Hi.
We have the decluttering thread that stimulates everyone to declutter their house for stuff, which is great. I would also like to declutter mental things that cause stress in my life. Today when I walked to work, I listened again to a podcast about the happy filosofer who cut out watching the news and facebook. I like to make some of these changes in my own life.
My stressful elements/challenges to solve:
- Facebook
- TV
- Forum(s)
- Board membership
Facebook:
I am active in some groups that are beneficial for my hobbies. One of them is from a sports club that I am a member of, displaying training times and places. There is no other place to read where they train. The other group is helping me to learn new skills and people are actively teaching me, while I get the chance to teach others. Then there is a number of other groups, like the one about my local neighbourhood. It is displaying useful stuff, like telling weather the steep roads are cleared for snow, or weather some cars are stuck and blocking the road. But it also contains a lot of noise about less important stuff. I am also in a group that shows where ski trails are prepared near our cabin, which is very useful. I also like reading science articles, so I follow the IFLS group, which displayed articles pretty often.
I used to have a personal facebook group for another of my hobbies. I had a couple of members, but no one else than myself would ever initiate a posting on it. I have already deleted the whole group a couple of weeks ago, telling the people that there was too little activity to keep it running. It was actually causing me some stress.
We (DH and I) are currently not active in this sportsclub, but would like to go back to it later. My idea is to maybe choose some function in Facebook to stop following updates from this group, as I don't need to see them at the moment. But still be a silent member somehow.
Task: Find a function to stop getting updates from the sports club facebook site.
I guess I would like to keep the groups of that other hobby, as I learn so much from it and can teach others.
I should rather reduce the amount of other groups, like "your best pictures", "historical local pictures", "Norway is beautiful", "Build networks". We have a friend who tends to add all his contacts (including me) to all kinds of groups that he likes. This is how I ended up in them. I will reduce them.
Task: Start unsubscribing from uninteresting groups.
The there is the friend thing. I have become facebook friends with a lot of people, amongst others people from those hobbies, but also old friends and relatives. Some of these people are just not my kind of people anymore. I am slightly worried that unfriending them on facebook might seem offensive, while it is not meant that way. Maybe there is a way to do it carefully without them getting a notification.
Task: Start unfriending people on facebook that I am not interested in anymore.
TV:
We have only three TV channels, that we pay for by a general tax (mandatory). I like to watch a number of programs on it. They also have a good web TV to watch programs when it suits you. But there is also a large amount of sports on it. DH likes watching sports, but I am getting less and less interested in seeing the same people doing more or less the same exercises against each other, week after week at another location. We have an issue there that DH likes to have the TV on, showing sports, and I would prefer to turn it off when something uninteresting appears.
Task: Discuss with DH how I feel about meaningless sports programs.
We also tend to watch the 7 o'clock pm news, which take 45 minutes. It is on a state financed channel, so no commercial things are involved. But still. Most of the new is not interesting at all. I hope I can convince DH to stop watching this and rather watch the shorter 10 minute new bulletin later in the evening.
Task: Discuss with DH the alternative for 10 minute news bulletin.
I also like to read the online newspaper when I eat breakfast. But the free paper that I read is a typical paper with a lot of sensation/gossip articles, so 90% is utterly uninteresting. Of course, reading the news when eating is nice, but it is also a form of multi-tasking and therefore little mindful. If cut out, then how to be updated on the news? I have noticed that my colleagues sometimes read the paper during work. They tend to tell others when something shocking happens. My DH still reads papers a lot. He can also update me on important stuff. Of just the 10 minute news flash.
Task: Cut out newspaper reading during breakfast.
Forums:
I am a member on several internet forum, related to hobbies of mine. Currently I am only active on this one, as FIRE has my highest priority at the moment. As I just don't log into the other forums, I don't need to make any changes.
Board membership:
This is a huge stress factor. I am the board leader of our local private road with many households. One of the neighbours recruited me last year, telling that every household had to contribute in the board at some time. And somehow the older board members didn't want to take up the leader position. I volunteered, but now I understand why they didn't want it. What a constant stream of input, and so many politics involved. I absolutely hate it and get depressed every time I think about it. Currently 3/4 of the first year have passed and I have another 1 1/4 year to go. I hope I can convince someone else to take over the leadership position. I guess I will just have to sit it out.
Task: Call in for new meeting and let the others know I don't want to continue as leader.