All about my day away from the computer. By Kirsty, age 33

So like I mentioned, it was brilliant. I am officially a fan. Unfortunately the withdrawal effects were not as fascinating as I anticipated, because that could have made for an awesome docudrama or maybe something on 60 minutes about blog addiction in housewives....
No such luck though. So......

These are the things I discovered:

1. I spend a stupid amount of time online
2. It is better when I don't
3. My house could be clean all the time (well...cleaner)
4. I could get far more accomplished then I do
5. I drift over to the computer for no real reason quite often..(I believe that is a sign of addiction)

These are thing things I resolved.
1. I will spend no more then 1 hour online per day (including the time it takes to post blog entries).
2. I will not be on the computer when my children or husband are around (this gives me a 2.5 hour window in the afternoon. I'm not sure what it will mean for the Summer. (May have to reassess for the sake of sanity then.)
3. I will not fill the empty time with similarly unproductive activities (TV/reading).

I am so grateful for this little experiment. I honestly felt such a sense of relief and freedom knowing I couldn't go online. If there was email to be dealt with, it would have to wait, no blog entries could be made that day, it felt like such a break. It is also amazing how quickly things regain their proper perspective and priority when you take even a little breather like that.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the internet for all the reasons I outlined here, and I really love my blog and all the blogs I follow. I just don't want writing about my life, to crowd out me living my life. I don't want my kids to remember me saying "uh-huh...coool" vaguely from behind a computer screen. People may enjoy reading my blog but they won't remember it, the way my kids and husband will remember what they may have missed out on because of it. Ack. I don't want to waste any more of this very short and precious time I have with my children. (Double ack)

I loved what Melissa at the Inspired Room had to say about this, here.

So.. this is what I got done:

Thoroughly cleaned 4 rooms downstairs (the wall washing, crevice of the dining room chairs with a skewer type of cleaning). Did a little redecorating, did some laundry . Went grocery shopping, prepared food for a party, hosted a party, volunteered at the library, watched a friends' delicious baby, played with my fabulous four year old, hung out with my family, gave my full focus to a movie I was watching with my husband (until I passed out-he said I didn't miss anything), and..well I know there was more but you're probably over it by now. Suffice to say it was more then I would have done if I had been off and on the computer all day.

I am thoroughly excited to see what I will accomplish tomorrow! I really feel like I gain so much inspiration and knowledge from the blogs I follow, but this will give me so much more time to actually implement all that inspiration! Cool!

To be honest I probably would not have signed back on this weekend at all, but I had to check my email for a function on Saturday night, announce the big prize winner(!) and write my birthday tributes. We are dependent on the internet, this is true. If it had been an ordinary weekend I probably would not have got back on at all which leads me to one more resolution: Internet free weekends. I'm going to try. I may still schedule weekend posts, but I'm going to try to stay away from keyboard. We'll see how that goes. I am hoping my blog won't change much. Keeping it up is a priority for me, just not my main one. I will just have to be more focused about my internet time.

Did anyone else participate? Did you love it/hate it/feel indifferent to it? If you didn't do you think you will try it anytime? I wanna know! Thanks to Kimba for the great idea. I needed it!

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