I am convinced I need to do a time audit for at least a week and see how many hours I invest, spend, and waste on various activities. I'm sure I'd be shocked to see the amount of precious time I waste on the computer.
Facebook. Some days I think I should never have let myself sign up. It's like a swampland for the clock. I sign on, glance at the time, see "10:16" and say, "Okay, Zo, you've got 14 minutes and then it's time to ____________" (clean, do laundry, put dishes away, plan for school, etc). Next time I look at the clock it's 10:28 and I say, "K, two minutes." Next time, it's 10:43 and I'm feeling guilty, numb, and unproductive. But I stay on another 17 minutes...or so.
Blogging. This is not as bad as it used to be for me. Probably because I discovered Facebook.
Email. I write, then sometimes scroll around waiting for an answer. Then I reply. It's only polite, right?
It's got to stop. It's got a hold on me. It's a slavemaster. Ball and chain. Call it what you will. I am sucked into the abyss by the familiar hum and drone of the computer. How many times have I tried to quit?
It's not that it's bad in and of itself. I find here inspiration, comfort, information, laughter, encouragement, and sometimes conviction. On Facebook I find myself liking to be in touch with people and finding out what they're doing, or say what I'm doing or feeling or whatever.
But oh the time I could be stewarding differently. My house would be cleaner, my laundry put away (perhaps? I don't know; I wasn't great about that last step before the internet, so I think it's just laziness). I might read more choice material or make things or write something of real worth. Who knows?
I must track my time. Not that it would be accurate, because in the very doing of an audit, I would choose not to waste so much. The Lord is saying, "I'm trying to teach you to number your days. Days consist of minutes."
When I see the same people on facebook all the time, I think, "She's not being very productive" or "Is she at work doing that, cheating her boss of time?" And then I look at myself and I am a lazy cheater. (We don't have Fb access on our computers at work, thank goodness.)
Cutting back on the computer could be like yanking a bottle from the drunk.
I can't do it on my own. When did this happen, and why? Ai, yai, yai.
2 comments:
It's so funny that you should blog on this...this weekend someone recommended the book "Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives" by Richard Swenson to me. I want to pick it up and read it...but I also wanted to ask around and see if anyone else I knew had read it, as the person who recommended it to me, is not someone I know....
Yeah. I think that's one reason I don't have a laptop! I may never do face-to-face time! As said before, it's easy to become dependent (yes, like an addict!)!
FB is one of those things that makes me crazy-er! I don't know what it is, but it does feel like it could threaten to eat me up, so I rarely log on and I try to ignore what all I might be "missing"!!
Sometimes I set a timer to help myself monitor computer time or to remind me to get laundy done! I'm working on laundry this very day!(I don't want to throw computer time out as being "evil" I want to learn to wisely use instead of foolishly abuse God's gifts and tools!)
Also as said before, I don't consider your blog or your friendship a waste of my time at all!
Thanks for the covicting reminder that indeed God has given us precious time!
"So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12
We are in His grip!
Post a Comment