Next week I’m starting a 5 day media fast, Monday to Friday.
I’ll be in Ithaca near the finger lakes, so this is an opportunity where I’ll likely be less bored than I might be trying this at home and totally unplugging. I’ll spend more time outside hiking and with family.
Here are the rules:
No feeds: No scrolling Twitter/X, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn feeds.
No news: (Should be easy), however that means no newsletters as well
No podcasts/YouTube: Difficult and probably the most important part of the experiment.
Books only. Should get some good use out of my Daylight computer.
Music is ok. Will use Spotify.
Purposeful Research is ok. For example planning my trip to Japan or finding a new local gym to try out.
Movies: Would be OK but I doubt we will watch any.
I’ll start by “clearing” my inbox, that will help me stay on top of anything that comes through. This is one to avoid though because I could check frequently. I have a timer to limit email daily to 60 min.
Replacements:
If you take something away, it’s best to have something to replace it. Putting down media, my aim would be to pick up more often:
Meditation
Reading. I just finished the Count of Monte Cristo, and am part way through 1984. What reccomendations do you have? Any genre.
Walking
Music
Pen & Paper: Maruman MNEMOSYNE Notebook is my fav.
Working out
Posting: I can create and post as much as I’d like. So, maybe you’ll see more posts from me?
Why do a Media Fast?
The point isn’t to keep this going. I’ve found that optimally I spend ~30 min on feeds per day. Most days I am good at limiting, others not as much.
The experiment is more about giving my brain a break, and seeing if I learn anything from it.
Most importantly I hope to review how the time went. Doing an experiment like this probably isn’t that useful less you pay attention to what you notice.
What is a new experiment you’re running?
xx David
David
P.S. Fun little focus app here from Hank Green.
I love to “unplug” while on vacation but rarely do during a regular week. You have prompted me to unplug one day a week and five days once this quarter.
You should get off of Spotify. They are one of the worst in terms of taking equity away from artists, not just in terms of streaming royalties but also because they are actively platforming and playlisting AI generated music, which is created from stolen IP without artists consent and directly takes away streams from actual musicians.
There are lots of cheap tools ($5) to transfer your entire library to another service