Project Month: Phone Phast

It's been a few year since I've done one of these. Usually I do one in November or February, but this morning I woke up with the beautiful pre-fall weather outside and decided "why wait?" With the recent iOS update that tracks the hours you spend on iPhone apps and a couple of interesting videos about the healthiness of boredom, I got to thinking about all the time I waste staring at a phone or watching a tablet. What happened to the old days of waiting to look up something until you could get home to a computer or watching movies on an actual television through a VCR or DVD player? What happened to reading a magazine while on the toilet instead of swiping incessantly through Facebook posts that only give a nanoiota of delight each?

Thus, I present this year's project month that I will be following from today till the end of the month and (as usual), hopefully, longer:

Phone Phast!

I've been nostalgic lately, and I've been thinking about my childhood in the 90s and 2000s. Back then, there were no phones, no pocket devices. You were bored a lot more often, and that was healthy! I realized lately just how much I depend on my stupid, stupid phone to constantly entertain me. I open it for a game of Hearthstone when I'm bored. I automatically pull it out at the urinal to read 5-Stage Dungeon Rooms or answer Quora questions. I listen to Critical Role on it in my car. I check my email constantly. I open my phone to occupy my time even when I'm letting something load for less than a minute! And with the iPad, I always have to be watching something while cooking, while eating, and while putting away dishes or laundry.

This has to stop.

I need to go back to the root ways to entertain myself. I don't need to constantly be listening to music or playing games to distract myself. Why can't I just listen to the sounds of cars outside or stare out the window for a few minutes? A part of me wonders if the reason depression cases are skyrocketing nowadays more than ever is simply that our brains are too occupied and don't have enough time to just sit, meditate, breathe, and recalibrate.

Hence, my rules for this project month are as follows:

1. No phone use except for texting, calling, and if necessary, finding directions.*
2. The iPhone will be placed somewhere other than my pocket whenever possible.
3. No iPad use whatsoever.
4. Facebook and other social media only once per week, on Saturdays for 10 minutes only.
5. Other websites are allowed, but only by accessing them through the computer
6. Playing computer games is allowed, but emphasis on older games (from the 90s or early 2000s) is encouraged.
7. No watching movies on the computer! This didn't exist in the 90s. Go sit down on the couch and put in one of your many DVDs, ya smag!
8. Maybe listen to the radio instead of other forms of media, especially in the car.
9. Maybe don't watch as much YouTube, but honestly, if you follow #1 and #2, this probably won't be a problem.
10. For heaven's sake, draw more, man! Bust out those colored pencils and fire up those childhood creativity engines for a while.

• Addendum 1.1: I am also allowed to make animations on my phone, since I did so with Palm Pilots back in the 90s or early 2000s.

Since this was such a spontaneous project, I'm still a bit iffy on what I want to accomplish this month, so the rules are a bit scattered. I may even add or modify these as time goes on. But I think they're a good basis. By following these, I anticipate receiving the following rewards:

• More time for projects, which is always a plus!
• More mental energy—apparently multitasking and constant entertainment expend lots of neural resources
• Autumn, my favorite season, will pass more slowly since I'll be bored more often!
• More time to read books!
• Less wasted time in the bathroom
• More nostalgia, which I realized I've been lacking quite a bit of lately.

So, a-wish a-me luck. Also, by way of announcement (in case anyone but me actually reads this), I've been working more on my personal history lately, which has been a plus, and you can expect more summaries of the adventure arcs of the Heroes of Silvermoon.

I just really can't wait for this year to be over, but I also want to enjoy this fall time as much as possible, so I have high hopes for this month.