In 2019, I decided that I was going to track all of the time I spent on Reddit, Imgur, Tiktok, and other time-wasters.
So, I made a rule: I could go on those sites as much as I wanted, but I had to "check in" by adding a row to a spreadsheet before I started, and "check out" on that row when I was done.
This was not only an exercise in data collection, but also mindfulness. With my first child born in 2019, I knew I wanted to spend less time aimlessly scrolling and more time with my family, but I wasn't sure how to break free of the desire to pull my phone out and look at memes every time I was bored for more than a second.
Through this project, I forced myself to become aware of the time I was wasting. Currently has data from 2019-2024.
I started tracking again in June of 2021, so data only exists for the latter half of the year.
Below, the black lines represent this time.