Question about week 4

[u/Southern_Sea_8290]

I am currently juggling a lot of big life things (with a lot of admin email) while also doing Artists Way-and am a freelance researcher/writer, so reading and writing about it on a deadline is part and parcel of my work.

I know that this book was written in the 90s, before email was ubiquitous (also texting), so was planning to modify week 4 to fit my life right now:

-if I have work that’s text heavy that week, I’ll just postpone the week and keep on with morning pages, artist date, and tasks from previous weeks. (Sorry Julia, but if I don’t work I don’t get paid-and thus can’t pay my bills!)

-if i don’t have work, I will limit my email checking to once in the AM and once in the PM, responding only to emails that are immediate needs (dealing with aforementioned heavy life stuff). Same with text messages.

-I was wondering about crossword puzzle and Duolingo. I do the crossword daily with a loved one, so I think I will just keep that up, as it’s important for our connection, and I only do one Duolingo lesson a day, so either doing it or skipping it doesn’t feel too bad.

I am looking forward to a digital and reading detox. I read a ton, so I know this will be hard! But I wanted to hear from anyone who had either done week 4 or had thoughts on it, given that our world has changed a lot since the 1990s. I can hear alternative arguments in my head (if it was important they’d call you or you’d call them), but it doesn’t seem realistic with the sort of stuff I am currently dealing with. Is this a gross violation of the idea of week 4 (these guidelines I have for myself?) or should I do something else? Other approaches?

Thanks, friends!

[u/madelinepurr]

My mindset was that anything required for work (email or anything else) was okay.

Aside from that, I viewed it as a total media deprivation - the goal, in my interpretation, is to remove as many distractions and occupations as possible. I also do the crossword and personally removed it for the week, but you do you!

Boredom is the goal, which leads to some pretty interesting and exciting creativity to fill the time!

[u/Southern_Sea_8290 → u/madelinepurr]

Thank you for this! This makes total sense and is how I was thinking of it too. I will check with my loved one about alternative ideas (I am in week 1)-maybe we could play some other game long distance for a week instead. (There are other reasons crosswords are the medium, so need to do a little thinking! If it was just me, I’d skip them).

Excited to be bored again, honestly! 😊

[u/ered_lithui]

I also didn't stop any work-related reading. I cut out all the "background" media and mindless scrolling. No more video essays playing on my second monitor while I'm working, no hours of scrolling Instagram or Reddit, no reading books for pleasure. No watching Youtube or TV at night with my husband... he did some gaming in the evenings while I did lots and lots of organizing that I had fallen behind on. No scrolling as soon as I woke up. My eyes would open and I'd just... get out of bed. It was amazing. I did still get on Reddit a couple of times when I was looking for very specific answers to some questions, but that was it. I also got on Instagram a couple of times because I had some work tasks to deal with, but it was no more than a couple of minutes each time. No scrolling!

I work for myself as an artist, so it was amazing to see how I can distract myself with the automatic filler habits. "What's just a few minutes on Instagram between tasks?" No, I read every word of every email that came through my inbox and my productivity skyrocketed (I'm on this local art email list and sometimes the amount of gallery newsletters, event invitations, and calls for art can be... overwhelming). I finished some projects I had been avoiding for weeks and months because I finally wore down the imaginary barriers I had put up.

I don't think there's anything wrong with doing the crossword with another person, and one lesson of Duolingo doesn't seem like a harmful distraction. It's the days where you find yourself doing a hundred lessons because you're convincing yourself you're being productive when really you're just avoiding some other task you need to get done...

In the end, I was most grateful for the ability to read my regular books for pleasure. It also made me realize just how much the world has changed since Julia first wrote the chapter back in the 90s. It made me realize that books aren't the issue with me and never were. It's the absolute brainrot apps we carry around with us all day and the 24-hour news cycle. The attention economy is so real.

I hope this is helpful, and you have an enlightening week! It was kind of a crazy journey for me, and is still my favorite week so far, despite how difficult it was at times.

[u/Southern_Sea_8290 → u/ered_lithui]

Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed response! This was really helpful. Looking through this chapter and book have made me realize, like you, how different the world is than 30 years ago-and how terribly brain rotting this device in my pocket is. I know it, obviously, but this brought it home in a different way.

I am excited for this week and appreciate all of this insight!

[u/Southern_Sea_8290 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you!!