They say it takes 21 days to break a habit. Working to break bad habits could be a full time hobby for me.
There’s my overconsumption of stimulants and depressants – nothing too crazy! I just drink more than my share of coffee and wine.
While we’re on the subject of caloric intake, there’s my nightly habit of eating cheese. That habit alone placing my daily percentage of fat consumption way above what it needs to be.
But in this day and age, there’s no way my most pressing habits don’t have to do with a screen. These create a list of their own:
Failure to delete old emails or unsubscribe from needless email accounts – a task, that when I set out to do last year, caused me to avoid my computer so much that I pretty much halted my writing altogether.
Clicking on the Facebook icon anytime I pick up my phone, or have a lull in any moment of my day.
Watching 2 hours of Netflix when I should be sleeping.
And my newest habit, the one I’ll be focusing on first, scrolling through reels.
Watching reels in and of itself, is of course not terrible. They are funny, they connect us in the way that we can commiserate with others, and share them with our friends and family because we know they can relate.
I do value watching some reels. I enjoy getting them sent to me, and I enjoy sharing them.
But, after some self-reflection, I found that they were changing me in a couple ways that made me want to hone it in a little bit.
I found myself veering off from my values. Without even realizing it, I was becoming this person that needed to update my house, my look, and my family.
Clicking on one or two videos of kitchen makeovers became 25 videos of the same content.
So I’m toning it down for the next few days and I’m looking forward to proactively battling the new tech addictions the online world will encourage me to take on next.