Sorting Out my Priorities

It’s time for a new challenge. The meditation challenge made me very reflective and I really began to examine how I spend my time. It’s so easy to slip into the habit of doing activities that don’t really stimulate the brain or even make you feel good. The habits I am referring to are watching crappy TV and scrolling mindlessly through facebook. I don’t know why I indulge in these things, but I do, and it takes up an alarming part of my day.

So my initial thought was to cut both out completely.

But I’m not going to do that.

First of all, facebook is unfortunately a key part of my life now. It is how my classmates and I communicate on pretty important stuff. If I didn’t go on it a lot of things would fall to shit, and I can’t expect other people to change their habits and do things differently just because I want to purge myself of facebook. So I need to go on it from time to time. I have decided my maximum allowance is three times a day. Once in the morning, once when I get back from uni and once before I go to bed. Already this seems like a lot, but trust me it will be hard for me. And I genuinely need to check it that often for any updates about my rehearsals etc. 

There are some other rules as well:

When I open facebook, I will read/respond to my notifications and any messages, and then I will immediately shut it down. I will not scroll through my wall. I will not read any articles people post, ‘like’ or post any statuses, watch any videos, nothing. I’m going to keep my activity strictly to communication.

Now for the TV side of things. I could cut out all TV, I could. But then I thought of two things: The Great British Bake Off and Dr Who. The thought of losing those shows made my face do this:

I'd love to see Dr Who - Bake Off hybrid. Mary Berry would make a great alien. 

BBC make it happen.

I love these shows, they are only on once a year, and they don’t hang around on iplayer very long. If I cut out all TV I would be depriving myself of some genuine treats that I have waited for all year. And for what? I don’t actually think all TV is bad, I just think I should watch less of it, and that I should prioritize what I watch. So that’s what I’m going to do. Bake Off and Dr Who are going to be my only two TV indulgences of the week. Because of this, I won’t have to do what I often do, which is multitask and do other things whilst it’s on in the background so I can fit it all in. I can actually sit down, take some leisurely time and really enjoy the show to its fullest. And all the time I would have spent watching crappy, not important TV I will spend doing other things, like my homework for instance.

Yep, the main reason I am doing all of this is because I have a big show on at the moment, and I need to be committing a lot of time to it. But I also need a balance, I need to see my friends and do social things otherwise I will become miserable! Work and social life have to take priority right now. Mindless procrastination has to go.

So there, it’s gone.

Here’s to a productive and fulfilling month.