River: taking a break from technology

[mdlbear]

A recent post on PBS's MediaShift blog titled 'Technology Sabbath' Offers One Day to Unplug seems particularly good as a follower to my last post on managing attention:

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with taking one day each week away from work completely. You might think this would be an easy task as there’s a “weekend” each week that allegedly offers up two full days of rest. And yet, as I work at home, the shiny big screen of the iMac beckons at all hours, and I am often in front of its white glow the first thing every morning and the last thing at night.

So, being that I am Jewish — though not very religious — I decided to shut down the computer each Friday night at sunset until Saturday at sunset, the traditional time of the Jewish Sabbath. I make exceptions when I need to get directions or check for a personal email. I still use my cell phone but try to limit it to personal calls only. While this day of technological rest can be a difficult routine, it has allowed me to stretch my time, spend more hours outside and be with people more in face-to-face settings.

And I’m not alone. The concept of a “Technology Sabbath” is becoming more widespread,..

Not that I'm likely to do any such thing, you understand. But it probably wouldn't hurt to stay off the web and IM during daylight hours on weekends. Who knows? I might actually get some projects off the ground... (Almost all of them involve computers, but they're also vulnerable to distractions.)

(From Techdirt.)

Comments

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

after my mother died, I took some time away from work and didn't touch the computer some days. magically, I had far more hours in the day; the screen sucks a lot more than the five minutes you think you're giving it. think you spent an hour at the screen; more like three usually. It induces flow state some times - and it eats time at others...

[mdlbear]

Yeah. Haven't gotten nearly as much done since I started using LJ. Although Usenet might have been worse.

[idea-fairy.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded that I've been treating conventions like Pantheacon or Consonance or Baycon as vacations from the Internet. I may bring a laptop Just In Case, but so far haven't actually tried to go online during a con (exception: technology-related programming items).

I'm also experimenting with using a laptop instead of paper printouts for poetry readings and such, but that doesn't require a Net connection.

[mdlbear]

I drop everything except LJ and email, but there's little else to do in the morning so I might as well keep up, and maybe work on my con report while I can still remember what happened.