Well I did not end up completing the entire challenge I ended it on December 12th. Also the person I was worried about is doing good now, they had a rough time with covid but doing much better now. For the last two weeks I decided to see how I did going back to how I use to do things. I can say with certainty that I feel much worse. I was a lot happier when doing the challenge. Also since ending the challenge my productivity has dropped significantly. Because of this I am starting the challenge again but modified as I want it to do longer but make it more sustainable. I am going to add some specific rules:
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I may watch two entertaining videos/audio (podcasts) a week (Can not total to over 2 hours a week). This includes movies and tv shows.
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I may watch entertaining videos for unlimited when watching with friends (this does not happen too often I feel it is a positive social activity).
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When it comes to watching education videos I found there were two main types. Straight education videos and entertaining education videos. A good example of entertaining educational would be electricboom. This can cause one to listen way too much to entertaining educational videos while not getting a lot out of it. To help prevent this I am adding a new rule. For any educational video I must write a 200 word summary of what I learned before watching another educational video. This can by typed or written by hand. This will ensure I am actually learning.
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When watching an educational video I must finish the entire video before moving on to the next one.
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There is a partial ban on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook (though during the last challenge I was maybe on Facebook for a total of 30 minutes), TikTok or any similar platforms. I may use these apps for 30 minutes on Saturday from the following time Windows, meaning I choose one and only one time window: 1:00PM-1:30PM, 6:00PM-6:30PM, 8:00PM-8:30PM. Unlike the news these ones can NOT be even a minute off from the given time Windows. If I miss the time Windows then I just don’t get to browse any of the listed apps.
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I may listen to any podcast or video (listen only obviously) type while driving or walking in a store. This does not count against my time. If I feel like the rule is abused any during the first two weeks the rule will be adjusted.
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I may listen to podcasts/informative video with audio on my lunch break at work and it does not count against my limit.
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For news I am going to work on the following sechdule:
M-F: 6:05AM-6:15AM, 12:00PM-12:10PM, 6:00PM-6:10PM.
Weekends: 12:00-12:15PM, 8:00PM-8:15PM
Note these times far as when I exactly start these end end this can vary slightly. For example if I wake up at 5:40AM and therefore may listen to news from 5:40AM-5:50AM, but the start times should always be within an hour of the specified time.
I will post updates at least once per week with any new rules I based on if I feel like I find any loop holes and just my general thoughts. This challenge starts December 28th 2020 at 12AM till April 2nd 2021 12:00am. Since this challenge is going so long I wanted to make it sustainable which is why I am not completely cutting off all entertainment as I feel I would fail at that.
If you have any suggestions on rule changes let me know. I will make a beeminder goal for tracking purposes later today.