Lately, I’ve been sleeping horribly. This week, I would say I’ve gotten maybe 20 hours of sleep. About 10 of those were from one day. The effect this is having on me is taking tolls on everything I am doing, including my blogging and freelancing. On top of this, my mood is haughty and I come off as a really bad person to other people. I’ve sure they see me and ask their friends, “What is he addicted to?” I’m about as much a panda as it gets.
My lack of sleep made me miss the bus to school this week. I had to take a taxi for about 10 dollars, which for my budget is more than I was willing to give up in one day. I’ve been slacking on my blog posts. I haven’t had anything grand come up this weekend. I get too lazy to do my freelance, so I’m seeing much less income come in. I don’t feel like I am having any fun with my life. I’m a computer addict, and this is my story.
Instead of spending those 8 hours I need to sleep on sleeping, I check my stats, chat with friends, look at my email, view my newest messages on social networks, and read and comment on blogs. Instead of checking the stats of my blog, I should be checking the stats of myself. I’m feeling a bit light-headed or have a headache that is reoccurring, I’m extremely skinny because I put off eating for more chatting, my social skills are extremely lacking (I can come off like a very personable guy behind a computer screen, but in person it may take a day or so to really open me up), my work is unfinished, and my blog posts are messy. So, this has to change, obviously.
I’ll be implementing a lot of steps to do this. I think the most important thing for me is to just get away from my computer, something I hardly ever do. In the past, if I was working on a game or writing a blog post, and they invited me out, I would usually say I was too busy with work or other things. I would even put off family meetings. I was bad. This weekend I am changing that. I will be going out to a party, a big change for me. I have never been fond of them and have gone to very few. The effects it will have though will make my life ten times better. I always complain that I have no friends here in Thailand, and I really do only have a few. This is my chance to make friends that will help me get away from my monitor.
I’m going to stop checking stats. I completely took them off my bookmark lists so I would have to individually key them in. The same goes for my social networking sites. I’ll go on once in the morning and once at night, and that is it.
I will keep my email open with alerts from my clients for my freelance work, but if I don’t get those alerts, then I cannot open my email. Once again I will briefly check twice a day, but that is as important as my email can be.
After school and my teaching, I’m going to hit the books as soon as I can. I usually never do homework, but it’s time to. I haven’t been putting much work into college, but I keep hearing what you put in is what you get out. I really want to test this. I aced my finals last semester with little work, but how much better will I feel when I ace them with hard work and accurate essays. I will also write out my teaching plans ahead of time. Before I would go in with just an hour of prep time, and in some cases I wouldn’t prep at all. I sound like a great professor, right?
The biggest thing will be seen on this blog. I know I listed on my goals I wanted to post every day, but I am realizing this is very inefficient. I will go for 1 new blog post every other day. I still expect to be writing 6 – 7 times a week, but if I don’t I just want my readers it is time to change my lifestyle up a bit. To do this, I have to involve all parts of my life and blogging is a major one. I expect this to improve the blog though. When I sleep better, I dream better. When I dream, I pick topics for new blogs. Interesting stuff I have planned for this blog, like I said.
Other steps to wean myself off of the computer and sleep better will include turning it all off. The TV, iPod, and the monitor. Hey! That means you too, Mr. Hard Drive. I expect I will be able to sleep a few years more because of this.
Any tips I can get from my readers? Did you go through this yourself? Share your story.
You clearly missed my blogoholic post! It outlines the warning signs of blog addiction.
I can highly recommend taking a brief sabbatical (much like I am at the moment) from blogging to reset yourself. I haven’t blogged since Wednesday and I won’t be blogging until next Monday - its great!
I have had heaps of ideas to change and freshen up my blog, and no stress at all.
I know I’ll fall into the trap again if I’m not careful, so I am going to create a nightly timetable to help me monitor my time online, keep it productive and allow me to sleep and relax enough to avoid future burnouts.
All the best mate - you’ll get there. And we’re here for you when you get back onto it!
Yeah! Thank you Andrew! I appreciate it! I had an awesome night out, and met about 20 new people. I didn’t understand half of what they said, but it was fun fun fun fun. I want to do it again every night!
Justin Dupre
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