Hi all,
This coming Sunday is Day One of the Attention Project! There are five quick things I recommend that you do in order to be ready:
Briefly look over the plan for the next six weeks. You will notice that the backbone of The Attention Project is taking an hour each day of completely “unplugged” time. This means no screens of any kind. Your cellphone should be in a spot where you are completely unable to see or hear it.
In order for you to feel comfortable doing that, today is the day to let those closest to you know that or the next six weeks, you plan to be intentionally unavailable for an hour each day. They can leave a message, and you can get back to them. Or if you have special circumstances in which it is difficult to be unavailable for an hour (a family member is in the midst of a medical emergency or a babysitter might need to reach you, for example), you will have to arrange an alternate means of communication. You may be able to leave the number of someone who is physically close enough to find you in the case of emergency. (It is also good to remember, though, that twenty years ago, people were very often unreachable for an hour. There were very few emergencies that couldn’t wait.
Note that you have two tasks for Sunday (and for each day of the coming week): (1) Set aside one hour with no electronic devices, including your phone. You can do whatever you want during this time (as long as you are awake), but you should not have any electronic input (laptop, phone, TV, etc.) You may listen to music, if you can do it without any interaction with the device playing the music. This should not be during a time when you are unable to access electronics anyway; e.g., when you are in class. (2) You should then (right away, if possible, but, some time before the day is over) spend at least three minutes writing, describing this experience of being “unplugged.” There are no “right answers.” Feel free to write *anything* that comes to mind as you reflect.
Decide when you will take your “unplugged” hour on Sunday—and possibly for every day of the coming week. If it’s not on your calendar, it is easy to lose track. This post allows for comments, and I strongly recommend that you write that time in a comment below. Writing it down makes it much more likely that you will make it happen.
Decide where you will do the brief writing for each day. If you print out the whole plan, you will have all the information you need for each day, a spot to check off each task, and a place to write. But you can also make use of a notebook or loose leaf paper.
The comment section below is also open for questions, comments, or words of encouragement to your fellow Attention Project participants. Drop a quick hello!
I’ll be back with a quick check-in on Saturday,
HTC
9-10pm
My unplugged hour will be from 4:30 to 5:30 each day