Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him. (Daniel 6:18 ESV)
This coming week I will be undertaking a "tech-fast". This means that I will be abstaining from things such as TV, the internet, etc. for the purpose of sharpening my focus in relation to studying God's word (and other Christian texts) and talking with Him. These are things I do daily, but I have found myself somewhat distracted of late (by everything and nothing in particular) and as such I don't feel like I am efficiently doing all that I could and should.
Here are the guidelines:
1. Computer use for work only. No home computer use, no personal use of work computer. Allowance to check personal email once per day only & respond only in urgent necessity.
2. No television.
3. No movies (cinema or DVD).
4. No video games on any platform.
5. All non-native apps removed from iPhone except for Bible/reading apps and essential utilities.
6. iPhone calling/messaging use only where there is genuine necessity.
7. No music with lyrics.
This last point may seem peculiar, however as I often use my iPhone both for reading and listening to music on my commute and can usually successfully do both, I wish to remove the possibility that I become distracted by an idea conveyed in the lyrics of a song that I hear. Instrumental music (which I love anyway) can play in the background without creating that same type of potential disturbance and enables me to avoid the suffering a music-free week would bring. (I don't want to resent this "tech-fast" idea and thereby cause it to fail.)
I am looking forward to this week and if I feel it is a successful endeavour, may make it a regular, periodic undertaking.
Do you have something that you feel technology is distracting you from? A project left unattended perhaps? Something you "never get around to"? Maybe you would benefit from trying this for yourself. Go on... I dare you.
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Now playing: Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan
Good on you mate. I did a 45 day Lent fast from Twitter and Facebook (except during my 1 hr lunch break) this year and it was great. The 1 hour lunch break thing was a window to allow contact with family and friends abroad, but to be honest, I was usually socialising and interacting with "real live" people anyway (not to mention eating) during that hour anyway. I also found that a week or two in, the desire to get online had decreased and my concentration span increased when reading the Word, talking to people and generally being "fully present" in whatever situation I found myself. Really healthy thing to do from time to time. It led to me not re-installing the Twitter and Facebook apps on my phone, so whilst I'm still admittedly pretty active on both, the activity is contained to settings where I'm near my laptop and plugged in and online. Just reinstalled them now for the purpose of a bit of "birthwatch" a la web 2.0 this week, but otherwise I'm finding that reducing my interaction with my phone is helping me with all my relationships, whether it be with the people around me or with God. Hope you find the same.
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