Alright, today I’m digging into my own messy Virgo habits, specifically how I practically live in my Messages app and the constant overthinking that goes with it. Felt like it was time for a “Weekly Fix” session. Here’s how it went down.
The Problem Snuck Up On Me
So Tuesday morning, I finally stopped ignoring the notification bubble count on my MSN. It wasn’t pretty. Hundreds of unread messages across group chats, some days old. My brain immediately went into classic Virgo panic mode: “What if someone needed something and I missed it?” “What if I offended someone by not replying?” Classic overthinking spiral. Plus, my fingers kept automatically opening the app every spare minute, just scrolling pointlessly. Total energy drain. Felt chaotic, felt avoidable.
What I Actually Tried (Spoiler: Failed First)
My initial grand plan? Simple: “I’ll just check MSN twice a day, morning and evening, and reply to everything.” Yeah, right. Failed spectacularly by Wednesday lunch. Why?
- Urgency Trap: Saw a work group chat buzzing during my “off” morning time. Ignored it… for like 20 minutes. Then caved. Felt physically tense trying not to check. Anxiety kicked in big time.
- Mindless Scrolling: Even when I did open it for a “quick reply,” I’d inevitably get sucked into scrolling back through history on like three different chats, looking for context that didn’t matter. Wasted 15 minutes easy.
- Reply Paralysis: Found a message from Monday asking for my opinion on something minor. Spent ages crafting a “perfect” response because, well, Virgo standards. It was ridiculous.
Basically, my “simple fix” ignored how wired my brain gets about communication and the sheer habit strength of that damn app.
The Adjustments That Sorta Worked
Okay, needed a reality check by Thursday. Ditched the “reply to everything” tyranny. Focused on managing the habit and the anxiety instead.
- Silence is Golden (Kinda): First, I turned off notifications for every single non-essential group. Family chat? Off. Hobby groups? Off. Only left alerts on for 1:1 chats and the single critical work group. The constant buzzing stopping helped my shoulders drop a few inches instantly.
- Timebox My Messiness: I blocked out three specific times on my calendar: 15 mins after morning coffee, 20 mins after lunch, 15 mins before wrapping up work. That’s MSN Time. Outside those windows? The app icon got moved off my home screen. Outta sight, outta frantic mind.
- Got Ruthless with Clearing: During those MSN slots, I scanned for actual things needing me specifically. Questions directly for me? Dealt with quick. Info dumps? Read or skimmed, then marked the whole chat as read. Zero friggin guilt. Group chat spiralling into random memes? Marked as read without scrolling back. Liberating!
- Good Enough Replies FTW: Forced myself to send responses faster, even if they weren’t perfectly phrased masterpieces. Emojis became my friend for quick acknowledgments. “Got it!” “Thanks!” “Thinking on it!” Simple. Effective. Less angst.
End of Week Status? Progress, Not Perfection.
Is my MSN zen now? Hell no. Old habits are sneaky. Caught myself grabbing the phone a couple of times outside a slot. Found one unread message from Friday evening I only cleared Saturday morning. But here’s the win:
- The constant background anxiety about “missing something” is way lower. The notification silence helps a ton.
- I reclaimed stupid chunks of time previously lost to pointless scrolling. Maybe an hour total? Feels huge.
- My replies aren’t draining me as much mentally. Letting go of “perfect” felt scary at first, but freeing now.
Virgo tendencies towards overcommunication and perfectionism in messaging are a real thing. The “fix” isn’t about flipping a switch; it’s about building dumb little guardrails around your messy human habits. This week’s rails helped. Gonna tweak ’em again next week and keep grinding it down. Onwards.
