i thought maybe to start i could have one day a week of no tracking, just do whatever? an easy mode? or would that be too distracting, actually - un-doing the hard work of the other 6 days? i kind of tried it on wednesday (wednesdays often see me tucked away into the bedroom while partner's in work meetings) but it felt idk, boring. unsatisfying. so maybe that's not the way...
i've also allotted an hour of "screwing around" per day but i haven't really used it? not sure what other screwing around i'd do that's not messages/blogs and video. maybe i should just cancel that in general? or wind it down to half an hour? i do "necessity" stuff online anyway like paying bills, or things like updating my blog, but it's a one and done type of deal. i don't navigate away from whatever i'm doing into other areas of the internet... maybe, somewhere down the road, that's what that half-hour/hour would be for? all accumulated tasks that require a connection? it makes sense to "contain" internet to one time slot, like in the olden days of dial-up.
ultimately i'd also like one day a week of no internet at all, but i think i'll build up to that one. i did try it in the past but that was while all the other days were full of internet. so the no-internet day just got all the activities i'm now engaging in every day anyway. not much of a treat at all.
i do tend watch a lot of long videos (like playthrough streams and backgammon tournaments) so i'm changing that rule to "1 video or 1h if it's longer than that". i've been using that for eating along with and on one hand that's fine, that's enough. on the other hand it does kind of feel like i'm online all the time anyway? like... if i Sat Down And Watched a whole video, i think i could just close the laptop for the rest of the day and that would feel properly Disconnected. maybe also something to try down the line?
i noticed i'm really, really backsliding in backgammon. i mean i know progress isn't linear and it's always an up and down kind of thing, but with much less playing it's becoming more pronounced. it is a thing that matters to me... the 10 points i've allowed each day is barely a warm up. maybe i could do a few days of 10 games instead, to keep sharp?? or instead of having a "random internet hour" i could instead have a backgammon hour??
of the above i think my first tweak to the experiment will be to bunch up all internet use into two lumps of morning and evening. (backgammon is a separate thing, i'm talking Sitting At The Laptop). the video can be split, or can be all in one of the timeslots but not dotted here and there throughout the day. maybe even have an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening? that's longer than i'm doing now, but it would be interesting to see if it's too much or indeed encourages some interesting browsing/exploring (as long as i don't do tumblr or more youtube than already established). with such distinct time blocks, it should be easier to close the laptop altogether and have the internet feel like a place again.
