“Dude, you gotta try it. It feels amazing.” usually isn’t the endorsement that one would take when deciding whether to try a potentially life-changing diet. But that’s exactly the one that I got from a friend a few weeks ago when he told me about the media fast.
Truthfully, I’d already experienced something like it when I was away from technology for a few days, but this seemed more promising. Focus attention on completing tasks by cutting out all the frivolous Internet, television, radio and reading except for the essentials. For a pop-culture junkie with a section on his blog’s links page dedicated to time wasters, this seemed like it would be difficult.
So much like every cautious dieter, I made a few modifications. The main one being that I would only be on the fast from 9 AM to 5 PM. To add additional encouragement, I updated my Facebook and Twitter statuses to reflect the change. And so, I was on the wagon.
From Tuesday through Friday, I tried the fast.
And it didn’t work.
It might be because I’m weak. Or because I love webcomics, stupid YouTube videos, reading blogs, review sites, magazine articles and news on the web. Or because I really like channel surfing. But whatever the reason, I didn’t do well. Sure, I cut back a bit, but it wasn’t enough. The grand plan for increased efficiency and focus failed.
I’ve since learned about a few free programs that can help me. And I’m doing more research into the topic before I dive in again. Because just like treating any addiction, cold turkey doesn’t always work when curing a media junkie.
So I’ll let you know when I try this again. And maybe it’ll actually work. But for now, I have to watch some Funny or Die clips and catch up on old Tweets.
I’ve got a long way to go.
