Offline-Challenge

Posted 2025-09-01, Updated 2025-09-16

The premise

In the month of September 2025, I am doing an offline challenge!

I want to do this challenge, because I want to see what it could be like. I have no idea, how this would feel, or what changes it would bring. Since the time I got my first own computer, I haven’t spent more than 2 weeks without the internet.

I think I just had enough for some time.

And I want to be bored!

So this is the rule set:

• The phone is used for
  • Messaging, phoning, reading books and “typical” phone stuff
  • BUT NOT browsing the internet
• No alcohol, no cigarettes, no addiction-like behaviours, even if it is reading a book
• Avoid all social media
  • Reddit, derStandard, Instagram, YouTube, hornoxe picdump
• orf.at is allowed
• [added 2025-09-03]Get to bed latest at 00:00, get up at 08:00 latest

Other stuff that might be good:

• [added 2025-09-04] ✨Lunch dates on weekends with friends and self cooked meals✨

The computer, the internet, gaming, connection, etc. has always been so much to me, but i feel like times have changed.

What once was a really nice pastime, if not to say, the only pastime, is now a crutch. I sit in my chair just to keep on opening and closing Reddit and YouTube. Rinse and repeat. And to be honest, this is not how I remember the internet from the 00s. Maybe it’s also different because I’m not a kid anymore, but I think this is only a part of it.

And sure, back then as a kid, it also was a way to exit reality and be fully absorbed in a parallel universe.

But now, I want to build connection. I want to go out. I want to not be stuck inside.

2025-09-02: Boredom and fevers

I am bored. But I am also sick with a fever, so it’s okay. I don’t wanna do anything anyway. However, once the fever subsided, I felt a bit restless. And built this website.

After two days of being sick, I did some cooking. I sat down, while my self-made pizza was in the oven (haven’t done that in ages), and waited. The sheer nothingness is overwhelming. I caught myself multiple times reaching for my phone and wanting to open Instagram, but the app is deleted. On the computer as well, Reddit was clicked multiple times today by accident. What are we supposed to do when doing nothing?

A week ago I walked over to my neighbor, and he was just sitting there. Relaxing, after a long day of work. He didn’t have a drink, he didn’t have his phone, he was just sitting and contemplating. Picking his finger nails free from dirt and just enjoying the sunlight on his skin.

I am in awe.

Today, I realized, that not having a phone 24/7 on us, frees us. It frees us, to do anything with our time. The tasks we have to face in everyday life are not constantly compared to free dopamine injection via our phones anymore.

Let’s see what this will bring. For now, I am bored.

And will watch Digimon: The Movie (2000).

2025-09-03: The urge to look everything up immediately

There is so much stuff, I want to immediately look up, when I think about it. The phone is like an extension to my brain, a resource that can be used whenever and wherever.

Only recently, it occurred to me that whenever an interesting uncertainty is discussed with friends, someone will reach into their pocket, yank out their phone and look up the answer immediately.

And I am unnaturally annoyed by that.

Because, when I am in a nice conversation with somebody and the person takes their attention away from the conversation and focuses on their phone, not only is the magic about the topic lost, but also the flow of communication takes a dent.

I have a strict rule that I won’t google whatever we are talking about, because as mentioned above. But for our personal lives, wouldn’t it make sense to apply this rule as well? Because we should treat ourselves just the way we treat others and want to be treated. And it’s kind of stupid, isn’t it? Because, stuff I actually need or want to look up, I will at some point. But there’s so much stuff I don’t need. And I will still look it up.

Another rule: Sleep, sacred sleep

I have found another addiction-like behaviour:

Wonderful, oh wonderful ̴̰̈́̅͘s̶͇͍̻͚̮̟͑̉̾̉ļ̵͈͇́͑̐͌͝ę̵̖̭̣̭͌͋̇͐͘͠e̵͙̿̀̈́̇̀̔p̶̢̹̰͚͍̊ ̶͔̟̹̰͓̃̿͌̄̂̇.

I really do have a problem, kind of. You see, I am currently not in employment, so I can sleep in every day. This also means, I can stay up as long as I want. This then leads to me not being able to sleep before 4AM.

Which sucks.

And I don’t know what I should make of it. It obviously isn’t the healthiest behaviour, but is it actually unhealthy? I sleep until noon. The reason is either of these:

So, how should I tackle this?

One rule, nothing else: Get to bed latest at 00:00, get up at 08:00 latest

2025-09-04: It worked, it actually worked!

Yesterday, I came up with the rule Get to bed latest at 00:00, get up at 08:00 latest, and it worked! I turned in bed for a long long time, but it was relaxing. I felt like I was 10 years old again. I stretched, I turned, I read comics, I looked at the ceiling, and then I fell asleep.

Okay, it wasn’t that easy. But after getting some hot cocoa, going to the toilet for the third time and chasing the fly out of my room with a red headlight on, I took my pillow, put it to my bed’s foot end, and fell asleep. Woke up for the first time at 07:22 and relaxed until 08:00. And now I am up and happy and good to go.

