Today's assignment seemed a lot like the assignment from Day One, when I downloaded Moment to keep track of my phone time. Because today is Day 12: Download an App-Blocker. The idea, Catherine says, is to download an app to block specific sites and apps that I get sucked into. The irony of this is not lost on her. She recommends FREEDOM.
You knew that was coming.
The idea is to set up "block lists" of problematic sites or apps. I came up with "News" and "Blogs."
News
- The Atlantic
- CNN
- ESPN
- FiveThirtyEight
- Slate
- The Ringer
- Vox
Blogs
- Kottke
- Longform
- Geekologie
- The Morning News
I don't really have any time-sucking apps; they were all deleted earlier in the project. I guess I could put email in that category, but occasionally I'm in a pickle and have to use my phone for email. So I didn't want to block it, especially since I have all the alerts turned off, anyway. I'm lucky that I don't have to use social media for work.
Next, I'm supposed to set times. My most productive time of the day is generally about 9-12 AM, so I thought it might be good to block myself during that time. Off I went. But even though I consider myself to be at least fluent in technology, I could. not. figure. out. FREEDOM. FREEDOM (the app, not the idea) sucks.
Is this a joke? Should I follow Freedom right before I block it?
FREEDOM was more like this:
I feel your pain, Mel. Just don't go blaming this on the Jews.
So I deleted FREEDOM. Instead, I decided to get rid of all non-essential bookmarks. All the websites you see above got deleted. If I get a hankering to see what they're saying, I'll have to type in the URL manually. I'm pretty happy with my compromise.