In August I decided to take a break from blogging, and the internet in general. I love being online, I’ve made great friends through blogging and social media and it’s something I spend a lot of time doing. However with the internet at our fingertips 24/7 it can also be distracting. I’m definitely guilty of spending too much time online. It’s so easy to keep up to date when you have an iPhone with you at all times and I find myself checking it a little too frequently.
While my older daughter was off school for the summer holiday I decided to take a step back from my blog and social media and focus that time on being an amazing mum and concentrating on the most important job in my life and the little people who matter most to me.
The first step was to start deleting apps from my phone. I deleted the WordPress app first, so no more checking my comments and stats several times a day. This was a great way of detaching myself from blogging. Then I deleted all my social media apps except Instagram. I kept Instagram because it is my favourite and I knew I wanted to keep updating it.
I only checked Facebook and Twitter every couple of days on my computer and as the time went on and I got out of the habit this became less and less. The only problem I encountered was not knowing what was going on with the world and with my friends. As I don’t really watch TV or read newspapers I missed a few big things that happened in the world and also friends having babies and getting new jobs. It makes you realise how out of touch we’ve become with the outside world!
My blog is a little bit like my third baby, it’s something I have worked hard on and nurtured and invested a lot of time and effort on. It wasn’t an easy decision to walk away from it for a bit. But looking back on the last few weeks I’m so glad I did. I was working on it most evenings and was feeling a little bored with it and was struggling to keep it fresh and inspired. I knew that come September I would have a few child free hours a day with Lila starting nursery and these would be my blogging hours. Now that time has come I am so ready to give it a fresh start and I’ve noted down so many ideas for posts over the last few weeks that I can’t wait to get going.
Today is my first day of full-time blogging. My baby started school on her own for the first time yesterday and my big girl is settling into year four nicely. So I’m adding all my apps back to my phone, but I doubt I’ll be using them outside my allotted working hours and I’ll be spending more time living my life and feeling free.
To anyone who feels they spend too much time online, maybe give a month of minimal internet a go. You might just enjoy it!
5 Comments
Fay
September 12, 2014 at 2:11 pmOn your internet free month you seemed so stress free too – it was great to see and to have you back with such Joie de Vivre is just wonderful. I am looking forward to all the great posts to come 😀
vintagefrills
September 14, 2014 at 10:09 amNo pressure then! I did really enjoy my time off, but excited for all the fun blog related things to come! xxx
Núria
September 13, 2014 at 9:00 pmI think I’m online too much, watching youtube beauty videos mainly. When I think about having an afternoon without this I immediately think that the videos will pile up fast. I don’t think I can directly have a month off, but I can try to delete some video channels to the minimum I really enjoy. I really think I just have a weak will and use internet to procrastinate. Thanks for your post and sharing your thoughts and experience 🙂
vintagefrills
September 13, 2014 at 9:12 pmI’m exactly the same with YouTube. In the end I decided to just watch my very favourites, and give up on the rest.
Jessica Cangiano
September 15, 2014 at 12:27 pmExcellently, wisely said, dear lady. The longer the web exists, the more I feel the desire to spend somewhat less time on it (I say “somewhat” because the web does provide my livelihood and I adore lots of aspects of it, so I’m not in a hurry to give it up entirely by any means) and savour more of the things we all did in great quantities before it became so incredibly prevalent in our daily lives.
♥ Jessica