Will keep you posted!

intermission

It’s great to have you here, my two friends who look up this website once or twice (or more often)… and the whole world who can publicly see my progress. However, the rest of the world is bots. But it’s okay. Because this is my own place on the internet and maybe someday someone will find it and will relax on the green grass.

Eating in 2025

Having food is the best thing ever. One of my teachers used to say “food is the sex of age”. But having food as a millennial, without a screen?! Quite hard, I have to admit. I keep touching my phone, sending and reading messages. It feels… weird, to just look into space and eat. I live by myself, so there’s no one to talk to.

I remember, when I was a kid, we had these lunches, with nine people, arguing, fighting, talking, laughing every day. It was the best thing ever, and I miss it by heart. But there’s no way around it, this situation has to be dealt with.

Thing #1 to try: ✨Lunch dates on weekends with friends and self cooked meals✨

2025-09-05: It worked again, but more meh :)

I am tired and would love to get back to bed. It’s already 8:36, but I feel this surge to just lay back down again. Usually I would have done that… just lay back down and let ̴̰̈́̅͘s̶͇͍̻͚̮̟͑̉̾̉ļ̵͈͇́͑̐͌͝ę̵̖̭̣̭͌͋̇͐͘͠e̵͙̿̀̈́̇̀̔p̶̢̹̰͚͍̊ ̶͔̟̹̰͓̃̿͌̄̂̇., the sibling of d̶̜͓̞̻͔͉̂͑̒̉́e̴̛̞̩̻͎̘͌͛̇͂͋͘̕͝ä̵̰̺̂̆̒̏̔̈́̃̕t̶̻̘̋́̊̀̚ḥ̷̼̝̑̇͑̂̀̏̈̊̐, wash over me until 1 or 2 in the afternoon.

Let’s get some breakfast, aaaaaaaah. Okay, it’s not that bad, and I’m glad that I am finally doing this.

Boredom, but it’s a trap?

I feel bored. Yes. It is, what must be. Today, I also felt a bit sleepy, so I laid down for a quick nap. It turned into a three-hour nap.

It’s one thing to be sleepy and need a nap. But another to is to be bored, then just taking a nap because of no attractive alternatives.

2025-09-06: Healfy

I feel like it’s working! I get up at 8, and that’s just it. There’s no magic to it. It’s just pure determination and routine.

I am redacting that phrase of addiction-like behaviour and change it to habits. Because oversleeping is obviously not an addiction, it’s a habit I have and obviously can change without any problems. For next week, to accommodate an internship, I will have to change up the rule to:

Get to bed latest at 22:00, get up at 06:00 latest

The funny thing about all of this, and I have never ever done this before, is that I also have to follow this rule on weekends. Isn’t it weird, going to bed at 10 in the evening when it’s Saturday? But it’s the healthiest thing. Looking forward to it! :)

I am still using the Internet

So, getting back to an internet-free life. I am not directly internet-free. Of course, I am not using social media and follow all the rules on top. Still, I use my laptop, write this blog, search stuff on there and watch movies. And partly… I think I should do more. Less screen time still.

But it’s good how it is right now. With my sleep I am finding a way back to my old ways, pre-smartphone. I stretch a lot before going to sleep, and until I am asleep you can be sure I have been at my bed’s foot end 3 times.

The gravitational couch — or why your butt wants to sit down

Just came back from buying groceries for the lunch date with friends. Lethargy overcame me and I think we all are pretty used to it by now. Come home, feel lethargic, sit on couch, scroll the web for an hour+. Maybe it’s just because being older than 20 makes you that way.

But I assume, it’s got more to do with not wanting to do tasks right away. For real though, the ease of gaining a free dopamine hit with Instagram, YouTube, etc. is, coming from a biological viewpoint, just so crazy. It’s like play, but with no effort involved. We get feelgood-points for doing literally nothing, by looking at a piece of glass, plastic and silicone. It’s the perfect cheat code that, in my opinion, leads to more lethargy. It may actually exacerbate my ADHD symptoms by a worse extent than not taking medication.

2025-09-07: Time is a resource well spent, if spent mindfully

Something I am a bit scared of since my adolescent years is the weekend. Yes, really! As well as the Summer. It’s a lot of unstructured time.

But yesterday, for the first time in so long, it was different. I went grocery shopping, cooked for my friends, spent time with them and then went on to work on a volunteer project for a museum in Vienna. Got back home to sleep, got up again, went back to the museum, went home, and now I’m here.

Time is a resource well spent, if spent mindfully.

Well, yada yada yada, whatever. Friends-lunch was super cool, and I’m going to make it a weekly happening!

2025-09-09: I could really use a smoke, uuuhhhh I mean, a YouTube or beer right now

After a long day at my internship I came home, and I am craving mindless brain dulling. Who would have thought that working all day in a new job would take all your energy. I am exhausted.

Usually I would just sit down and watch some YouTube. I kind of feel numb and empty and would love to fill that.

