Weekend Unplugged

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For the past year and a half or so, I’ve worked online full-time. Sometimes more than full-time, because if you have ever done this type of work you know that it’s a lot of hours with pay that isn’t quite equal to the time you put in. While my kids are awake, I try to focus on them but sometimes work gets in the way. Lots of times, I will set out the coloring books and crayons and let them color while I’m typing up an article. However, even though they’re next to me, I’m not able to give them my full attention. This weekend, I decided to unplug. No internet, at all – not on the computer, not on my phone.

A few questions have been asked about my weekend, so I figured I’d answer them real quick. :) I know that giving up internet for the weekend isn’t a big deal to some (most?) people, but I have been online pretty much every day since I started blogging for a living so it was an adjustment!

What’d I get accomplished?

Saturday morning, I woke up and took a walk with two of my daughters. Saff had to stay home because it was hot, and her asthma flares up in the heat (or rain, or cold…). When we got home, we cleaned the kitchen top to bottom.

That afternoon, we went to lunch with Rachel’s dad, mom, and sister. The girls really enjoyed having lunch together without me checking email. :) I was really bored after lunch, so I ended up deleting over 700 photos from my phone. I had about 1,500 and they were taking up lots of space, but I just hadn’t taken the time to erase them.

Saturday evening, we cleaned the living room and organized my idea binders.

Sunday morning, I helped my Mom move her new stove into her apartment. Rachel and I painted the living room.

She did most of the painting. I watched and cheered her on.

I also finished reading the book I started earlier this week. I started a new book but it wasn’t very interesting, so I skimmed through it and then ended up giving it away. We also donated 5 bags of clothes and toys to Goodwill.

Overall, we got a lot accomplished that would not have been accomplished had I been online all weekend.

What’d I learn?

I don’t just love my dog, I’m obsessed with her. Out of 1,500 photos I think like 1,000 of them were of my pit bull, Isis.

Even though I had a lot of work I could have been doing, I didn’t have to be doing it. It all could wait, and it did. After getting back online and going through my email inbox, lots of things seemed a lot less important than they usually do, and I deleted quite a few emails that I normally wouldn’t have. Prioritizing.

When I got bored this weekend, instead of getting sucked into the internet, I did something productive. Whether it was reading with the girls, cleaning something (which I never do lol), or just taking an extra walk! It was great.

And… I learned that I can survive an entire weekend without internet!

Did I cheat?

I did cheat once. I was at Wal-Mart, getting ready to buy some orange paint for the living room. I pulled the net up on my phone to make sure there weren’t any negative feelings associated with the color orange. Crazy, I know! But I’m all about the “feelings” and I wanted to make sure it wasn’t an angry or negative color for any reason.

Proof that I was off of Facebook all weekend – look at the notifications I had when I got back online!

Will I do it again?

Rachel and I both really enjoyed unplugging this weekend, so we’ve decided to do it again. She wants to unplug every weekend, but Friday and Saturday evenings are perfect for me to get lots of writing done, so I told her we could do it every other weekend. It was hard to do, but honestly I think it’s something everyone should try. :)

Bloggers: We are unplugging against next weekend. Want to join us?

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