I want to practice playing the violin, to study french, to read, to learn touch typing, to play the guitar and sing, to write, to draw or paint (sometimes), to play board games, to take walks, to hang out with friends, to ride my bike and a lot more stuff. I have to study maths, and a bit of everything else, for school, to clean my room, to cook food, to tidy up around the house. All this is there for me to do at any time.
Yet, almost all I do for the majority of the day is read online articles, watch YouTube videos, movies, go on Pinterest, Quora, Curiosity... in short, stay on my phone or my laptop. I don't play games. Facebook doesn't get much time because I find it boring. Even movies are kind of a rarity. But time just passes and I don't really accomplish a lot. And it doesn't even feel good, because there's the guilt of wasting time, plus the tiredness that comes with physical inactivity, plus the disapproving looks of my mum when I neglect my homework and my chores. I don't like any of these.
In contrast, I find a lot of pleasure in doing all of the things I mentioned at the beginning. And even the chores I have to do feel really good and productive. Still, paradoxically, the internet wins most of the time. And even when the internet is down for some reason, I still find something on my laptop to occupy my time.
And when I manage to break this chain, to get up and do something, it's pretty easy to then switch to another thing that I want to do, and not get sucked back in the internet's vortex. I only need to close the lid of my laptop and start doing something else.
The only explanation I have for this is that I'm addicted to devices (phone, laptop, tablet) and to the internet. I don't like admitting it.
Therefore, I have to take some measures. I tried stuff before, but it hasn't really worked. So this time, I'm not trying to measure the time I spend online and focus on the problem. Instead, I'll give myself other things to do, to occupy my time in a different way. And as always, when trying to form a habit, start small. I'm going to try and do 2 things each day from the following list: play the violin, study french, read, learn touch typing, write. I won't set myself a time limit, because if I start anything, it's not hard to do it for a good amount of time. But, if I know I have to do it for a certain amount of time, it's harder to start. So, I'm happy even with 10 minutes because that's easy to stick to.
This is for the hobbies. Now, maths is a different thing. I have to study it. It's way more important than my hobbies. Therefore, I will set a goal of solving two subjects from a test every day. It's not a huge task, but also not something that I can do in 15 minutes. And I have the feeling that once I start doing it, I will exceed the goal more than every once in a while.
So, let's see how this goes. If it doesn't work this way, I can always change it up, adapt to the situation and make it work.