A Few Technology Goals

A lot of the goals I've made this year have focused on improving my diet and exercise habits. Although I've also made a few goals about stress-reduction, as the end of the year is drawing closer, I've realized that this is an area where I could still stand to make some improvements. I was thinking about which things in my life cause me to feel stressed and which things help me to feel relaxed. In thinking about this, I've come to the conclusion that my i-phone is contributing both positively and negatively to my health, and my use of it is an area where I could make some changes.

First the positive: My i-phone allows me to download and store a ton of music. I love listening to music when I'm walking, and if I have music that I'm excited to listen to, I'm a lot more likely to walk than I am to take the bus. Extra exercise-yay! Having excellent work-out music downloaded also keeps my time at the gym fun, and keeps me feeling energetic and motivated. But I often wait until I am really sick of the music I have to download more. Why? This must be an area where I'm just really, really lazy. I have a music subscription service through Rhapsody, so I'm already paying for access to lots of music, but I'm not using it nearly as much as I could. Music is one of the things that brings me the most joy in life, and I think it would be great to keep music that I like more present in my life. Goal #48: download new music at least once a month.

Now the negative: I use my i-phone to check my work email a lot, and at times I'd say almost compulsively; when I'm waiting for the bus, when I'm waiting at a restaurant or a coffee shop, when I'm laying in bed at night. Ugh. Having access to my work email via my phone is great when I'm traveling and don't have regular access to a computer, but in my daily life, it just feels like a time and energy suck. I think the best solution is to remove the app I use to check my work email, which is Goal#49 (and is now done!).

The other way my i-phone is contributing negatively to my life is that it is putting a lot of stress on my hands and wrists- especially when I look at my phone in bed. There have actually been times that my hands have fallen asleep when I am doing this, and I know that can't be good. Goal#50 is to limit the amount of time I spend looking at my i-phone in bed to 10 minutes per night (ideally, I'd like to stop doing this altogether, but this seems like a more realistic goal for now).
I can't believe the year is almost over!! Only 2 more goals to go...