Shameful Neglect

It's 11 p.m. EST.

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 23:11:26 -0400

If you’ve chosen to be part of the For Fuck’s Sake, Turn the Computer Off and Start Getting Ready For Bed Club, it’s time. If you have not chosen to be part of that club, carry on.

Timezones, etc.

goodnight, folks!

I’ve not been following the arbitrary rules. Instead of taking a shower immediately upon...

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 22:59:40 -0400

I’ve not been following the arbitrary rules.

Instead of taking a shower immediately upon getting home, I sewed/read for a while (sorely needed sewing). Then when I went to the bathroom I thought, “as long as I’m here I might as well shower.”

I’ve been spending less time online and, yes, more of it than should has been after 11 pm. But I’ve been doing more things offline.

I think perhaps what I need most (that I get a kick in the butt towards doing from UfYH) is a “while I’m here I might as well X” mindset: as long as I’m in the dining room, I might as well sew, as long as I’m in the bathroom I might as well shower, as long as I’m off the computer I might as well go haring off to the library.

And now the rules say I need to turn off my computer. So uh I guess I’ll do that

of course! you are inspiring me :)

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 23:39:00 -0400

huzzah!

also this is where I say “I was completely away from my computer until now, so I’m signing on *after* eleven to tell you that I’m shutting my computer down and am going to stay up super-late reading, which I will count as improvement because it doesn’t come with the sense of ‘oh god i can’t stop’”

also I fell down on it yesterday ._. got back on after my shower for “just four minutes i swear” (it was 10:56) but then I got to video chat with my boyfriend, which I am declaring doesn’t count, because he’s two hours earlier than me so can mostly only talk late at night

but I am spending less time online than i was, tho i’m not sure if it’s a coincidence or not

Today was the day of “oh my god I am exhausted let us take all the naps”. But I made my...

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:26:00 -0400

Today was the day of “oh my god I am exhausted let us take all the naps”. But I made my bed. I bought important things. I made lunch for tomorrow (which I haven’t done in a long time). I made dinner.

I did not shower, on the grounds that I got home at 1:30 pm and was fucking exhausted >.> but I am going to go do it nowww and then I will turn off the internets and read for an online class and hopefully sleep at a reasonable time.

wheeeeee

also hey, mia-amore, thanks for the follow! :)

i got online to tell you that i’m getting offline \o/

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:43:00 -0400

i got online to tell you that i’m getting offline \o/

Initial burst of amazing success \o/

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:13:55 -0400

After shutting down my computer at ~10:45pm last night, I:

made my bed
took a shower/brushed teeth/etc
made my bed nook tolerable and neat-looking
did some “teach yourself german”
did some “teach yourself hebrew”
talked to my boyfriend on the phone a little bit
slept
went to church
went to martial arts
took another shower
got back online just now

yaaay productivity. let’s see if it lasts!

Unfuck Your Habitat: shamefulneglect: chalet2mi asked: I saw your ask on UFYH… 2 things...

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 15:10:10 -0400

Unfuck Your Habitat: shamefulneglect: chalet2mi asked: I saw your ask on UFYH… 2 things...:

myownrobotbutler:

Freedom’s fantastic. Highly recommended.

The other thing I want to plug, because it’s fabulous, is Leechblock (I have it as an add-on for firefox, but I suspect it’s available for other platforms).

Leechblock lets you set up different sites, times, days of the week, to block yourself from - for instance, if you have class at 2pm on MWF, you can set your Leechblock to lock you off your timesuck sites from 1:45 to whenever, on MWF. Like with alarms in your phone, you can have a bunch of different kinds of Leechblocks set up. One of the ones I love best is blocking *length of time* - I have mine set so I can only spend 10 minutes at a time, within 2-hour intervals, on ebay or etsy.

Leechblock can be overridden, but it does have a LOCK function, which will mean NO overriding.

It’s helped me a lot already. It’s more nuanced than Freedom, which just boots you off your internet, and that helps me because sometimes I need to be online, but not looking at pictures of cats with captions for 45 minutes. So Leechblock shuts me out of icanhascheezburger after 10 minutes.

shamefulneglect:

chalet2mi asked:

I saw your ask on UFYH… 2 things that have helped me:1) download “Freedom,” a mac/windows program which you can set to block your internet connection for the amount of time you designate (from 15 mins to 8 hrs). The only way to turn it off before it’s…

oh that sounds fantastic indeed :D

unfuckyourhabitat: shamefulneglect: […] What’s your local time right now?...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:47:35 -0400

unfuckyourhabitat:

shamefulneglect:

[…]

What’s your local time right now? (Ahem.)

10:45 pm! Shutting down computer now

Calling out to Team UFYH

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:45:09 -0400

unfuckyourhabitat:

shamefulneglect:

Hi there. I have a problem. Maybe Team UFYH can help?
[…]
halp?

OK, I’m setting the rules for you, then.

This:

I can’t do just a little of tumblr because then I’d miss stuff and never see it again. Even though I don’t really get much of value from Tumblr.

tells me lots. You’re caught up in momentum. You’re already ON the computer, so it’s just easier to STAY on the computer. Nope. No good.

For the next week, and forgive me for being arbitrary, but I don’t know your life or your schedule, at 11 p.m., you shut your computer down. No excuses. No reasons. Shut it completely off, and, if it’s a laptop, put it in another room. I want you to make a post every night and tag me in it and tell me that you’re shutting your computer down. For a week.

Instruction/demand #2: shower when you get home from work/class. Immediately when you walk in the door. Before you turn your computer on.

Your computer is just a tool. Your tools don’t tell you how to live your life, they help you do so. On your terms. You need to set your terms, and since you came to me for help, I’m doing it for you.

