Surfing rules!

Following those close calls, it was obvious that my inner addict was looking for loopholes in my self-imposed rules, and that my internet surfing was helping him along. That was part of the reason for going offline last week.

But, I work from home, and therefore need to send and receive e-mails, and research stuff on the web, which has led me to spend a lot of time online while I'm 'in the office'. Because there is no boss peering over my shoulder, the temptation to surf for random entertaining websites when work gets a bit tedious is very real, and led to my porn addiction becoming as monstrous as it did.

So, taking recent experiences as something to learn from, I have made myself some new rules, which are here for all to see, so there can be no doubt that breaking them again will be a slip.

Rule number 1: Don't stay online. Unless I have a legitimate reason to be surfing, I will go online no more than 3 times during the day to send & receive e-mail, check in at the support board, blog, etc.

Rule number 2: The porn sites are all blocked already, but any 'clean' sites which may include provocative images, text, or any other possible triggers, will be shut down as soon as this becomes apparent. A closer look 'to check it out' will definitely be a slip.

Rule number 3: Any potentially triggering sites will be deleted from my surfing history, not to cover my tracks, but so that I can't go back and find them at a later stage.

I don't expect these to be definitive, and there may well be additions as time goes by, but for now these rules will keep my internet time from wasting time and protect me from potential slips.