Balancing time spent in ‘real’ world and digital chatter.
It’s funny how comfortable routines make us and how we come to rely on them. Admittedly they can be limiting if we cling so tightly to them that we never experience anything new. But for most of us, routines give us a predictable structure to follow and help us feel ‘on top of everything’.
Our routine has been virtually non-existent the last few weeks. Full-on renovating and moving will do that to you. Now that we’re officially in our new house and back at work as of today, we are all trying to find something that resembles normal again. Or at least a new kind of normal anyway. We’re all living downstairs together as upstairs is still a construction zone. It’s a big area but the absence of doors, only having a bar fridge and Karmen’s bedroom in the kitchenette area, gives it that ‘camping’ feeling. The fact that we are also completely disconnected with no TV or internet has completely changed our normal routines but not necessarily for the worse.
Whilst I did have a minor stress out yesterday afternoon after going to McDonald’s to use their insanely terrible wifi to get school prep done, the disconnection has been a nice break. It’s not until you stop your normal routine that you start to notice exactly how much time you’ve been wasting scrolling through Instagram and Facebook, just because they’re there.
Typically I used to wake up and whilst having a coffee I’d be on my phone flashing between email, Instagram, Facebook, twitter and bloglovin’. Usually we would also be sitting in front of the TV with either Sunrise or ABC on as background noise (we have been known to sit in front of ABC for an half an hour without even noticing it was a kid’s show and Eamon isn’t even there, but I probably shouldn’t admit that!)
Since moving we’ve been sitting in the outdoor area drinking coffee and having breakfast in the crisp morning air. Something I probably wouldn’t even have noticed if we’d stayed inside as it’s warm by 7. We’ve been having meals out there too with only the background noise of crashing waves a few streets away.
I’m definitely looking forward to having the convenience of being online again soon, but in the meantime I am liking our new daily routine that involves a little more silence and lot less digital chatter. And once we do finally get re-connected I’m hoping I can find a bit of a better balance than we had before. (Remind me of this please, when my phone becomes re-glued to my hand!)
How do you go about balancing your time between the digital and ‘real’ world?
I find it really hard sometimes.
I will have a week where I am really “good” and hardly ever online and then other weeks I just seem to crave that escapism.
Anyway, it sounds like the new routine is a good one!
And I love the new look!
I struggle with this all day everyday. I’m one of those people that needs a lot of intellectual stimulation and in this digital age instead of opening a book ( which I should be doing) I’m going online and reading random things or surfing incessantly. I had to drastically cut back on Facebook as I was on there all day. Huge time waster!
Wow, this was a much needed post. Thank you
I struggle with balance too. I work in front of a screen all day and in my down time I am catching up with editing, blogs and social life (all from my computer or phone). Some days I need to force myself to put down technology, turn it off and walk away. I honestly don’t do it enough
I ban all media at meal times. No phone, computers or TVs. This is for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For myself I only have computer time during times Jarvis is asleep, and I try to keep phone time to the bare needed time. TV only goes on a 5pm and is turned off at 6pm. This is Jarvis’s movie or TV time while I prepare dinner, clean and feed the animals. Then it goes off until Jarvis goes to bed, sometime we turn it on to watch a movie. But most often it stays off. I do this as I don’t want Jarvis to get use to us being switched off.