Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school from grade 7 through 12 and even though I haven't always been big on giving something up for Lent, I thought this year might be a time for a change.
2013 seems to be the year of doing things differently. Most years I have started off by training for a race but not this year. Most years I have tried to plan my way through each week and month but not this year.
I am trying to get my Type A personality to take a back seat and be more flexible. Over the weekend as I thought about the season of Lent and preparing for Easter, I decided that I needed to make some more changes in my life.
First off, I know that I spend way too much time on Facebook. Usually when I am bored I tend to pull out my phone and open the Facebook app. I don't even post that much on Facebook, I just scroll through the news feed and read everyone else's random posts as something to fill the time. I do not need to be checking that 1500 times a day. When I stopped and thought about it, I knew I could be spending my time more wisely. Like reading a book or printing out pictures from my wedding which I haven't done yet (opps) or writing blog posts. So I decided I needed to limit my Facebook viewing time and eventually try to give it up as much as possible.
Of course giving up Facebook is easier said than done. I started on Monday to limit myself from checking Facebook mindlessly and found that the first step to making this successful was to log out of the app on my phone. (I feel like deleting the app would have provided a similar result but I wasn't ready for that drastic of a step). This helped so much that I managed to only check Facebook once that day while I was at home. Tuesday was very similar; not having immediate access on my phone helped me to only view Facebook once. Today I am trying to stay away from Facebook all together.
So far this seems to be working out well for me. In fact, I actually got more done Monday and Tuesday night at home than usual. I just felt more productive and I am sure Brian appreciated having all his white clothes washed.
Besides limiting my Facebook, I also decided to give up wine. In fact this was a new years' resolution for me too, but I broke that last weekend. Every time I have wine I end up having stomach issues the next morning. Better to not drink it at all so I am recommitting myself to that.
The third thing I decided to change in my life was trying to be more flexible. Like I said I have a type A personality that sometimes gets in the way of me being spontaneous and fun. I am going to work on being more flexible with my schedule (especially since I am not training for any races).
They say it takes 21 days to break/form a new habit and Lent is 40 days long. We will see how this goes!
How much time do you spend on Facebook? Would it be hard for you to give it up?
12 comments:
I'm guilty of checking facebook on my phone when I'm waiting on line at the store, and I check it in the morning and again at night. I could probably take a break too, but I gave up chips instead : )
I'm more of a FB stalker than a FB poster too. I like to think I'm not overly attached to my phone/FB/etc but I wonder how I would do!
I'm giving up chocolate for Lent. I'm not tempted by other sweets so this is a big one for me. I like to have my after dinner "sweet" so this will be a good habit to break!
Good for you!!! I really would like to do this, except that I can't because it's what I do for a living. FOILED!!! Good luck!
wow to go on giving up facebook! I was raised Catholic as well and try and either give something up or focus on something for the Lent season. I would do facebook but I've already been off facebook since November so other reasons. Good Luck!
I check Facebook a lot!! It's just so easy and convenient since it's right there on my phone all the time.
I don't post a lot either, I don't understand why it's so addictive. haha.
I think it would be hard for me to give up social media but over Christmas I was trying to be in the moment and also had some crap going on so I stayed off of both Twitter and Facebook for about a week and it was really nice. I think that giving up social media for an extended period of time is something I need to do eventually but I'm not sure when that will be.
PS: Ditto what Morgan said, I also use social media daily as part of my job so that makes it harder! However I know I could give up my personal usage if I really wanted/needed to!
Good for you. I have been thinking about this as well. This year, I've been really cutting back on tv watching (this started in the Fall). I think the next step is cutting back how often I check facebook. There are just so many other things I like doing and it's such a time waster and I think just gives a false sense of connection with people - but still, I check it constantly!
I totally hear you on being addicted to facebook, twitter,... It would be interesting to see at the end of the day how much time we actually spend on social networks. This might be actually scary :)
Yay! Awesome Lenten goals! Just as long as you keep blogging, lol ;)
I know some people take Sundays off - are you going to?
I am on Facebook a lot, for fun, my blog, and my husband's business. It would be hard for me to give up. Probably good for me though :)
Great post and website. Nice work.
Those are great Lenten goals! As you know, I am giving up using my phone during work hours. It hasn't been too bad lately. I think it was just this crutch I was using when I had downtime or when I wanted to avoid the next thing I had to work on. I do let myself check my phone during lunch hours but so far I have been good at limiting myself to that!
I am a mindless facebook check, too!
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