Today, on the Reem show...

For those of you who are aware of my mini Facebook boycott, which I blogged about recently, I'm happy to report that I made it to a week totally Facebook-free! YEY! I signed on for the first time this morning and I'm happy to report that I spent very little time on there, and then jumped right back into the routine I had made up for myself this past week.

My routine since forever has been to get up, have breakfast, and then get on the computer to check email, and do everything else I do to waste my time when I'm not writing or doing anything else I deem productive. Much of the same routine is still in place, except it's a little more organized, and been whittled down to mostly productive, and only a little time-wasting.

It took a lot of wading through links I'd saved as my favorites without rhyme or reason years ago to get the job done, but I finally have a very organized favorites list I just need to click the way down in order to follow it daily to a "T". I now have my writing blogs organized in one folder, my freelance job boards in another, and so on and so forth-- you get the idea. I spend so much time going through that stuff in the morning, I can only think of writing when I'm finished. Games or anything similar are not even a temptation for me when I keep myself this busy with nothing but reading and writing.

I'm feeling good about, and happy with my routine. I hope it will continue to help me focus, and make me the writer I plan to be.

So, stay tuned. (I had to say that because of the title of this post.)

Step away from the Facebook!

There are so many distractions one can find while sitting at the computer. The internet makes it so easy to pass hours you could be utilizing to do a lot more for yourself, and I know this. Between instant messaging on MSN and AOL, the numerous forwards I receive from friends, which I in turn forward to other friends, the Scrabulous and Chess games I've got going on Facebook, and my latest obssession with another Facebook game, Crazy Taxi... I'm surprised I get anything done away from the computer, little else actual work on the computer itself! And to think Facebook is constantly adding new games and applications built to suck time!

Beginning today, I am making efforts to take back the chunks of time I have been wasting on the computer doing useless things. I can't go cold turkey with the computer, because it's where I do my writing, so I am going to limit my visits to certain websites that distract me and suck huge chunks of my time.

Facebook is the hugest culprit. Though I don't have much going on in the socializing realm of Facebook, it does have Scrabulous, Chess, and Crazy Taxi. Those games keep me on Facebook for hours at a time. Sure, I log off and try to get work done, but then I get an alert from Facebook telling me that some stranger wants to be my friend, and my curiousity takes me back to Facebook where again, I am sucked back into the games and other endless distractions. I do the same when I have been writing and need a break... so instead of doing something like go for a walk, or go outside for some air, I stay at the computer wasting a perfectly good day on Facebook.

I'm done sabotaging my days this way. So, I am beginning a boycott of Facebook, starting today. How long is this boycott gonna last? I don't know, but I hope to make it to a whole week of absolutely no Facebook. Total cold turkey. No status updates, no Scrabulous, no Crazy Taxi, no nothing.

Of course, I will always waste time. If it's not Facebook, it's something else for me, but right now I can pinpoint the time sucker, and it's Facebook.

If you want to join me in this effort to wean yourself away from the evils of Facebook, please do. We might not be able to remember what life was like before cellphones, but I can totally remember what life was like before Facebook... it was a lot more productive.

Good luck to me!