William Powers disconnects the internet modem in his house Friday night and reconnects Monday morning. This is from his book Hamlet’s Blackberry. He calls it the Walden Zone. I don’t know Powers still practices this disconnection. Cal Newport talks about doing something similar. He relates it to the Jewish practice of Sabbath.

I love binging internet-TV shows. When I don’t bing TV, I binge Youtube. I love the variety and color from video but I have come to love books more. To give books a chance, I decided to try Internet Sabbath for myself.

I’ve given myself more rope than the Powers’ family did. I don’t switch off the internet modem because my wife has not asked for this. I also limit Internet Sabbath to just Saturdays.

I set the phone to go into focus model all day Saturday; the screen goes dark and notifications silence
I don’t watch Internet TV which is the only form of TV we have; I allow myself to watch DVDs but haven’t done it yet
I don’t use the web browser on any device

Rigid rules rarely last. Powers talks about making exceptions in his book from time to time. Here are mine:

Any app that works offline is allowed — my note-taking app, for example, lives on the cloud
Budgeting is allowed on the web browser — I use Google Drive and OneDrive
I will stream podcasts on my phone’s podcast app or music on the music app
Maps are fair game

2021 was a year of extremes. It was the second year of living in the COVID pandemic. My wife and I are fatigued by how restricted our movements are. On the other hand, living at home more than not has encouraged me to form insights that I am not sure I would have gained had there not been a pandemic.

With a slight hint of ableism and a dash of first-world-problems, here are things that worked well and some that didn’t:

Things that I struggled with:

Project Dog — We adopted Ruby, the calmest and quietest 5 year old dog from the Humane Society in April. Turned out she dealt with anxiety, panic attacks, never lived indoors, and was in poor dental health. She possibly had attention-deficit-disorder type symptoms that made it impossible for her to learn obedience.
Burnout — we skipped vacation in the Spring and Summer. Work was high because everyone wants to ship commerce now. Our Project Dog was a lot of work. Summer was exceedingly hot and humid. I got increasingly irritable till my wife insisted we take time off.
Delta variant, and then Omicron — when it felt safer to start going out and seeing friends, the Delta variant broke out and we retreated back into our shells. It has been frustrating to see masks disappear almost everywhere outside a doctor’s office. My wife and I tend to be the only masked people at stores.
Immunocompromised — We found out earlier this year that my wife is immunocompromised. This makes it extra hard for us as the variants come out while people get more and more relaxed about masking up!
No Podcasting — I had hopes and dreams to write, record, edit and publish 6 episodes this year. I think I posted one. Everything I mentioned above sucked all willpower to be creative.

Things that worked well:

Realizing the power of taking time off — this has to be on the top of the list. We took a vacation after I was already feeling burned out. It helped to get away. Just getting away, no internet, several books and hiking trails near by.
Refining Perspective — By August I was claiming the whole year 2021 was a bust. By September I started realizing it was only the Summer that was tough. I used this insight to start logging my thoughts daily so I can question my own ideas, especially the big-bad ones like “2021 sucks”! Now I have a plan for 2022 thanks to this insight.
Books, books, books — I started reading a lot more, enough to push through an inertia of sorts and gain momentum in reading. I went from a book a month to 6 books in December! I started taking detailed notes but in a way that I have not taken before. I should expand on that another day.
Metacognition — this puts a name to the thing I have been pursuing. The idea of metacognition — thinking about my own thinking, finding out that my love for truth is bigger than my love for what I already know — this feels like a core value and I am glad I discovered it. Now I know its name.
Internet Sabbath — I switch off internet use on Saturdays allowing only texts and phone calls on my phone. The effects flow into the weekdays. This has significantly curtailed the amount of YouTube and Internet-TV shows I used to binge. Probably 2 hours or more every day! Gone!!
High-Quality Relaxation — With TV gone, I found a few ways to have a high-quality relaxation. Walking our dog with my wife is one. Taking a drive in the evening and listening to a podcast is another. There was a time I felt passively watching TV was all I could do at the end of a workday. What a waste!