Two weeks in and I'm not missing aimlessly staring at my Facebook account at all. Two weeks in and I charged my phone just two times. Two weeks in and I spent lesss time on the internet than I did in years.

The only rule that has gone down the drain is the email rule. I can't check it only once a day. At the beginning of the month I thought it would be a piece of cake, and unter normal circumstances it would have been a piece of cake. I've never been the kind of person who checks their email five or six times a day, because I don't really need my email account. All would have been allright, but then N@tschool, the online service my college uses as a kind of mailbox, died. 

Our assignments have to be uploaded in N@tschool so our teachers can grade them, but with the system not working, we have to hand all our assignments in through email. Get our assignments back through email. Correct our mistakes and hand it in again, through email. Get our grade, through email...

It's been a long week, but so far I've been able to stick to the rules that don't interfere with college. It's difficult and at some times a bit depressing. Lucky for me my body is going on auto pilot and my subconcious is helping me out. I'm finding more and more ways and tricks to save energy. Here are some little things that have helped me get through this week and that could help you save energy too!

#1: Block your phone

My smartphone is one of the main reasons I started this challenge. I had to charge it every day. Why? Because I spend way too much time playing Candy Crush on it. Not only did I hurt the environment with my Candy Crush addiction, I also killed of way too much brain cells. The problem: every time I picked the thing up to see what time it was, I got distracted by the stupid game. So I put my bus card in my phone case. That way the screen was blocked. Every time I got my cell phone out of its case my buscard fell on the ground. Most annoying thing ever, but it kept me from pointless smart phone use at random moments.

Source

#2: Turn the wifi off

If you're not using your phone while doing this challenge, or at least try to use it as little as possible, you might as well turn the wifi off. It's using a lot of energy for nothing. Believe me, the world is not going to end if you can't be on Whatsapp every ten minutes. It also keeps other internet distractions at bay!

#3: Close your laptop

The second thing using way too much energy in this house is the computer. Or now that I've got my laptop: my laptop. I used to be doing nothing, then think of doing something else, did that and returned to the computer. Meanwhile it had been pointlessly whirring and doing computer things for no reason at all. So if you think if something more awesome to do, turn off the computer, close your laptop and achieve awesomeness. When you're done being awesome, your laptop will still be there for you - with more then enough of its battery left to keep you going for days.

#4: Lights out!

One of the really bad habits I had before doing this challenge is leaving lights on in parts of the house when I went to another room for half an hour. 'I'll be back in a sec, no need to turn the lights off.' Great thinking Envy, great thinking. What does it take to turn the lights off? Playing with the light switch for a second. It may seem stupid, but I bad I'm not the only one who wasted lots and lots of energy on light that served no purpose!

#5: Combine, combine, combine!

Sorry for the male population, but seriously guys, learn to multitask! For example, if you need to do something on the internet and want to get something to drink, do that while the computer is busy coming to life. Have a maximum of two main tabs open and use your blog as a short break from assignments. Grab all the stuff you need to get done and do it all in one room, no short escapes to other rooms, which only leads to distraction and pointless use of light and energy.

And if you really need music to live a normal life, like I do, then go listen to slow playlists on Spotify with relaxing and non-distracting music. You can keep on living your life, but if you multitask and plan your activities in a strategic way, it'll save you time, energy and thus money.

Two weeks down, two to go!

Stay awesome, guys!