exercising for 10 minutes, trying to get 8 hours of sleep each night, and trying to drink more water each day.
This week I am going to try to manage my time on the computer.
My goal is to spend no more than 2 hours each day on the computer or my iTouch. I think the best way to manage my time will be to do an audit where I will tally how much time I have spent on the computer.
This can be accomplished by using a timer, an online timer like Online Stopwatch, or by simply keeping a pen and paper log of when I got on the computer and when I finished. I haven’t decided exactly which method I will use, but I will keep track somehow.
If you will indulge me for a few minutes, I am going to talk about computer time, specifically time online.
When I was a senior in college, the internet was pretty new. I had a professor who was very excited about the “world wide web” and told us he was sure it was going to catch on and be a really big deal. He was right.
During the course of my time as a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom, I have depended on the internet for many things. It has been a source of information, a way to manage our bills and various accounts, and a way to stay connected with friends both old and new.
I have forged many friendships through online groups and my blogs that I am very thankful for. Being at home full-time means that there have been many weeks where I saw no one outside of my immediate family. Being able to chat with online friends can sometimes be a sanity saver.
However, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, online groups, forums, and even my beloved Pinterest can consume too much time if we let them.
I have to admit that I love it when someone follows me, or likes my page, or pins one of my craft projects. It is a big ego boost and makes me feel like my blogging is important.
However, if I don’t keep my computer time in check then I might start thinking that my online life is more important than real life. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter one bit if I’m a big deal online. What matters most are the 6 people who share this real life with me. My husband and my kids deserve my best, not what’s left after I’m finished with my computer time.
A few years ago, I was a member of a Christian mom’s Yahoo group. I had been a member for a few years when I became a moderator. I learned so much from the ladies that were a part of that group and I am still friends with several of them. However, there came a point where I had to take a step back and realize that I was becoming too busy with my duties to the group. I eventually left the group altogether because I felt like it was about to take time away from my family that I wasn’t willing to give up.
The same goes for my blogging. There are times when I may only post one time in a week. Those are weeks when I have felt like my blogs were taking up too much of my time.
I recently read the ebook called Blogger Behave. The book had lots of great ideas and I loved that it was written from a Christian perspective. The author wrote something that has stuck with me during the past few weeks. ”My blog must benefit my real life.”
With three blogs, I have been feeling like my blogs aren’t benefitting my real life. To help me spend less time online, I am not going to be hosting my Fix It Up Friday link party anymore. It was something I really wanted to see succeed when I started it back in January, but I just don’t feel like it is benefitting me.
Another thing I am contemplating is combining all three of my blogs into one, more than likely at this domain. I am not sure how to do that at this point, but I think that trying to have more than one blog is too stressful.
Now, I know that two hours of computer time seems like a lot, but I am sure I spend more than that during the course of a day both online and off. This may mean that I will use pen and paper to write my posts before I sit down at the computer.
If you are still with me, you are awesome. :) Sometimes, I just start typing and let the words come out as they will.
Am I the only one who can spend too much time on the computer without even realizing it? Do you need to reign in your time online, too? What do you think is a realistic time to spend on the computer each day?
I almost forgot to say that I will be trying to drink 2-8 ounce glasses of water each day this week.
I have created a checklist for this week. If you want to follow along, you are more than welcome to print one out.
Now, I better get off of the computer before I fail during the first day of trying to accomplish my new goal. Good night!
