I woke up today and yet again spent the first hour of the morning in bed, scrolling my phone. Almost like I was searching for a reason to get out of bed or like I'm unable to start my day without my regular quick dopamine fix.

I, like many people I'm sure, am losing a great deal of my time to endless scrolling. I'm watching people live the lives I want through a screen instead of actually living that life.

The hours I spend on my phone could be spent, learning new things, going out to see friends, writing to loved ones, moving my body. Instead, they are spent mindlessly tapping away at a small box.

Project 'Reverse the Rot' is my mission to take back my life. To improve my brain health, boost creativity and actually live the life I want to live. 

How am I going to do this? Well in stages.. I haven't quite figured out the stages yet.. but I know where I'm starting. This week I plan to:

• delete instagram app, only use it on my computer
• no phone or YouTube whilst eating
• send five postcards 
• write daily blog posts 
• explore Oxfords museums like a tourist, maybe even learn something new
• go on 'no phone' walks/bike ride? 
• finish reading my book - Diary of a CEO
  
  

My long term goals that reversing my brain rot could help me accomplish? 

• have the brain capacity to finally learn a new language
• be well read
• create art that is unique and holds value
  
• become a good writer
• finally learn a musical instrument 
• get past my limiting expectations and ideas about who I am
• to always live life to the fullest, experience new things and never look back on how I spent my time on this planet with regret
  

I have ambitious goals for my art. I want to one day illustrate a New Yorker cover. I'm certainly not going to get there whilst spending 1-2 hours each day scrolling instagram. 

So today, as soon as I thought of this project, I jumped into action. I went to the Ashmolean, spent two hours reading about ancient artefacts. There was lots of interesting information, which on the most part, I have already forgotten - but hopefully it slightly chipped away at the rot inside my skull?

I also sat and sketched some of the statues. Stopping after a headache developed - but I was happy with the sketches and it helped me find inspiration for possible postcards.

I bought five postcards and wrote all five, yet to send, that will be on tomorrow's itinerary. The process of writing them was much more enjoyable than sending a message and I know that it'll make the recipients happier than a WhatsApp message will.

I deleted the instagram app. I have taken out my phone multiple times, as if to open instagram, only to find it wasn't there. It shows how many times through out the day I mindlessly open it out of habit. All in all, a successful first day and I feel miles better than I did this morning.

I hope this daily blog will hold me accountable to these goals and enable me to share the journey with you. I'm going to treat it a bit like a journal. I'm not going to overthink what I write, or even polish it too much. Expect, typos and grammar mistakes that only a human could make - ai could never. What you read will be the musings from my perfectly-imperfect brain.