Wednesday 15 February
“Maybe 5 days is enough of doing this phone diet,” I thought to myself this morning. “I’ve broken the addictive reach for my phone, the need to fill every micro minute. I’ve developed some ideas for how to use my phone more intentionally…”
I came up with all the justifications to end the diet as I made my coffee. I think the main reason I wanted to stop was that I’d tasked myself to put some decent time into cleaning today, the prospect of which felt daunting without earbud entertainment. But, I’d done 5 days of the diet, only 2 more days to go. I considered going ahead and listening to something to make the cleaning easier then just admitting it to my readers (you!) without truncating the whole experiment.
But, I like to do things properly so I eventually decided to see out my 7 days and to do them honestly.
I did, though, go out to do an errand I’d planned to do on another day in order to avoid spending too much time cleaning alone (i.e. procrastinating). I had the cyclone news turned on on the tv in the next room when I cleaned. While technically within the diet rules, I regret not taking the opportunity to give cleaning without audio a try. I couldn’t hear much of what they were saying on the tv but I found the company soothing. It made me think of people who live alone and keep their tv on all day, even if they’re not necessarily sitting in front of it all the time. I can see now why they might do it. I guess I’ve been using podcasts and audiobooks in the same way.
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