*salutes* Yes, ma’am! (I’m in Eastern time, ftr, and going to start shutting down my computer real soon now, within 15 minutes)

Calling out to Team UFYH

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:41:47 -0400

absona:

shamefulneglect:

That’s a really good idea, but Macs don’t hibernate :( well, they can, but they only do so in case of really low battery; you can’t make them hibernate without 3rd-party software the safety of which I would not know how to vet

Ok, but you can at least set it to sleep at a given time.

It might not help as much as setting it to hibernate, but it’s something.

ooh, I didn’t know that! fascinating

Hi! I say your post on UFyH, and thought I'd send a message - I know you said you've tried internet-policing softwares but found them unhelpful because you can just turn them off. There's one for mac called "Self Control" and once you start the timer, you have NO way of turning it off, even if you restart your whole computer. I think there's a comparable PC version too. It's helped me get off the internet before the crack of dawn, maybe it'll help you. :)

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:39:00 -0400

Ooh, intriguing. Can’t hurt to try it out :)

(for the interested, it’s here)

Also may I just say that you have an excellent url

chalet2mi asked: I saw your ask on UFYH… 2 things that have helped me:1) download...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:35:00 -0400

chalet2mi asked:

I saw your ask on UFYH… 2 things that have helped me:1) download “Freedom,” a mac/windows program which you can set to block your internet connection for the amount of time you designate (from 15 mins to 8 hrs). The only way to turn it off before it’s done is to restart your computer. 2) Unfriend any blogs that post very frequently, and instead go straight to their tumblr to read them when you have the time. It cuts your dash in half but you won’t miss anything. I hope this helps, good luck!

analog-grrl asked:

I saw your post on UFYH and figured it’d be easier to message you directly…I totally feel you on the “stay on tumblr to make sure I don’t miss anything”. One way I deal with this is by disabling infinite scroll (if you haven’t already) and then limit myself to 20 pages. Sure, you’ll miss things, but if there are a handful of blogs you want to follow post-by-post, you can set up a bookmark folder for them or use an RSS feed. Best of luck!

The problem with the suggestion to unfollow blogs or check on a handful of blogs individually, reasonable and helpful though it would normally be, is that 90% of the few blogs I follow are people I personally know. :( 80-90% of my dash is produced by five or six people (and UfYH). So I don’t know if I can meaningfully do anything on that front.

Also, I’ll check out Freedom! The other barrier to blocking internet, though, is that I have paid work conducted over the internet (and school, come fall) ._. The big problem, of course, is that I will prioritize tumblr, etc., over said work

good luck good luck good luck! I have a similar problem (with needing to be caught up on tumblr even when I am so tired that I'm not actually processing anything I see and when I don't even slightly care about what I'm reading). Do you mind if I borrow ufyh's orders for you?

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:30:00 -0400

Go right ahead! :) also thank you!

Calling out to Team UFYH

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 21:38:38 -0400

absona:

unfuckyourhabitat:

shamefulneglect:

Hi there. I have a problem. Maybe Team UFYH can help?

[…]

Why can’t I wake up earlier? Because I stay up late on the internet forever - incidentally, this is the reason I have trouble showering at night regularly, too. By the time I drag myself off the computer, it’s way too late to shower. (I’m a little afraid of the dark, even if it’s safely outside the window.)

For the next week, and forgive me for being arbitrary, but I don’t know your life or your schedule, at 11 p.m., you shut your computer down. No excuses. No reasons. Shut it completely off, and, if it’s a laptop, put it in another room. I want you to make a post every night and tag me in it and tell me that you’re shutting your computer down. For a week.

I sometimes find it helpful to set my computer to hibernate automatically at bedtime. That way it kicks me off even if I lose track of the time. Also I can’t stay on unless I wait for it to finish hibernating, turn it on, and wait for it to wake up again. That takes long enough that I don’t want to bother when I’m tired. And because it’s set to hibernate, instead of turn off, I don’t have to worry about wrapping things up or saving anything.

That’s a really good idea, but Macs don’t hibernate :( well, they can, but they only do so in case of really low battery; you can’t make them hibernate without 3rd-party software the safety of which I would not know how to vet

Calling out to Team UFYH

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:41:35 -0400

Hi there. I have a problem. Maybe Team UFYH can help?

Last night I showered. The last time I showered before that was probably over a week ago. I just can’t seem to shower regularly. Why? Well, I can’t shower in the morning because I don’t wake up in time to do more than eat before going to work/class.

Why can’t I wake up earlier? Because I stay up late on the internet forever - incidentally, this is the reason I have trouble showering at night regularly, too. By the time I drag myself off the computer, it’s way too late to shower. (I’m a little afraid of the dark, even if it’s safely outside the window.)

I try to make myself get off the computer earlier, but. When I’m using something like Strict Pomodoro, I stop restarting the work timer more often than not. If I tried to install internet-use-policing software, I suspect I would just turn it off once my internet WANT became stronger than my desire to be virtuous and not act addictively towards the internet.

Plus, I have a completion problem: if I open my tumblr dash, you better believe I’m reading the whole damn thing. This is what makes me stay on the internet for three hours longer than I’d meant to, usually - I started this thing and now I must finish it, unless I get so sick of it I just close the tab without dealing with it.

I have trouble following the rules I set for myself, probably because they’re a little all-or-nothing. I can’t do just a little of getting off the internet. I can’t do just a little of tumblr because then I’d miss stuff and never see it again. Even though I don’t really get much of value from Tumblr.

I don’t know. I have infinite excuses, and almost as infinite reasons, and am no closer to a solution than before.

halp?