Category Archives: Kicking Procrastion in the Ass

Quitting Facebook for 30 Days

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I’ve decided to quit using Facebook for at least 30 days. In other words, I’m on a Facebook fast.

I had actually started my fast on Monday, March 25th, 2013. …That was over 3 weeks ago already!

I logged in only once that day to announce my Facebook fast and message a few people to let them know to contact me via email or twitter if they wanted to keep in touch during the fast. Then I logged out, and haven’t logged back in to my Facebook account since.

My Facebook usage history has gone up and down in waves. Some days or weeks, I found that I wasn’t spending very much time on the site at all, while other times, I came to realize that I was spending a ridiculous amount of time on the social media networking site… mainly as a source or entertainment, socializing, and as a frequent method of procrastination. More often than not, my Facebook usage has tended to be on the high side.

The main reason I’ve decided to give up Facebook and go on a Facebook fast is to free up energy and attention that I’d otherwise spend on some pretty mundane Facebook updates and interactions. …Seriously, I know you love cats and all (I think they’re cute too), but even so, I don’t need to see and like or share a dozen cat pics a day!  😉

I don’t watch cable TV (it’s an extremely rare occurrence for me), and as such, I rely on the Internet for much of my amusement and entertainment. (Hello Netflix! Although Netflix Canada doesn’t have the same offerings as Netflix US,  it will at times have titles that its US counterpart is missing.) … And Facebook, you could say, is sort of akin to a form of reality entertainment. Big Brother, anyone?  Or Jerry Springer, perhaps? I’m not quite sure what the best analogy would be. It would depend on the quality of one’s friends on Facebook and what they tend to post. In the case of my Facebook feed, it’s probably some kind of hybrid between Oprah, The Food Network, and some kind of animal lovers and parenting network. This certainly isn’t a bad mix, and I appreciate my friends. But too much TV, even if it’s a really good TV, isn’t necessarily a good thing.

After having been off Facebook for over three weeks already, I honestly can’t say I miss it. My life seems to feel simpler because of it, and I see this as a good thing. I’m not a big fan of unnecessary drama, and I’m sure anyone who’s a frequent user of Facebook (or any other social networking site, for that matter) is familiar with the frequent drama that seems to go with the territory. I also have more time to read, write, meditate, exercise, go for walks, watch films, etc.

That said, I do wonder how my friends are doing. Only a few friends have kept in touch outside of Facebook. When you think about it, it’s kind of crazy how much we rely on a 3rd party internet social networking service to stay in touch, instead of good ol’ fashioned email or phone calls.

After the 30 days of my Facebook fast are up, I imagine I’ll log back on to see if I have any private messages, and I’ll likely contact a few people that I’m only able to contact via Facebook due to not having their direct email address on file. But aside from that, I don’t intend to use it every day as I would in the past prior to my Facebook fast. I’m guessing I’ll only check it two or three times a week once the fast is done, or I may even decide to give it up entirely and close my account. We shall see!

The next time I check my Facebook after my fast is over, I’ll be logging on from Berlin, Germany! 😀

 

If you’re a Facebook user, how much time do you tend to spend on Facebook each day? …A week? A month?? Just think of how much time we waste on Facebook a year!

If you find you spend an hour or more on Facebook each day, I’d strongly recommend going on a Facebook fast. It’s possible the quality of your life will dramatically improve as a result.

Embracing Imperfection

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“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”
– Anna Quindlen –


I’ve decided I’m going to be writing and posting a lot more frequently here.

In fact, I’m going to make it a goal of mine to write a post every day for 30 days… starting yesterday. If I end up missing a day, I’ll make it up by blogging twice the next day.
 (EDIT: Okay, so I changed my mind. Due to a heavy work schedule! But I still plan something similar. I’ll be doing a 30-days of writing challenge in November. Stay tuned!)

This may come as a surprise to you, but the issue is not that I haven’t been writing in here.  I’ve been writing. I have quite a lot of unfinished blogs piling up in my drafts folder.  …But of course you wouldn’t know it, because I haven’t been posting or publishing any of it.

An unpublished blog post is similar to the potential of an idea. Ideas are great and wonderful of course, but if an idea is never followed up with precise and specific action, that idea’s potential will never materialize to see the light of day.

I suppose I’ve been suffering from a bad habit known as “perfectionism”. Many would argue that this is an excellent habit to have. I agree that a perfectionist attitude and work ethic can be wonderful, as long as it serves you and not the other other way around. I believe, however, that I’ve let this habit take over and get the better of me… thus it’s become a hindrance rather than a help .

If I’m going to publish something, I want it to be “perfect”. But one lesson I have been learning over these recent few years is that the idea of perfection is simply that — an idea. It doesn’t exist in reality. As soon as you try to manifest the idea of perfection into the real physical world, it will inherently dematerialize into something that is, somehow and in some way, imperfect.

You might be thinking, “Surely this can’t be true. …Can it? You can get a perfect score on a test. 100% is not unattainable, it can be achieved. Therefore, perfection can be attainable too.”

I agree with those statements above! So, I’m forced to look deeper than the surface. Like beauty, perfection is in the eye of the holder. It depends on what type of eye and lens you’re using to observe and evaluate your reality.

If you use the lens of math and objectivity, then manifesting the idea of “correctness” and thus perfection seems possible. Doesn’t it? 1+ 1 = 2. This answer seems both correct and perfect.

And yet, if you look deeper, you’ll see that whole digits are made up of infinitely small divisions and ranges. Is infinity something real, or is it an idea that can only exist in our minds which cannot be proven in the physical world?

If the only thing that is certain is uncertainty and the uncertainty principle, then it can also be argued that the only perfection is imperfection. Sure, there’s different and varying degrees of certainty and uncertainty, just as there are different and varying degrees of imperfection. 99% certain is still 1% uncertain, just as near perfect is still a tiny bit imperfect.

Imperfection can be beautiful!

From here on in, I’m going to make a concerted and conscious effect to start embracing the beauty of imperfection — in both myself and in others.

EDIT: Wow — I’m re-reading this, and it *really* is NOT perfect. It still needs quite a bit of work. My ideas are a bit muddled and don’t really flow. It’s more like a draft… And yet I went ahead and published it anyway.  That was hard for me to do, but I did it!

It might seem like a step in the wrong direction… yet in another way, it’s a step in the right direction — It’s a step towards productivity, yet a step away from quality.

The next step is combining both quality and productivity (or quantity) such that I can still be productive without sacrificing quality.

I’ll try working on this over the month. Let’s see how things go!

“The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.”
– George Orwell –