Supply list, journaling and process notes.
It's President's Day in the United States which means no school, or work for Eric, but I wanted to check in and let you know how I got on with my *No Technology* experiment.
I have never attempted anything like this before because I honestly thought, that I would not only struggle, but would miserably fail. I don't need to tell you that failure is hard to swallow, but I'm getting better with the concept as I get older and shifting my perspective. With failure comes the opportunity to grow, and so after 10 years of carting my technology with me on every vacation, I finally decided it was time to risk failure and embrace the growth.
For a period of 8 days, there was no phone, no laptop/computer, no iPad (much to Luke's disgust) and minimal TV. I did indulge in a David Attenborough Wildlife Documentary on National Geographic but otherwise I was only exposed to the television via the family and always chose to find a quiet spot and read my book instead. An additional caveat to the experiment was that I was also away from home for the entire duration keeping temptation at bay and providing ample distraction.
Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised, as was Eric. He kept asking me the first few days how I was doing, and even offered up his phone on occasion, but I wasn't remotely interested. I really thought I'd be climbing the walls. It also didn't bother me to watch him play on his phone. Instead, I read an entire novel and made a start reading a second book. I always complain about never having time to read, but maybe if I spend less time on-line I can make this form of relaxation a more regularl part of my routine.
I also enforced a little of this *No Technology* approach on Ella and Luke by requiring that they leave the iPad and iTouch at home. They were engaged for most of our time away and didn't really have a lot of time to over-indulge but it got really interesting at the airport, when faced with an extended wait for our flight. Ordinarily, they would be glued to their screens, but in the absence of normal they used their imaginations and creativity to make and fly paper airplanes.
The downside to this break in the stream of virtual information was that I had almost a 1000 emails waiting for me in my inbox on my return and took me most of Sunday to get through and respond to them all. My computer also felt somewhat alien in comparison to the normalcy I experience from day-to-day. The the blue glare of my computer screen was also more noticeable and has prompted me to look more seriously into these.
I will be doing this again, and with greater frequency.
