Monday, June 01, 2009

The Time Sucker, Revisited

About a week ago on this blog, I confessed my Internet addiction and vowed -- publicly! -- to change my ways. I would stay offline between 10 AM and 4 PM, the period when I'm most likely to succumb to temptation. (The rest of the time, my household is pretty active, so there's less chance to get lost in cyberspace.)

Three days later, a kind and attentive friend CAUGHT me when I posted a new blog entry during the forbidden time zone.

Whoa. Talk about accountability.

I learned an important lesson that day. If I'm gonna cheat and go on the Internet, I'd better not post and get caught.

But in all honesty, how have I done?

Well, accountability is a wonderful thing. Knowing that my sharp-eyed friends may notice if I contact them in my "down" hours, I've pretty much avoided any posting or e-mailing during the Forbidden Zone. I won't say I haven't broken the rules at all, but I've discovered it's hard to go online and stay quiet. For me, anyway.

So I plan to stay the course. With more self-discipline, I hope to report lots of productive uses for all those new-found minutes. Today, for starters, I finally put away all those clean clothes that were piled up in the laundry room. Well, almost all. I've got it down to one REALLY scary basket of socks. Tomorrow maybe I'll find out if any of them belong together.


6 comments:

Jennifer Shirk said...

Oooh, I WISH I had that kind of accountability! (I think) :)

But good for you! I need to cut back, too.

Stephanie Newton said...

Me, too. Since I missed the original post. I'm going to hereby pledge that I'm turning off the wifi switch from 10 until 4 until I get my proposal done and mailed. At that point, I'll be obsessively checking email and won't be able to resist, LOL.

Steph

Cathy in AK said...

I'll admit, I'm still checking email and such during FT (Forbidden Time), but I'll work on it. I just acquired two new crit partners who have sent their work so I need to get on the ball for them, if not for myself.

And the new wip isn't going to write itself.

Thanks for the mental kick in the butt : )

Sierra Donovan said...

Thanks gals! I'm glad I'm not alone in my guilt. Maybe we should form a 10 to 4 club. Trouble is, in order to check up on each other, we'd need to be cheating ourselves....!

CurtissAnn said...

Thanks for your post. This is thought provoking to me. I really need to get a schedule. Could announcing one to friends help me be accountable? Well, now I've scared myself.

Sierra Donovan said...

CurtissAnn,

It IS kinda scary. I can't quite say that announcing a schedule to friends online has kept me honest. But it does keep me on my toes! ;)