And it's August...

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONTH EVERYONE!!  Okay, now we can move on...

So today is day one of operation Facebook Phase Out.  It's 8 AM and I haven't been on Facebook yet today. I answered email, wrote some replies to my CFA blog, deleted a few more, let's call them colorful, comments that came in about the same blog and am now writing this. But no Facebook, not yet. I will log on to post this blog when it's complete, spend a brief amount of time catching up with people then log off again until this evening when I have a fabulous picture of the day to post.

I know a lot of you are thinking, it's 8 AM. How big of a deal is this really? Well, by this point in time I have usually been on Facebook for a few hours. Not constantly. But it's one of the first things I do in the morning and I check and recheck pretty consistently from there on out. I made some changes to help reinforce my phase out. I deleted bookmarks off of my phone, I moved the Facebook app icon into a sub-folder so I wouldn't just press it by habit. I put my phone in my purse on the drive in to work (Brent drives not me) instead of keeping it out. I know from when I quit smoking that it's the automatic things that do you in. You can only consciously hold the thought of change for so long and then BOOM! you find yourself clicking the icon that you always click and you are back online.

So today after I post this and make a sweep of Facebook (which will be done with a timer set so I have a physical reminder to log back off) I will do a variety of things. I will do some housework, I will go to the gym, I will go to the grocery store, I am hoping to get a short story written and I will read. That's the plan anyway. But I would guess what I will do most of the day is hold my hands together and force myself to think of other things besides "I wonder what everyone online is doing?" Breaking any habit is hard. I know this. Breaking one that has been a feedback loop of contact will be even harder for me. But I also know that I quit smoking 20+ years ago with another smoker in the house and if I can do that, I can do anything.

Nicotine or Facebook? Which is the more addictive? I am betting it was nicotine...I hope I am right!

Okay, I promise that every blog over the next few days will not just be a timer of how long it's been since I last Facebooked.  Just wanted to put it out there today that I did start like I said I would. Oh and to remind you all that IT'S BIRTHDAY MONTH!  Woot!!