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One of the problems with having no electronic distractions in the house is figuring out what to do with all the rediscovered free time. The experience is like going back in time to the 1970’s when radio and broadcast television were the only electronic stuff available. So what do you do? (Side question: do you remember having free time in the 1970’s?)
Go Out
A nice way to get accustomed to a quiet house is to avoid it as much as possible. 
At first, I found myself going out more than before I turned everything off. After all, I had time to have dinner with friends, go to concerts, or walk to a coffee shop a mile away. That was quite a difference from checking email, seeing who was on IM, reading CNN.com, and so on.
Read
Unfortunately, I’m not independently wealthy. So, my budget showed the stress of coffee shops, restaurants, book stores and so on. Plus, my already-large pile of books and magazines grew larger from visits to Macs Backs, Appletree, and Joseph Beth. So it was time to start reading. Seriously start reading, that is…
Previously, a book or two a month was a reasonable pace. Now, a book a week is reasonable and two is likely. Magazines fill in little spaces of time where a book isn’t practical because I don’t have enough time to get immersed or read an entire chapter.
Write
Of course, with all this new information hitting my brain, I have fancy ideas about all kinds of stuff. At first, writing was a way to preserve ideas so that I could Google the ideas and find out who had already thought about this stuff. This started to change after a few weeks. By mid-June, my writing was becoming more focused. It began to become more ‘coherent’ as I got more down onto paper.
Maybe a better way to put it is that at first I was capturing ‘ah-ha’ ideas for future consideration. But as I got more onto paper, the ‘ah-ha’ ideas grew more complex. Mini-essays started to emerge, inspired by what I was reading and by the patterns of ‘ah-ha’ ideas I collected.
Get Healthy
I think I’m going to write about this one in more detail in the future, but it’s worth mentioning now: a side-effect of the silence is unhealthy habits stand out. If you read my last entry about The Force of Habit, you’ll understand what I’m pointing towards here. Both exercise and eating healthy suddenly became easier because I had the ’space’ in my schedule to address these needs without distraction or competition.
…and thanks
Finally, let me apologize for a post that reads a little like a ‘what I did this summer’ essay. Hopefully it was enjoyable and gave you something to think about…at least something more than the idea that I might be slowly transforming into a Luddite. Thanks!
