Limiting Electricity Use & a Quick Word on Travel as an Environmentally Conscious Individual

Important and urgent, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, or neither important nor urgent. 

A couple of weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to visit Kyoto with my family. Of many landmarks we stumbled upon, we found ourselves encapsulated with the Saihoji Temple. As a precursor to our visit, my mom encouraged us to read an interview done with a Buddhist priest. His words primarily regarded themes of life and death, but my mind wandered to the work I am doing through A Year of Sustainability. 

These four categories I have listed above are what this priest argues each matter should be sectioned into. To avoid taking away from his original intention, I will use the same example he did: death. If I asked you to classify death, as he did with each reader, many of you would label it as “important but not urgent.” He covered the logic of placing it into “important and urgent” instead. He contended that when we treat death as some far off, untouchable event we risk completely detaching ourselves from it. Oftentimes treating it as an enemy, we struggle to shed our fear of it. 

This message aligns almost perfectly as we consider the climate. Oftentimes we keep “urgent” exclusive to matters with deadlines. Rewiring our brains to accept that things lacking a deadline can be equally as pressing as something possessing one is a difficult thing to do. 

But who said we can’t construct our own deadlines? In my own experience, accountability begins with routine. And more than anything, this routine is a framework. It can be flexible but not optional. For instance, while I imagined this challenge on a monthly basis, I have realized that a looser schedule is a better fit for me. So instead of forcing myself to end the challenge I began in May the second the calendar flipped to June 1st, I allotted myself additional time. 

This leads me to the habit I began with: limiting my electricity use by avoiding charging devices overnight. This was a difficult one because let’s be honest, it totally sucks to wake up with a phone on 15%. And I am slightly ashamed to admit this, but I even found that it could take a toll on my day’s mood. 

Sadly, this unexpected struggle led to exceptions. Well, I have a test tomorrow first period so it is okay if I charge it just for tonight or I had to use my phone late into the night so it only makes sense to plug it in tonight. It turned into many cases of “just for tonight.” But, with the more time I gave myself to trial this new habit, I was able to get a routine. I set an alarm that would go off every night around 9 p.m. As my typical bedtime was 11:00 or 11:30, it gave my phone just enough time to reach full battery. As for other devices, such as my airpods, I would have designated times during the week for their charging time. These habits turned out to be a blessing in disguise, keeping me off of my devices during the later hours of the day. As someone who tends to do work late into the night, I was able to efficiently finish my assignments and get into bed as early as possible. 

Out of complete honesty, I did find this habit hard to maintain during traveling. As I mentioned earlier, I went to Japan this summer. Being out all day and then straight to dinner, I was incapable of finding time during the day to charge my devices. However, after getting back home, I was able to take the habit up again. This showed me that my inability to follow through with it during my travels was not out of laziness or carelessness but instead because of difficult circumstances.  This leads me to one more point: it is okay to give yourself grace. If you shed one habit for a week and feel super guilty about it, remind yourself of how impressive it was that you took up the habit in the first place. If you need a break that is okay, because before you began this challenge, everyday was a break. 

I hope you enjoyed learning about my first habit as much as I loved executing it. Next up: I am eager to present you with my time shopping only second-hand. This is a super special edition, as a good friend of mine will be a guest writer in this publication!