The Cold Turkey Experiment

So, I’ve found that I may be able to discontinue the Cold Turkey Experiment. (Where I go a whole 6 days without any social media/blogs/email). For the most part I’m going to more casually keep to this but I feel I’ve mostly created a habit where I don’t have to block myself from sites with the site-blocking software. I’ve broken the addicted feeling and have a higher level of self control now. (I think.) If it starts to get out of hand again, I’ll go back to the blocking software.

Some may have noticed I’ve popped on to Facebook occasionally during the week. That’s because I had to de-activate cold turkey because I was doing something that required CaptCha and it must be tied to Google or something because I wasn’t able to use it because of my Cold Turkey. (the images didn’t show up at all, so there were sites I needed that I couldn’t use without de-activating Cold Turkey. I’d gotten a little overzealous in which sites I blocked.)

However, I’ve found that I neither have the time nor the desire to be in email all the time or on social media all the time. I’m going to get rid of my automated email responses that lets people know I only check emails on Saturdays. I get that might annoy people.

Nobody has said they are annoyed, but apparently there is a whole legion of “4 Hour Workweek” haters who think Ferriss is a complete douche for his autoresponders. I personally feel it’s polite, like an answering machine message, to let people know you aren’t home but that you will reply to them. i.e. I’m not checking my emails every day… I don’t want you to feel I’m ignoring you.

I don’t want people wondering why they haven’t heard from me. At the same time, there are situations in which autoresponders are not practical. So I guess the only thing to be done is just answer email when I answer it and apologize if someone feels slighted by the fact that I took nearly a week to respond. Eventually (if it hasn’t happened already), those I communicate somewhat regularly with, will all know I am not chained to my email, and people emailing me for the first time will probably just assume I am not at their beck and call. I don’t know them. I just hate how social media and email has created this environment in which we feel total strangers somehow own our time and have rights to demand immediate response. If I were running a customer service business it would be different, but I’m not.