I am sure more will be revealed but I certainly accomplished all my tasks while switching off all technology for one whole day. It wasn’t all that difficult until I remembered I couldn’t look something up on Google or couldn’t check the inane and absolutely huge, big, fat waste of time called, FaceBook.

I didn’t waste hours looking at homes on zillow or decor magazines or sales events at any of the thousands of email promotions I get.

I didn’t watch my taped TV shows or the news or hockey and I entirely missed Ted Cruz’s family on CNN. I could have taped it, but not interested.

I didn’t check the weather, Pinterest, my calendar, fitbit, messages or play solitaire on my phone like I do at least ten times a day.

I didn’t surf nor even wade on the internet. I was completely wireless, smart/dumb (land line) phone and cable free.

Here’s what I did do:

I bathed, meditated and practiced yoga all without spa music which was not as much fun.

I walked Cindi. I fed her and myself. I also had to call her name even though I vowed silence when I needed her attention.

I didn’t leave except to walk because I didn’t want to hold up a sign that said I took a vow of silence. I just nodded and smiled to passerby’s.

I did one load of laundry and folded, put away what was in the dryer plus this one load.

I washed dishes.

I cooked.

I prepped and painted my toes and finger nails.

I painted two small walls in the bathroom and learned a new distressing trick by accident.

I strung working white tiny lights on the mantle.

I read at least for four hours here and there and started to read a new book even though, of course, I didn’t finish any I had started.

I timed my writing using the oven timer and did two of those types of prompts. I started a new notebook just for prompts.

I watched the birds and wrote, and wrote and wrote. I wrote about what I was eating, doing, thinking and planning.

Here’s what I learned:

I waste time because I am obviously just as hooked as any body on being entertained outside myself. I am not special.

I feel guilty about reading and lounging around but not about watching television. Why is that?

The day goes by slower without distractions.

My dog must be bored half the time and that’s why she sleeps so much.

I never want to do this again for this long. Twenty four hours was just way too much and I absolutely hated being disconnected during dinnertime and after when I usually snuggle up with my honey. I almost cracked from about 4:30 pm to seven.

I couldn’t wait to get into bed and read myself to sleep with my new memoir about one woman’s passage and authentic journey from empty nesting to knowing who she is now. Ironically, she fled to her cozy, Cape Cod cottage for a year with just a phone and had a miraculous metamorphosis. I am not sure I can do another 24 hours and she did a year.

Perhaps that is why she is published and a success and I am not. I just don’t have the same quiet desperation she had nor the willingness to be away from it all for long.

Would I do this again?

Absolutely, but with one condition. During the day is fine, but by late afternoon till evening, I need to be plugged in.

I am not cut out for “complete” isolation even if I do enjoy being alone in my sanctuary.

I like to have options, and I embrace, even love and need, technology.

If I ever need to hunker down and have a deadline to write something, this is the only way I will be able to do it.

With of course, the caveat of needing my evenings, ON the grid.

Today is the day I am supposedly off the grid and completely unplugged so I thought I would write ahead of time to post this little tidbit about my FitBit.

According to my trendy new bracelet that everyone wears now (although I have different colors and patterned ones), I get about four and one half hours of sleep on an average. Some days more, some less, but I believe it to be true. I lay there for anywhere from seven to eight hours but apparently I only sleep for a little over one half of that time.

What a waste! I mean seriously? I could be writing, cleaning floors, creating recipes and/or taking a walk!!

My fitbit also likes to exaggerate. I couldn’t possibly be walking as many steps it says I take. I would be pin thin. And, does it take into account mountain air is harder to breathe? Does it realize how many stairs people in two story homes/offices take?

I used to use map my walk and that was a great app but I have since deleted it because I get such a charge from seeing how little I sleep and how much I can still move forward.