How did you do last month?
Did you cut back on your blog writing and reading time?
What did you do with your newly-freed hours?
I finished my book a few weeks earlier than I thought I would!!
I also started using the Comments function of Word (I use a Mac) whenever I had something I needed to look up on the Web. I’d make a comment, attached to the phrase or graf in question, and keep writing. Once a day I would hop back on the Web and look everything up.
In addition, I kept a pleasure book right next to my elbow. Whenever I’d get one of those cravings to waste time online (always a sign that my concentration was flagging or that I’d hit a bump in the manuscript) I would read for fun instead of waste time checking CNN or the Times to see that nothing had in fact happened that I needed to know about.
What was your experience?
Blog-free February was EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED:
http://sarahmillerbooks.blogspot.com/2010/03/bff-recap-good-newsbad-news.html
The snow in Virginia made it hard for me to accomplish as much as I wanted because my kids were home for two weeks straight and they are very loud. 🙂
But I learned how to use MacFreedom, a program that keeps you off the internet for a period of time that you specify, and that really helped.
I can do better, but I found out I don’t shrivel up and die if I can’t check Verla’s every ten minutes. Better yet, I found out that Verla’s doesn’t shrivel up and die if I don’t check it every ten minutes. We have a great staff and I’m only a small part of it.
It gave me time to finally finish my personal statement for graduate school and to work out more. 🙂
I wasn’t intending to do Blog-Free February until a few days before, when I realized that I couldn’t have sanity, sleep, and blogging last month.
I didn’t blog or read anyone’s blog all month, and I feel great. So much time saved, and I don’t feel like I missed much. I’ll be less hesitant to use the “mark all as read” button on my feed reader in the future.
I slipped. Three times. But I had a friend die and needed to vent, so that’s the explanation for two of those three.
But, other than that, I made stuff: stuffed animals, clothing, jewelry. I joined a D&D campaign. I wrote rather a lot. I started a sonnet war with a friend. I got all of my homework done with ease.
On the other hand, I miss the ease at which my LJ keeps my out-of-town friends updated, and now I have to do a dump update post so that they know what the heck I’ve been doing with my life for the last month.
Well, I had a baby January 30, who two weeks later ended up in a hospital with no internet access, so…while I posted a LOT less in February, I don’t know that I would recommend the same methods of avoidance to others, especially the latter:) Now I spend much of my ‘free’ time staring at the baby, who is infinitely more exciting (and often more newsworthy) than anything on CNN.
Success and failure
I didn’t give up blogging (because I had just begun again) but I did give up Twitter entirely for the month and until I fell and messed up my back, I gave up playing stupid games on line. Didn’t miss Twitter at all. I rediscovered crocheting and made wash cloths and scarves and listened to audio books. It was blissful.
Hmm…I actually increased my blog time – after being pretty much AWOL for the last year. 😉
Congrats on finishing your book so soon!
I caught up on a lot of reading, too. 🙂 I wasnt able to do much more writing or other “work” – i think my brain is already maxed out – but i was able to spend more time thinking about writing, so when i did put pen to paper, the result was likely better than usual. And the record-breaking snow in my hometown was very isolating, and probably not good for my mental health. D: But i think it was good for me to get away from so much white noise and just focus.
I did very well last month. =]
I just started blogging again, which is great for me. I find when I write on a daily basis, I get inspired more easily. And if it ends badly, it’s just a blog and there’s a new one tomorrow.
I’m glad you got your book done! I’m reading Speak for the first time right now (as in, I started today in second period, then continued in fourth, and read through lunch… and part of government…) and can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on! =]
I didn’t intend on doing BFF but I ended up doing it due to having to work more which meant my free time was spent working or sleeping! I do admit that I felt a little better that I hadn’t spent so much time online but I did miss my friends.
I cut back on reading your blog, albeit not by choice.
I confess I didn’t keep to a strict blog-out, and yet at the end of the month we had a huge windstorm that knocked out power for two days. And then I couldn’t get the internet going, and had to keep calling the cable company, and finally they sent a truck down and got me back online.
So I went ten days in which when I turned on my computer, I couldn’t go to e-mail or blogs, and I really saw how much more efficient I became. Instead of posting comments, I typed up notes from a year ago and felt much the better for it.
Also, when I finally did get back on the net, I found I had 215 blog and Twitter posts in my Google Reader. I just clicked it right off. Couldn’t imagine how I’d put that much time into reading them in just over a week.
The next day I began wading back in with those who’d posted just once or twice, and now I’m back here, catching up on the news.
So yeah, blog-free time is definitely recommended. In fact, my Google Reader is now up to 317 posts now, and I’ll probably wait till they hit 1,000 and then delete them all.
P.S. to 3tnar: Congrats on the baby!
sarahsbooks: I almost didn’t read your post ’cause, after all, it could be just another time-wasting step into the deep end of never-ending blogdom, but I’m glad I did ’cause you summed up my feelings exactly.