I am addicted to my computer. I realized this after staying away from my computer for the whole of last week. It was tough; the idea was to stay away from my laptop, not checking my blog, my email, chat, twitter or any other site. I had to use my work computer but I chose not to use the browser for personal surfing. It was very hard to control my urges but I somehow pulled myself together.
Staying away from my computer, I realized how much extra time I have in life and how many other things I can do. I have piled up a huge list of books to read. I have also setup one of my walls for "off computer" thinking and planning. I will be using pics of the wall in coming days on my blogs. Oh yes you read it right, blogs. I have been working on my Business Analysis Blog for a while, a blog about something I do for living. If someone is interested in being a Business Analyst or knowing what I do in my day job please check my Business Analysis Blog.
While staying offline I also realized that I have been ignoring my health for a long time and following a very unhealthy lifestyle. I have decided to lead a healthy life from now on. This is going to be the toughest challenge, as I need to be disciplined in a lot of areas. I have setup a blog for healthy living, a place where I will be keeping a log of activities that I do for leading a healthy life.
Just like after fasting we realize that the aim of having a mouth is not to keep eating and also that not eating for a while will not kill us, similarly after staying offline I realized that having a computer doesn't mean that I spent all my life here and staying offline is not going to kill me. Though I will maintain multiple blogs yet I am going to spend much less time on my computer or online. I am going to be fairly active on my Business Analysis Blog and also on the Healthy Living Blog. On this blog I will be making fewer posts mostly once a week.
I just checked my email inbox, I had 107 mails and most of them were unnecessary notifications or announcements. I now wonder how I was spending majority of my time in checking my mails? Going offline happens to be the best thing that I have done, now I somehow feel that I can be more active online yet spend a lot less time online and on my computer. Hopefully I will be able to follow my plans. Wish me luck; I need it to pull out of this addiction.
Tarun Chandel
Back Online
Monday, July 21, 2008
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23 comments:
Well well....Thats interesting. So now you are gonna become a blog network and write on 3 blogs ;)
I have tried this exercise (intentionally/unintentionally) and the max i was able to survive was one and half day.
During this time I was able to access a bit of Internet via the crappy GPRS on my phone.
Yes Tarun, we people cannot live without Internet now.
Hmmmm.... need activities to stay offline?
Remember you said you would definitely join Mumbai Marathon in 2009?....what happened to that...why not start a fitness regime right away and also urge your friends and family to join in!
And also good books - recently read "My Experiments with Truth - by M.K.Gandhi" & "City of Fear - by Robin David"...they are great reading!!!
--> Gaurav: I happen to be writing on 9 blogs though not regularly, but on these 3 I would like to be regular. But the idea is not to spend too much time on them, otherwise I will stop (at-least that's what I am thinking).
--> Rohit: I happen to be spending too much time on my laptop and that's why i decided to take a break. It has done wonders and has given me a lot of time to do other things.
--> Manjari: Yes I am running the Mumbai Marathon (got myself registered yesterday) will keep a log of activities on the Healthy Living Blog. Book, I have a huge list of books to read and huge stack of books on my table to finish (sounds like work). I read My Experiments with Truth - by M.K.Gandhi" last year and it is really an amazing book. I wrote a post about my conversations with Mahatma Gandhi after reading the book, though I was suppose to write a follow up on that post but it never moved out of draft. Hey, are you running in the Mumbai Marathon?
Great thing... we don't realize how much time we spent on the computer. I will do the same someday.
-Ram
wish you good luck blogger dude!
-Rahul
Hey Tarun,
Great going!
All the best for your BA and Health regime Blog
Great going Tarun sir.
I came to your blog from flickr. You have taken some really nice pics may be you should more time with your camera than your computer.
I meant you should spend more time doing photography :)
--> Ram: Do try it Ram, it will surely benefit you. I am thinking of having a day off(line) in a week. Just like some people fast once a week, I will be off my laptop once a week.
--> Rahul: Thanks!
--> Bhavya: Thanks!
--> Vijay: Thanks!
--> Ben: Thanks for the appreciation, I am still an amateur photographer. I love taking pics but right now I want to focus more on the Marathon preparation. May be yes I can do photography on the day I will be off my laptop. Thanks Ben!
Hey Tarun, you have hit bulls eye :))
U might be shocked to learn that I spend approx 3 hours on maintaining my 4 mail ids and my 4 blogs. Its really taking a toll on me. I am neither able to concentrate on my studies nor on my web ventures.
And Incidentally I was going to write on the same lines, but was feeling lazy to write about.
Hence I have being giving time to make a schedule kind of a thing so that I know what to post when. :))
I am definitely looking forward for your BA blog.
--> Cyborg: 4 blogs are still fine but 4 mail ids, how many roles are you playing in life??? We all are trying to simplify things a bit but somehow end up complicating them further. Oh good you are interested in Business Analyst activities. Keep an eye on the BA blog, I aim to keep updating it often.
i agree we waste lot of time... online sometimes doing nothing...
Great concept, taking time off your computer. I like the idea of taking a day off in a week, sort of computer fast. Computers are driving us crazy aren't they?
--> thecancerous and Reena: We generally do it because it has become a habit to keep staring at the computer screen all the time. That's what happened with me so one day I decided to go offline and it has helped. Now planning to stay offline atleast once a week.
yeah man, that is what i am thinking too. What led me to make 4 mail ids. But yes that definitely forced me to explore some fantastic features on gmail for POP and SMTP. Anyways thinking these days to converge all of them. yeah will keep an ete on BA blog, but would like to meet u in person some time, let me know when u r free.
--> cyborg: email me.
I wish you all the luck. I was offline for nearly two weeks, except for the times when I needed some document stored in my e-mails. I didn't chk blogs or for that matter any other sites. I was off it. Instead I spent some real good time on the streets of Kolkata, relfecting on how things have changed in the past 7 years, driving around and painfully realising why Kolkata traffic is among the worst I have encountered till date, visting my old school, meeting up friends from yesteryears. It was good. And it was all offline :)
as for leading an unhealthy lifestyle, don't most of us do that? We manage to blame many a things for that, but rarely do we take steps to correct it!! rarely..
--> Sam: great! I am working on both of them, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and balancing online and offline life.
Hey Tarun, Pls visit my blog page. I am a novice in the field. Thanks.
Brave effort Tarun! Are you still able to follow it?
This is a very nice and interesting blog.
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lauran
Drug Rehabs
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