What do horse when off fall?

A few months ago I took a break from social media and other things to try and get parts of my life back. It was planned for 6 weeks, it lasted two. The problem was that I had a lot of power to block things, and any time something grabbed my attention for longer than a few minutes I added it to the timed block. No more Wikipedia, SCP-Wiki, TVTropes, LOTR Wiki, any wiki for that matter. So many websites gone. YouTube and other social media is not hard to do without. Discord is huge for me because I have a lot of friends and some servers that I participate in and have obligations to. I cut all of that out. It was miserable.

My next attempt, starting now, is going to cut out Manga, Podcasts, and any social media site that I just mindlessly intake.

• Manga, like any graphic novel or comic, is junk food. The stories are amazing sometimes, but it is designed to grab attention and for rapid fire consumption. I’ll be swapping that out for my trusty e-reader (please hold out a little longer, little buddy).
• Podcasts were allowed last time because I thought I needed something to get me through the work day, something to listen to while driving, while walking, showering, etc. It’s not necessary. I’ve been constantly worried about what I’d do if I ran out of my current podcast I’m listening to. I listen to really weird podcasts. This latest only upload monthly. Once I’m out then I’ll be stuck waiting, no longer consuming on demand. It has to stop. The plan is to just enjoy the silence.
• Social media has the same story as last time, virtual slot machine, blah blah blah. Nobody needs an explanation as to why social media is bad for you. I’ll be swapping out for doing more courses for hobbies, especially the ones I’ve already bought and not finished or even started.

I also want to be sure to not play any mindless video games, ones that hijack the brain like Factorio. If I’m going to play something it’s going to be narrative driven. Takes more effort than a graphic novel and is more fatiguing than a Factorio session. Factorio is fatiguing by the way, you just don’t feel it until you’re off, like a drug. Also going to make sure I spend time doing absolutely whatever with the wife, whatever she wants to do.

So yeah. I’ve got a duration goal in mind, I’ll keep it to myself for now. I’d for sure like to make it through one day at minimum. My intentions are good, I have stuff I want to do. I miss doodling in class. Doodles don’t happen anymore. I looked at drawing prompts and realized I have no creativity anymore.

The other thing that sparked this was more than a few months back something toggled in my brain and suddenly I was a whole different person for about two days. I cleaned my whole apartment, I swore off junk food, and got a whole bunch of stuff done. I was even back to studying for a while after. Either someone put adderall in one of my meals, or I tripped some circuit through magic. I want to get back to that. I felt like I was my own master. All of these steps I’ve laid out for myself, all 3-5 of them, are supposedly part of the way to get to this way of living. I will continue to experiment.

P.S. Not going to use any blocker programs this time. Going full willpower and motivation. It’s good when you feel like you have absolutely no control, but it feels better when you just don’t do the things you don’t want to do. It seems my black and white thinking has caused me to look at events like they’re always going to be the last time I do them, therefore I go about doing them as much and as often as possible. Same deal with getting junk food. I know that I’ll be back on social media at some point. I’d like to get to the point where a nightly breathing session fully restores me. I also know in my heart of hearts that I won’t ever fully stop eating junk food, but I need to stop treating my life like every time I have an opportunity I need to jump on it because it’s probably definitely going to be the last time. I’m enacting Friday Treats as of now, where every Friday (assuming I’m not following some sugar/sweetener-free diet) will let me pick something like a donut or a Slurpee and have it without feeling bad. Knowing that I have a consistent source of sickly sweet goodness and that I’m not cutting it off any time soon, that should circumvent the black and white problem.