I wake up and grab my phone—it's 7:30 a.m., Friday. I feel a little groggy, definitely went to bed a little too late last night in a YouTube blackhole about homes I will never be able to afford. Oops. I really don't feel like working today but at least the weekend is almost here.
I quickly check up on my messages: a brief skim through texts, Messenger, Instagram, Signal, and WhatsApp. I'm a little disappointed, I for some reason expected—hoped for more. I don't have time to respond to what's there but fire off a few quick reactjis to the best ones. I'll get to it later.
Up next, email inboxes. It's too early for work emails though. Nothing but the usual junk, some spammy newsletters, bank updates, and sales codes I was expecting. I'll save the news articles for later, not really feeling it right now. I really should get around to unsubscribing from these one of these days... Select all, delete. Back to inbox zero, already starting the day with some progress.
I really should get out of bed but let's just quickly check-in on my favorite subreddits. LOL couple good posts. Quick check of the homepage. LOL the internet is amazing. Nothing great past page 3 though, the upvotes got it right. A quicker tour through Instagram, tossing a single heart, I see that there's nothing great.
Shit, time to actually get up. Tune into my favorite podcast while I get ready for the day and check up those news articles in my inbox. Shit is crazy these days, I can't believe this is where we're at. Hop back into my audiobook while I start brewing coffee. God, that smells good. I didn't realize my head was aching but it's already dying down before the coffee is ready.
Pop open my meditation app for a quick session to start the day off. Much better. Halfway through the cup and I'm feeling human again. Time to hop onto the first Zoom call of the day: "Hey team!"
Glad that's over with. Ugh let's check in on the work emails... "53 new messages". Great. I'll just check Slack first before really digging through this. Agh, a few requests I missed last night. Let me just do them right now before I forget. Done. And I'll mark everything else as unread so I don't forget to come back to it later (I hope). Time to tackle that inbox again. 45 minutes later and done. Back to inbox zero. Do I really need to work the rest of the day? This seems like a lot for a Friday.
Jk, I wish. Now it's time to actually get some stuff done. My morning podcast won't do, this is going to require my work playlist on Spotify. Plugged back into the headphones aaaaand we're off. I drop back into the messaging apps a few times when I have a second to write out my responses and see what friends have to say. Respond to a couple more pings as well and hop into another call. I cannot seem to focus, TGIF.
Finally lunch time. Pop open last night's UberEats into the microwave while browsing YouTube for something to watch and checking up my messages. Gotta find something "educational" of course, it's still work hours. New episode of Last Week Tonight? Sweet. Food is ready, and we're good to go. Go through a couple more episodes while I'm putting in the dishes. Shit, next call is in a few minutes. 2x through the rest of the video and just squeeze into the call. Nailed it.
I quickly check up on my messages again after the call, no responses though. Back to the playlist to hammer out the rest of the afternoon.
TGIF! Did I say that already? Don't have much planned (thanks #COVID) but relieved nontheless. I'll go out for a quick walk and workout. Should I tune back in the podcast? Queue up my workout playlist? Or maybe call someone? Nah, too tired for a call. Let's go with the podcast. I'll hit the playlist when I start the workout.
Back to cook up some dinner. Quickly 2x through the recipe video again just to make sure I'm not forgetting anything and turn on a couple funny videos in the meantime. Food is ready, can't wait to enjoy it. But what do I watch with dinner? I know, I'll catch up on that latest Netflix series.
Work finished. Workout completed. Dinner cooked. Sucks that I can't hang out with friends (#COVID) but at least I have some time to finally unwind and decompress. What to watch? Don't have the energy for a movie or something heavy. I turn to my current comedy pick, satirical and topical, just what I need. Hit play, grab my phone, and catch up with friends in the meantime.
It's getting late, time to start getting ready for bed. Plug back into my audiobook while going through the nightly routine. At least not going out means I can catch up on sleep. I get into bed but I'm not quite asleep yet so I just quickly catch up on messages again. Nothing else good on Reddit or Insta. I'll just take a quick peek at TikTok before passing out. LOL the internet is amazing. Did I say that already? It's 1:00 am!? Fuck. Not again.
"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."
We drown ourselves in stimulation, deeply uncomfortable and evasive of the most fleeting moments of boredom. And yet we say we are not addicted, there is no problem. Try eating your next meal devoid of any sort of tech, enjoy it slowly and deliberately, maybe over 20 minutes. Why is it so hard to savor a moment like this? Why do we want more? Are we not addicted?