How do you limit board time?

[HeatherH]

OK, wondering here -

What do y'all do to limit/monitor you time on the boards? (It's almost 11 CST, I've had waaaaay too much Diet Coke tonight, and should have been in bed an hour ago.)

What works?

I would post a poll, but I don't know how to do that yet, then I'd spend yet ANOTHER hour figuring it out. . .and. . . well. . . you get my picture! :(

[gardenschooler]

Mine are none of the above, so I didn't vote. What I do is pretty simple, but really the only way that I can have my cake and eat it, too. I have one rule, and it works very well for me. I follow it 99.9% of the time.

I don't get on the board until the kids are in bed at night.

On school mornings, I have my coffee and check e-mail and do some fiddling with my Home School Tracker (which is to me what video games are to other people!). I look up anything that is relevant to our school day - a poem, a speech, etc.

Then we get on with our day. At night, I have unlimited time. Kids go to bed at a decent hour, and I like to stay up late. I have oodles of time. I also can't concentrate on lesson planning or any kind of research at night, so surfing the board, blogging, or reading blogs are about all I'm up for that late.

The times that I've broken my rule, my life has descended into chaos. I was sharply reminded of this when this board was brand new, and I was cheating - gettting on Saturday afternoon, even Monday morning! :eek: Messed up my whole day. And my attitude.

Because I have NO self-control, I have to do all or nothing. Besides, during our school day, I'm trying to teach the kids, keep the dog from escaping, cook dinner early, do laundry, let the repairman in, answer the phone to get the details of the day in sync w/dh, get some exercise, and plan for the next day. I cannot let myself just lose a few hours on the board.

I can take time to read, to take a nap, or even to watch tv after school. Nothing terrible happens. But if I get on the board, something different happens to me! And if I post and am involved in a post, I'm simply glued to the screen. It's so easy just to sit here....and sit here....and sit here. It's kind of like some moms are with the phone - just hypnotizing.

Another advantage to only getting on at night is that I miss most of the 'hot' conversations. Often I will get on and think to myself, "Oh, I am glad I didn't check the board! I would have been all in that topic for hours!" But by then, it's been beaten to death and no one much cares. So I'm not as 'in the moment' - I can just read it and see the conclusion (Let's all agree to disagree, respect each other, or whatever). It helps me be just disengaged enough to not be addicted.

Plus I often don't get responses from my posts until the next day - so it's not keeping me on longer, being in a 'real time' conversation.

I do need to get better about my bedtime, but that's not real likely :rolleyes:. Limiting myself to nights works best here.

[Laura Corin]

I don't get on the board until the kids are in bed at night.


I'm on here during the day - in breaks, or while the boys are completing an exercise - but at 9pm, when they are in bed, I switch off the computer, watch some TV, have a bath, read a book. I do this maybe six nights out of seven. On the seventh, I stay up way too late and wreck my day.

Laura

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have set times I allow myself to be on the computer. While most of my internet time is spent here, I also check e-mail, go to SparksPeople, "go" to the library etc. My computer times are 7:30 - 8:30, 11:00 - 11:15 (snack time/ recess), 10:00 - 11:00 pm. I also do non-internet computer work during those times - managing bills on Quicken and making our school schedule on Outlook are my two major things.

[Tia in Wa]

at first but I think I have it figured out now.
I can play:

1. in the morning before 8:30 (when we start school)
2. after 10:00 while my dc do all the lovely writing in their R&S grammar:D
3. When we are done with school for day (and everything else is done)
4. After dc are in bed and dh is watching something boring on tv.;)

[Amy in Orlando]

None of the above. With few exceptions, I don't check the board until my "stuff" is done for the day. Otherwise, I'd spend all day everyday in my pj's. ;)

[Sandy in Indy]

Sigh. I've spent way too much time here lately. I spend a lot of time at the computer for various reasons and find it really difficult to resist checking to see what's new. And it seems like topics move so fast now... what was on the first page at 8 is page 5 by noon. Guess I don't want to miss anything!

[KristineIN]

I don't limit myself. I have quite a bit of work going on on the computer at once and pop in and out. It's my normal routine. I manage to get everything else done and have a pretty clean house. I just multi-task and am very organized.

Kristine

[JudoMom]

so I need to cut back. I think I'm going to have to limit my time to lunch and after school. If I can't do that, then I'm going to have to cut myself off completely. It's so easy just to pop in to check while I'm waiting for the boys to finish their schoolwork, but that makes me only 1/2-available to answer their questions :o. So, starting next week...I'm cutting back :eek:.

[Jenny in Atl]

Life tends to get in the way... :D