A Dedicated Day Offline Realized

On June 2, 2010, in Technology, Time Management, by Doug Ramsay
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Hello Readers…

I hope all is well with you and that your Memorial Day was spent, to some extent, doing what the holiday was created for – in memory of the men and women in our armed forces. Those that are currently serving and have served for us in all capacities.

Well, it came to fruition this weekend. Yes, the DDO or “Dedicated Day Offline” happened on this past Sunday. As you remember from a previous blog post, I initially called this a “Digital Day Off”, but I thought the term was too broad and would have to included most, if not all, things digital (HDTV, mobile phones, etc). My reason for conducting this exercise of “virtual abstinence” was to assess how much time I spend online, and to see if the time spent doing what I normally do was actually robbing me of reaching goals.

Was a DDO really necessary to conduct this assessment of time management?  No, I could have just decided to allot only a certain amount of time to every aspect of my online daily routines (which probably could have been easier).  I also chose a regular day to do this, because that type of day is one where I am not removed from my normal environment. To be away visiting, on vacation, etc., would have made it easier to realize a DDO.  Easy would have been less of a challenge.

So what did I do with my dedicated day offline?  I used a good part of my time to improve my financial budgeting/investment literacy and to revamp a financial SPD (“systematic plan of development”) for savings, investing, debt reduction, and retirement.  I also got a great nap in during the early hours of the afternoon. ;-)

Coming up next week: Task management on the iPhone and iPod Touch!

Have a great day.

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  • http://totaltranslucency.wordpress.com/ Angela

    Great post, Doug, it’s interesting to hear about your experiment results.

    I think “we” are in that age range that has one foot in the “digital world” & one foot in the “real world” and realize the marriage of the two for both its pros and cons. Our parent’s generation typically shuns all things computer related while our children’s generation seemingly cannot live without it.

    For an information junkie such as myself, I can easily spend hours reading and I find the portability of reading material to be a plus. While I still love a good book, magazine or newspaper the literary industry (among other industries) is being tremendously impacted and transformed by the internet. Ability to access, store, spontaneously retrieve and transport googobs of information in your pocket is just too good to be true.

    Undeniably the world is shifting to being a more digital one so I surmise that for the sake of efficiency and expediency that the trend will increase online usage incrementally year by year just as a normal function of daily living. You can already shop, bank, register your car, etc.

    I think it’s for the best that each person, from time to time, reassess and ask themselves how much their online time is garnering them and in what areas and make adjustments accordingly.

    ~peace & blessings~

  • http://www.vibesnscribes.com Doug

    Angela,

    I couldn’t agree with you more. I think your comment very well describes the mindset of both generations and their mindset with respect to use of (love for) the information highway. The internet will continue to become ingrained in the everyday lives of generations to come. The party has started! Thanks for the comment.

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