Did you know that last week (April 21st through 27th) was National Turn-off Week? It used to be called National Turn off the TV week, but that no longer puts a dent in our full on screen-addiction. So if you want to be hard-core you turn off all of your screens. Our family tries to observe this "holiday" each year and this year we also put the computer away complete with automated messages letting people know that we could not be reached via email.
That was the hardest part for me actually as I tend to habitually check my email as if something of grave importance might have come through in the past 20 minutes. It's totally ridiculous, I know now, since I went an entire week without checking and the world still turned. No one died as a result of my email neglect (that I know of), although several people were born and I went days without knowing it. I'm sure they won't remember that I didn't acknowledge their arrival within 20 minutes of the announcement.
All in all, it was a great week. I wasn't any more productive as a result of my free moments away from my email compulsion. That was rather a surprise. I kind of thought that I would be able to focus more on the gnawing tasks that I tend to procrastinate perpetually. I do, however, think that I was more present with my family and less distracted. When MJ wanted to do something together I could immediately look him in the eye and say, "Yes, let's do that," or "No, I don't care how bored we are with no TV, I will not play Monopoly!" (Just kidding, we really did play Monopoly last week, even though it takes forever!)
Today was our first day "back" in the real world, or the virtual world, however you want to look at it. The boys really wanted to watch Power Rangers episodes on You Tube this morning and then they pretty much played the rest of the day without incident. I let them do that while I plowed through the mass build up of emails that I missed and caught up on some stuff I needed to do online with my Usborne business. I probably said, "Just a minute," a few more times today than I had been. Old habits are hard to break.
I've had several people say to me, "Oh I could never do that." And a few people have said, "We don't watch that much TV so it wouldn't be that bad to give it up for a week." I say, "You'll never know until you try." You might find it to be a refreshing change or you might realize how hard it is to get any time alone without the one-eyed-babysitter. At the very least it can make you appreciate the good parts (like emailing to communicate to a group rather than having to make lots of phone calls--so much faster, especially when you're like me and have the knack for turning a 5 minute conversation into a 30 minute conversation--Bo is always amazed at how skillful I am at this!) and set tighter limits on the bad parts (like setting aside one or two times of the day to check email rather than obsessively clicking on the Inbox to see what's new).
If any of you have tried this, let me know. I'd love to hear your take on it!