Friends fill The Void (tm)

\o/ more soon stay tuned

2025-09-12+13: Breaking habits isn’t easy (duh)

Almost two weeks in, I see some progress! I don’t miss YouTube or Instagram at all. To hell with reels! Admittedly, I would enjoy watching one or two videos by specific YouTubers, but it’s not too bad, and I know that I would want to watch more.

Interim Thoughts

I am bored the heck out of my mind. The hoped for motivation to do all the things is not magically appearing. (duh again) I struggle to get up in the morning and tend to negotiate a new time for my alarm clock. Establishing new routines and habits is not so easy. The time I spend playing The Binding of Isaac - Repentance is high, to say the least. And I watch movies (or South Park)… like every day.

But, the good thing about all of this is that I feel more in charge of how I spend my time. Yes, it’s still hard to limit my time spent on low-cost high-dopamine activities, but at least I am not indulging an AI curated feed non-stop.

Good things about this experiment

• Healthier diet
• No alcohol
  • I go home earlier → better sleep
  • Going drinking without drinking gets boring quickly. Do we actually only go out to get tipsy?
• Phone is hardly used
• Overall less anxiety

2025-09-16: Starting a hard task is not a problem… but ending a fun one.

Be it ADHD or just plain old habit, I think it’s so hard to just be done with something and switch tasks at an appropriate time. Of course, something easy-going as gaming or social media is always going to be more appealing than e.g. doing laundry or working on term papers. And when I started ADHD medication many years ago I hoped that it would get easy. To some degree it helps and makes a difference.

But the best motivator for me personally, and many folk with ADHD, is urgency. Oh, I can do wonders when time is the main pressure point. If there was a big bad evil thing that would empty my bank account if I didn’t scrub my shower squeaky clean by the end of the week, I would start scrubbing on Sunday at 10PM, but with a motivation normally unseen.

However, if there is no too urgent task lined up for the day, my ADHD medication will just do nothing. If whatever I have to do doesn’t have to be done by tomorrow, it won’t be done (except if it actually needs lots of time to finish).

Consume thyne Consumables

A great way to push aside allegedly unpleasant tasks is to distract yourself. Distraction by social media, oversleeping, gaming, writing on this blog, working on a task we shouldn't be working on, etc. When we for once just stop doing these things, everything gets a bit discomforting. At least for me.

The warm dulling blanket of distraction is lifted, and the world gets much more real. Of course, I try to avoid it, why wouldn’t I? In this space, I cannot turn a blind eye to everything. Boredom, restlessness, aimlessness and a few other things emerge without failure. I then actually have to take an honest look at myself, at my current state of mind, and at the way I have been taking care of myself and of my surroundings. It’s so important to just stop and observe, but it’s also scary.

Why am I writing all this?

I want to be distracted. There is this voice, this line of thought in my head, that tries to convince me that to just watch a few reels or few videos. It’s okay, one or two won’t be a problem.

I just don’t want to give in.

It is wild, to just enjoy the empty space and analyze the feelings that emerge. Some of them are common across humankind, I think. Others I have to take a closer look at.

2025-09-23: Men are Bialetti coffee makers w/o pressure valve

There is only one week left of the experiment, and I am not looking forward to finishing. It’s great to not use social media and not drink alcohol, it raises the volume of my depression to a whole new level!

After a few failures and set-backs this week, I have been feeling down. Laying in bed until midday, negative and abusive self-talk, anger. I miss getting sauced with my friends, this always made stuff more bearable.

But it’s also super interesting, isn’t it? I see that social media as well as alcohol serve an important function in our lifes. It distracts, from everything, just for a bit. Recently a few studies found that no level of alcohol is healthy, and that it’s harmful even in very small doses. There also was a study (i mean… there’s a study for everything) that found that having one or two glasses of red wine (it was a french study) actually raised life expectancy, because people seemed to worry less. Now, worry is something I do a lot.

Besides the setbacks I had past week, it could also be that limiting all self-soothing behaviors at once might have something to do with it.

Next step: Exercise

The next step for me to worry less is… Exercise!

Yes, exercise. Boo, boo! Stupid exercise. I know, i know.

A year ago I hurt my knee a bit and I wanted to let it heal, it should be good now. And I always enjoyed running, so let’s get back to it. A good thing about running is that you can do it all by yourself. I don’t have to schedule it every week and then hope for it to actually happen. It’s in a routine, so I will just do it whenever needed. There are no expectations, except for my own.

Other thoughts

In a podcast I listen to (Die Sache mit der Liebe), I heard that single women are happier than single men generally. Single men in their 30s are said to have the highest mortality rate across all groups, due to drugs, accidents and depression. According to them, women tend to do better, because of a tighter knit social net. While they tend to be very open with their feelings to their friends, most men seem to open up only to their partner.

So a generalized male without partner is like a Bialetti coffee maker without pressure valve → Makes coffee, might explode.

Somehow there is are a bunch of Merksätze engrained in our brains and we have to unravel them first. But being me also means reflecting on, and then unraveling expectations, behaviors and dynamics I don’t understand yet. And exercise of course. And meet friends. And and and…