FOMO (fear of missing out) is the enemy of valuing your own time. — Andrew Yang
This month, Carolyn encouraged us to have fun…and I spent a good bit of time thinking about how to work fun into my word…release.
So I started by filling in my clouds with what filled my day… things I liked and things I struggled with…
Then I gave things stars that improved my day… and the starless clouds all seemed to have the same recurring theme… FOMO.
And while not all the things that got starred are “fun”… they are absolutely necessary which inspired me to contemplate how to insert fun into the mundane daily tasks of housework and cooking… no solution yet…but I am thinking about it!
I did find some “quick and easy” (?) solutions this month and I am happy to report that those changes brought success… or at least started me on a path to solving the problem!
News Fix: I have found that listening to NPR’s Up First six mornings a week is MORE than enough news for me for any given day. I did not die by not checking news at ten am, or at noon, or at 5 pm…who knew! lol Steve consumes more news than I do and in July and if something earth shattering happened, he told me. (okay… he also told me news that was not earth shattering as well… but those tidbits provided some humorous topics for dinner conversation!)
IG/Twitter Doom-scrolling: I had fallen back into the “boredom trap” of doom-scrolling Twitter and IG… I am telling you this is a hard habit to break! I tried a different approach as July progressed…I stopped “carrying my phone” with me, but rather I am leaving it sit either on the kitchen counter or the dining room table. This way I have to physically get up to do any doom-scrolling and that is helping tremendously. Full disclosure… I do wear an Apple Watch so I am not entirely “disconnected” but so far, this seems to be working well for me.
Blog Reading/Writing/Email Hell…which often leads to Endless Internet Surfing: I set a timer on my phone when I sit down at the PC in the morning… the amount of time is still in flux…but, when the timer goes off… so does the pc… and I have not died. At.All. I am still working on a way to make blog writing feel fresh and still seeking solutions to that sticky topic. Sigh. Despite that huge hurdle…the timer has helped me see clearly just how much mail I do not need to read… look at… contemplate… etc. so I have begun “unsubscribing” to a plethora of things and it feels amazingly good!
Reading: Finally… reading, which only got a half a star (while reading for myself always, always gets at least one star!!) My big hurdle this summer… book bingo, and it pains me to say that. It seemed to me that I spent more time “reworking” squares to fit what I was reading versus picking a book to fit a square. I have one book to finish for a cover all and that feels like the biggest relief ever. It was an important lesson in how I should listen to that small, quiet voice instead of allowing that shouting FOMO voice to drown me out.
And there you have release for July…
I want to thank Carolyn for hosting us and for all her work on putting together things to make me think in new ways.
See you all back here on Wednesday for some Unraveling!
It’s interesting and revealing to really look at what gives you pleasure and what is necessary. Before I left for CO I also unsubscribed to a bunch of emails. My inbox now has weather, the audible daily deal, and a few science-related ones. I can read them in just a few minutes, then delete, and I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything. I don’t like cleaning, but I do like having a clean house. I put on music that I really like and sing, dance, and clean. I may look silly but it adds a little bit of fun to my day. Best of luck with fun, fomo, and release!
I broke the doom scrolling by moving (hahahaha). Every morning I ask myself ‘what would make today a great day?’. This helps a lot. I know that meditating each morning gives me a good start but it’s the first thing I forget when I am ‘busy’. I finally feel I have space in my day for reading after months, what seemed like months, of moving to do’s.
Looks like you are once again making progress Kat – good for you! I was getting a ton of garbage emails and I have unsubscribed to them all. I have very few emails now and getting through them is quick. I do enjoy receiving comments on my blog via email (makes responding that much easier).
I love seeing how you used your July prompt! Arrows and stars, patterns and insights. I’m with you–Ack to email. And after my singular news update in the a.m., I also get the rest of my news from other half. It saves me ‘the drain’–but keeps me informed! Quite a service they offer us 🙂
I’ve found that my Twitter scrolling has been more skimming; if there’s important news, I will hear about it — because either my husband will tell me or it’ll be on the nightly news, which we watch during dinner. At least with IG, scrolling can be a bit of a break (if I need it) from work because my feed is usually filled with pretty yarn or fiber or things being made from them. But I agree with you that there isn’t enough time in the day to spend any of it on things that aren’t necessary and don’t bring joy, and I think it’s awesome that you are literally releasing yourself from the things you don’t need by making liberal use of that unsubscribe button.
Great post. I am going to keep my phone in one spot and not drag it with me as if it was essentia1.
Vo1unteering time is down due to COVID, but we 1ive near a 1ake and we have padd1eboarded at 1east twice if not 3 times a week. it is very soothing for me.
It takes me about a ha1f and hour to read and 1eave comments on friends’ b1ogs. If I don’t read and comment, I actua11y miss you a11!
Good for you for figuing out what helps! I went through a big “release” myself a few years ago when I read the Digital Detox book . . . which was life-altering for me (although I do need to do a refresher every now and then because Inertia. . . ). I ended up having to take whole apps off my phone! And I do find that “rules” (like, for me, no IG until after 3pm) have helped a lot. But that information flow . . . it’s everywhere!
Oh, I can relate so much to your life draining and life giving list. I was on IG for just a few minutes the other day (for something totally quick) and I immediately felt bad about myself (!!). And -slightly off topic- I was thinking about social media and mental health today after Simone Biles pulled out of the team competition. I can’t help but think that social media had something to do with it… How our society expects absolute perfection from everyone and how, well… that’s just not possible. And there’s all of these “experts” out there constantly criticizing everything that people do. ugh!
So – like Kym, I have to remove the apps from my phone, because I can’t trust myself to stay away on my own.
And re: books and reading – I do much better when I’m reading whatever I want, whenever I want. If I feel like there are expectations or constraints set on me, then I completely freeze up and read nothing. It’s the rebel in me! I think we’re sort of similar like that 😉
I love how you’ve thought out ways to release some of the life-draining things that clutter up your day. Here’s to August!
I used to go through the list of emails in gmail and trash ones that I know I do not need to read. Actually, I still do that, but I have unsubscribed to a great many that I used to just delete. Inbox hell, indeed!
well there’s some FOMO for you – I haven’t been following Carolyn’s prompts! What a great exercise for figuring out where to add/subtract.