“Scheduling” the Internet: An Attempt to Refine Mental Silence
I’m still reading Cal Newport’s book: Deep Work. In it he talks about the importance of embracing boredom. We live in such a connected world. What would happen if we thought beyond the “Internet Sabbath” mentality and tried to, in his words, “…schedule the occasional break from focus to give into distraction” (p.161). Newport’s argument is that this exercise, which includes scheduling in advance when you will use the Internet and then avoiding it at all costs “outside of these times” helps boost ones ability to concentrate.
Summer Experiment
As summer break started I found myself thinking about what I might want to spend some time writing about. My break affords me large amounts of time to do what I want. The prospect of experimenting with Internet scheduling is appealing for many reasons. I’m not sure how long I should try this before resuming my normal Internet usage. I’m not even sure that I might want to go back to my normal Internet usage after giving this a try. What I’m more interested in is…
What do I notice myself doing when I am not on the Internet?
What do I notice myself doing when I am on the Internet?
How many times a day do I schedule the Internet?
How does my scheduling evolve daily?
Can this scheduling of the Internet refine my attempts to cultivate mental slience?
Let’s get started
I decided to start this little experiment my first full week of summer break. I thought it would be best to start then as I would have no immediate school obligations that I needed to attend to…just me and the day.
SIDE NOTE: I have to admit that the days leading up to the beginning of this experiment saw me getting a little anxious about what I was getting ready to try out. I wondered, “Why am I doing this?” “Should I be doing this?” “Is my usage of the Internet so ‘bad’ that I feel that I have to resort to such measures?” However, I decided to go forward in an attempt to maybe learn something about myself as a result of this experiment.
I decided to use the Drafts app as my space to document when I would be scheduling the Internet…instead of the recommended paper and pencil that Newport suggests. I made this decision because using Drafts (mostly) has nothing to do with the Internet when I’m just capturing ideas and I felt that using this app would give me a nice timeline…over time…of when I was scheduling my time with the Internet.
The first 4 days
June 15th…
Today is the first day of this week long experiment. So far, I’ve only been on the Internet three times. Time in between each usage ranged from 90 minutes to about 2 hours. I mention this because I’m not actually sitting and predetermining when I want to go onto the Internet. These 3 instances came as I needed to get something done. The first instance was a Safari search. The second instance began with a Safari search which led me to my blog to create a copyright footer. I also checked email and wrote a note to a family whose daughter I taught this year, on the Remind app. The third came out of necessity related to an errand I needed to run. In between these two times I’ve been writing, reading, and listening to podcasts (which do not involve the Internet as I download them versus streaming them). I have not used social media at all today. That hasn’t been difficult and the deeper I get into Newport’s book (currently between pages 194-195) the more I am re-thinking my usage of these “network tools.” There were two more times I got onto the Internet Monday…once for an email check and while I was “on” I accessed the Gyroscope app (which I’m not sure is technically using the Internet when I’m accessing it and to check my Squarespace site.
June 16th…
Today is the second day of my “scheduled” Internet experiment. Mind you, I am not sitting down and blocking out when I will get onto the Internet and what for. I have been impressed so far with the restraint I’ve demonstrated early in this experiment. “Scheduling” for me has equated to sitting in front of the Drafts app and clicking the Insert Date & Time action to document when I get on the Internet followed by listing the things I’m doing while I’m “on” as witnessed in this picture.
“Scheduling” the Internet
As of this writing I’ve only been on one time today and that was to do a quick check of my email and to download a beta version of my note-taking app of choice, Drafts. Some of my morning has been spent listening to podcasts. Most of my morning has been spent reading Cal Newport’s book Deep Work and I have to say, it’s been really nice reading something of substance versus moving from one social media app to another. I haven’t missed going to social media at all and am still trying to mentally figure out my exit strategy from it. One solution might be found within the current experiment. Meaning…scheduling my social media use. I’m already time tracking it. Scheduling it and/or batching it with something else, like checking email might be one way to keep it around. I will say though that the more I think of Newport’s argument for leaving it…the more it makes sense. Sense in that I really am not getting much out of my time “on it” when compared to what I’ve been getting out of reading a book over the last few days. That said, one idea that I read this morning was Newport’s thinking about scheduling every minute of your day (p.221). This concept is interesting to me and deserves more time in another blog post.
Got on the Internet two more times early in the afternoon after finishing Cal Newport’s book.
June 17th…
It’s the middle of the week and I continue to “schedule” the Internet and limit my use of social media. When I say limit I mean…I’ve not been on it at all. This morning went on the Internet twice…quick checks of email and the Remind app to touch base with one of my families.
It’s early afternoon and I’ve noticed that during these 3 days that I’ve gone onto the Internet 3 to 5 times each day…including today. I’m really trying to “get on it” only when I feel that I have to versus what I was doing prior to the experiment…getting “on” when I want to. Instead of getting onto the Internet I’ve used my time to read and listen to music and it’s been really nice!
June 18th…
I’m currently working my way through the fourth day of “scheduled” Internet use. As I write it is mid-morning. I’ve been on the Internet just once. The goal of this experiment was to track the things I am interested in as a result of “scheduling” Internet usage NOT to see if I could make it through the day without it. Interestingly enough, what I found myself doing yesterday, while listening to some Bruce Springsteen is pre-thinking what I would do when I got onto the Internet the next day. I was mentally batching all of the things I might do when I got on in an attempt to refine even more, my usage of the Internet. I know that as I get closer to having to go back to work that the manner in which I use the Internet will change…especially if that involves “teaching” from home. This morning’s Internet usage found me, as a part of my batching, getting onto Instagram momentarily to post my Unfold “micro-story” (a future blog post is coming about ‘that’) to promote tomorrow’s blog post. This was the first time this week that I got onto social media as a part of my Internet use.
One of the things I said I wanted to do, as a part of this blog post was think more about how I was using the Internet. What I’ve found out in this short amount of time is that I can live with just using the Internet to do things versus using it as a source of entertainment. I do not feel like I’ve missed out on things because I did not utilize social media for entertainment this week. Note: As I do track my time on social media, my time on these sites averages from 20-40 minutes a day (Twitter and Instagram combined). Not a lot of time but, if I start looking at Twitter and Instagram in a more “Newport-ian” way I can ask questions like, am I getting as much out of social media as I am putting into it and/or if I’m “hiring” social media as a means of entertainment, to what degree is it doing a good job versus other things like reading and listening to music; two things I’ve been doing much more of this week and really enjoying. As a matter of fact…I found myself wanting to get off of Instagram as soon as possible while I was posting to My Story. I have an action on the Drafts app that allows me to Tweet without getting onto Twitter. The ability to do so is a great workaround that I forgot I could basically do with my Unfold “micro-story.” All I have to do is, via the Share Sheet, bring up the “micro-story” and “share” it to Instagram and never have to open the actual app. I think I’ll try that next week.
Final Thoughts
Early in this post I contemplated whether or not I would continue to experiment with “scheduling” my Internet usage the way I’ve done here for the last 4 days. I also wondered if this “scheduling” would help me refine my cultivation of mental silence. As I close this post out I think I’ve made up my mind. I will in fact continue the experiment to see how it evolves throughout the summer and into the fall. I will simultaneously remain mindful as to whether or not this “scheduling” is in fact helping me refine my attempts to cultivate mental silence.
