Hello everyone,
Let me just say that i think its great Steve has created this forum, ive been looking for something similar online but never found any forum that would be good enough.
I would like to use this post as my own way of overcoming my problem. I guess i could say my bad habit, if not an addiction.
Ive recently realized how much time i spend online, i wont get into the exact number of hours per week, but its a lot.
I started to think about my problem. I started to write down pros and cons of spending so much time online (needles to say there were only a few pros and many times more cons). And ive decided that i have to do something about it.
I discovered that this time spent mainly chatting with friends who i see every day at the university anyway, takes away most of my productive time (i mean the more productive hours of the day, that i could spend on studying, working or other more healthy relaxation).
I dont spend so much time browsing websites, but i spend lots of hours beeing stuck on msn, icq etc.
In the past when i did not use and abuse these programmes i was a very effective person. I was very well organized, i always had time to do the things that i planned for. Even if those things were tough to accomplish, like getting up at 5:45 am on saturdays to take the bus to the swimingpool and workout in the morning (mind you its not so easy to do during the cold scandinavian winters
)
Being organized made me feel very good about myself.
Nowadays i still somehow get everything done, and get through with projects that have to be done, but mediocer results are not what i strive for. Plus the long hours spent in front of the monitor wear me down physically and sometimes emotionally.
I know that if i channel my will to work and will for accomplishment and effectivness i can get "back on track".
I just have to find a way to greatly cut down on the time spent chatting.
It will be impossible to totally eliminate these timewasters from my life, because they are simply a part of our university reality.
So far i found out that if i plan my daily activities, and absolutley all the tasks that i need to acomplish during the day i manage not to waste too much time on msn, icq as i simply dont have much time left for this. Im just to tired after a whole day of work to sit and chat.
On my monitor ive placed a huge yellow post-it note reminding me not to log on to anything that i dont want to use.
i know it might sound a bit silly but its been working the past few days.
I also try to give myself 2 or 3 times during the day/evening when i log online and say a few words to a friend or two. I was thinking of doing the 30 days with no internet like described by Steve, but i simply can get along without the net, because i need it for the university and for work.
My question to the readers is this: if you have or had (or are willing to help) such a problem of excessive chatting how did you or would you fight it???
ps. sorry for all the language mistakes made in this post, english is not my first language.