Is your technology distracting you?

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I spent part of Saturday setting up my new computer in my office.

You probably didn’t know that I spent most of September working in my living room on my old laptop off a card table.

Yes, part of it was that I wanted a change of scenery, but most of it was frustration with my technology.

You see, I realized toward the end of August that I was wasting a lot of time watching YouTube and playing games, both on my phone. And those are warning signs that there’s a problem.

Normally, it’s a sign I’m avoiding something—you know, do anything but that thing that really needs to be done that I’m procrastinating about.

But that wasn’t it.

So, I started noticing what was going on when this happened.

I was surprised and annoyed to realize that it was my own impatience with technology.

You see, my previous desktop computer was so old that the version of Windows it used was no longer supported and that meant my browser of choice was no longer getting updates and was only opening about 60% of the websites I wanted it to and it was slow opening other things. Oh, and Windows Explorer would crash about once a day and the blue screen of death would appear about once a week.

So, while I would wait for things to load or reboot, I’d pull out my phone. I didn’t realize how normal and time-consuming all of this had become until I took a step back. So, while I would wait for things to load or reboot, I’d pull out my phone.

I didn’t realize how normal and time-consuming all of this had become until I took a step back.

I tried a couple of different workarounds, and what I found worked best was my old laptop (that doesn’t close because accidentally broke the hinge months ago) and it was easiest to set up in the living room.

Here’s the problem with that though—my living room isn’t my office. While my husband is super sweet and understanding, the living room wasn’t a permanent solution.

So, I have a new desktop and it’s working great!

But, you didn’t come here to read about why I got a new computer.

I’m sharing all this because it illustrates two things:

  1. sometimes our distractions slowly become normalized and we don’t realize it
  2. technology isn’t always super helpful
Update: You can watch this Wednesday LIVE with Evie here.