Screen free February

I've been screen free this month. Well, I was screen free for a week. It turns out my husband and I had different ideas about what we'd agreed to. I thought it was no social media, no internet usage and no games on the iPhone or iPad (I'm a big fan of playing Settlers or doing sporcle quizzes when nursing). We had already agreed that to find out a piece of information, the example discussed was a restaurant telephone number, you could google it rather than trying to locate yellow pages etc. Then I discovered half way through the first week that my husband thought BBC news was ok, and he wanted special dispensation to go on Twitter and read up on a legal trial he's been following in the U.S. I continued to be screen free aside from texts and emails and found I was sorting photos and reading books more, particularly when feeding Rory. 

But then I had to find out some pieces of information (time and location of a meeting I'd to go to was only on Facebook), opening times for a gym I was taking the boys to, and I started to notice I was picking my phone up more. I was reading emails, then clicking through to websites if I wanted to see the advertised offers and realised I was starting to lose control of this month's  project. I also realised Pinterest didn't  fall into a banned category and now I finally get the people who say it's an addition! I do have considerably more ideas for our bedroom redecoration though. So I decided after a few days of loosening the parameters to go back to my understanding of the original boundaries. No browsing the internet even if it was a project like doing holiday research. I think my husband is using the wider definitions but it's amazing what it has lead me to do:

- I went to a fabric store to get samples of material I'm considering for curtains for our bedroom;

- I wandered around a few furniture shops to look for a slim TV unit to fit in a recess. I can't find one! Perils of having a small TV in this 50" world we live in;

- in the afternoon after Daniel's nap time we went to IKEA and went for a walk and got an icecream. Normally in the afternoons I tend to sit on my phone for a while while the boys play so I can have a mental break;

- I went to a few local shops to try and source furniture for Daniel's dolls house. (unfortunately one only did pink furniture and the other had two wildly overpriced sets that I couldn't justify buying)

I love to support local shops and although the choice is more limited and it's not always affordable I should rely less on the Internet, even at the research stage of big purchases. 

I also noticed I have been spending better quality time playing with the boys as I'm not compulsively checking Twitter or googling non-urgent queries such as 'how long to cook a pork chop?' or 'when do baby's top teeth come in?'. 

It's also allowed me to be less distracted when decluttering as I'm out of the way of picking my phone up every 10 minutes to do a Facebook/Twitter/general browse cycle. The progress in the house has been amazing! 

Towels have been sorted! 

I'm writing this as I feed Rory, the one time I've really struggled not to use my phone. He feeds most evenings for about 1.5 hours and I'm stuck with little to do if I'm trying to keep light levels low as I can't use my kindle or read a book. So during nursing sessions when Daniel isn't around I'm allowing myself a bit more leeway-there's the time for my holiday research! There definitely is a time and place for idle browsing but I can already see how this month is helping me find the balance. I'm not even particularly interested in going back to Facebook or Twitter. Success!