Time for another “No Internet” challenge?

For those of you that have been reading my blog for a long time, you know that I once did a “no internet” challenge back around month 6 of trying to achieve Financial Independence / FIRE. For those of you who are newbs, welcome, and thank you for coming!

Back when I did the challenge in 2019, I wrote this post about it before I started, this one during (yes, blogging was an exception to my no internet rule), and this one after to reflect on the experience.

Well…I’m thinking of doing it AGAIN!

To be clear, I did have a long list of exceptions to the “No Internet” rule. I’m thinking I will change the name of this challenge to “Limited Internet Month” or “No Frivolous Internet Month!”. That said, I did spend WAYYYY less time surfing. Why? So that I could spend more time surfing! Just kidding…there were a number of reasons I decided to do it. But honestly it’s too cold to surf in Canada right now.

Why did I attempt this insanity?

There are plenty of reasons. The main reason for me was because I wanted to impact my productivity in a positive way, focus on my relatively new journey to financial independence, read more, and pursue hobbies that I had been neglecting that did not involve internetting. Another reason is because I find myself MINDLESSLY scrolling/swiping/clicking for extended periods of time, not even realizing that my time is passing by like the wind on the bow of a ship in the Atlantic (i.e. quickly. If you know, you know).

What was the outcome of the No Internet Month challenge?

As I mentioned in my wrap-up post, I found it very beneficial! I was more productive in advancing my path to FIRE (which was the original driver for doing it). I also got more reading done, got into the kitchen more, worked on my French using Duolingo, and worked on some fun hobbies that I had not touched in a long time!

If I do a “No Frivolous Internet Month!” (NFIM) challenge, I would like to set some goals. What will I spend ALLLLL my extra time on? There is so much I want to do, it’s hard to narrow it down. However, top of my list would be:

1. 1. Being Healthy. Spend more time focusing on food prep, healthy eating, and moving my body. I’m following a new healthy lifestyle program that is 8 weeks long – however, I’ve fallen off the wagon a few times due to the hubub of life.
   2. Family & Friends. Do more stuff with my boy M that we’ve been putting off (I am talking about you, extremely late library book). Set up a lunch or coffee date with a friend. Go on an ACTUAL date night with Hubs (vs. just saying “Let’s have a date night!!” week after week, and never doing it). Visit/do activities with my parents. They live 1.5 hours away, but perhaps by being more productive through the week, I could free up time for a weekend visit.
   3. Declutter. I need to rejuvenate my commitment to the Declutter 365 challenge which I wrote about previously.
   4. Read Every Day. I need to finish my book club book as a priority. Then, look to the stack of unread books and spend some time reading every day.
   5. To Dos. I have a neglected list of these that requires some attention. Maybe I can knock a few off during the NFIM challenge.
   6. Financial Independence activities. Review what I can do to reduce spending, increase income, and increase savings to invest. A thorough review is in order!

I probably need to get a bit more specific on each of these by turning them into SMART goals, and block time out on my calendar. That will be the next step before I start the NFIM challenge.

So do I start the challenge in the middle of October? Do I wait until November 1st? If I wait until November, I only have to do it for 30 days, instead of 31….tempting. hehe. But really I’m kinda gung-ho to start soon. Maybe I’ll post an update on this sometime in the future.

Anyway, hopefully you found this post entertaining, if not inspiring. Thanks for stopping by!