Hello Humans,
It’s February!!! Finally, right? January always seems to last forever doesn’t it?
I’m starting the month doing something quite radical. I don’t have my phone! And for the first time in my life, it’s by choice! I was starting to feel really overwhelmed and anxious and a friend told me that I did too much for other people and that I needed to focus on me for a while. He advised me to give my phone up for a couple of days, no social media or really speaking to anyone. Which, considering the only way I can speak to anyone I don’t live with, is on my phone, is quite challenging.
I handed my phone over at 9pm on Sunday evening and really I struggled sleeping without any sort of background noise, so I put on a free audiobook on my Alexa, which definitely helped. I’ve realised that my bad sleeping is due to the constant screen overload but it’s quite difficult to avoid when school is online.
Monday morning I woke up as normal and it didn’t even register that I didn’t have my phone till about 3pm when my lessons had finished for the day. I was so tempted to ask my mam for my phone then and their but I realised that was the very reason I had handed it over and why I needed to stick to it more so than ever.
So then to cure my boredom, I sat down and got the most amount of work done that I’ve ever done in an evening. I finished my English homework (had started it Sunday evening as it was available) did feedback on my last English assessment, and then competed the sociology weekly intervention, which will only be set tomorrow. All of this done by 7pm; this time last week I was still working through this by Thursday. I definitely felt the benefit of not having my phone when I sat down and ticked off everything I had accomplished.
I have a sociology lesson on Tuesday which I will receive some homework from, most likely pre-reading for next week’s lesson, which I will aim to complete tomorrow evening. This will mean that on my ‘days off’ where I have no classes, I will be able to catch up with revision and have a decent break.
I hate to say it but maybe having some time away from my phone isn’t a bad thing, maybe I’ll do it more often. Once a week have a day or two without my phone, just to take some time away from the world.
I do miss talking to my friends, but mostly its really nice having some time to myself. I spent so many years alone and without friends, but now its odd not talking to my small group of weirdos everyday. I used to go all summer holidays without talking to a single person apart from my family, and i loved that at the time, but now I’d find it lonely and isolating.
I’m hoping to get my phone back this evening, as soon as my lesson and all my work are finished; and I’m really looking forward to catching up with my friends and of course TikTok, but for right now I’m loving been ‘switched off’
See you next time,
E x