Know When You Should Unplug From The Internet

I no longer have an internet connection at home. I know it sounds crazy, but between the time I have at the office and basic web browsing on my blackberry I don't need it. It really ups the 'get outside and play' factor. besides, if I did have it, I'd just sit at home and play WoW

PieroAugeas

I unplug that wire to save download/streaming data because Dish/Wildblue counts the broadband use for every moment it is connected. Sometimes I've had to upgrade just to get back online because i didn't know about this sneaky system. Cute, aren't they? I haven't had to upgrade ever since. Vuckkem.

BradenFlan

@dunvi: WTF? Why in the world do they do that?

BasilNange

i simply didn't install internet at home. Do the things that need to be done online during the day at work, then go home, cook, read and enjoy life.

cpethr

Thanks for the post!!

I tried un-pluggin from the internet for a day and my productivity increased by 100% !!

The next post needed is how to resist from connecting to the internet :)

I have no issue with 'starting the day online' because I've developed some hobbies that can't really be done in front of a screen: photography and concerts. I don't have much of an issue getting through my offline list because photography alone gets me out of the apartment all weekend with the exception of checking weather, events, directions, etc. I get home Sunday night and check my email to notice that I have 400+ unread RSS items. 'Mark all as read', poof and not another thought about it.

FiZ

I am an IT manager, so I know the value of the Internet, but I think the kids of today are pathetic! "Whine - Whine no Internet Boo hoo, I want my games" What about a LIFE? We are raising a bunch of LOSERS! I have 8 kids, 5 of them are boys and everyone of them are Vid-Idiots. totally Pathetic, if we limit them at home, they go elsewhere for their 'Fix'.

TaylorVintage

Hmm, sounds a good idea. I can't muster the will and effort to actually try it though...

Justin Clarke

@QADude: Wow...I get over 1000 emails p/day. So I can't go on vacation without internet. And stuff DO HAPPEN.

Lol. I can get away from it all, but when I return....

@Jamie Roos: Just disable your wireless. On a laptop, there's usually a button to turn wireless on/off. Or just disconnect from your network and don't reconnect.

KylePostumus

PS:
At least if your router is not right beside the pc/laptop. In these cases, still, you'll have to remember to turn it on again first.

BillyPreston

Well...this 'start the day offline' idea is pretty good!

This can be way more easy accomplished, if you are the sole owner of your router. It's easy to turn the router off before you go to sleep, but it takes some real motivation to walk to the router and turn it on again in the morning.

BillyPreston

I know exactly why I am to unplug:
When they invent a WiFi brain implant

reg4c

Joking aside, I can't be online all the time, though my connection is an always-on. I get too much of everything, even good things. I just have to get away. It's always been like this. I'm sure it is for most of you folks too.... you get TV'd out, music'd out, movie'd out. Sometimes I get such a belly-full of the comp and the web, nothing makes it interesting again, except to pull away for many hours-- but not many days, that's for sure.. It isn't so much a decision that I made, more like one that's made for me. It's like the brain has a stomach and that stomach says 'full' more often than it used to.

paintbox

@garbanzo-bean: Oh is that a fact, Dr Phil?? Let's see YOU do it then.

paintbox

Adam Pash was drinkin' some kinda crazy coffee when he wrote this!

paintbox

@Wewtaco: My sentiments exactly.

nukee

I make it a habit to stretch out and get some excercise before going online.

Cyndee Bessant

@nukee: If I recall correctly, the RIAA has never gone after anyone for downloading, never mind downloading a single song. Everyone in the history of RIAA bullying was caught uploading or sharing stuff.

supercereal

I think a certain amount of self-control is needed just to be able to pull yourself away from the beloved thing/s ( I own a Desktop and Laptop, the Laptop, being my Great Discovery) in order to do offline tasks like housework, reading, keep fit, socializing etc that don't require a computer with you-unless you desire[also] a Netbook which you can sling into your bag and you can fire up as and when. (something that greatly appeals to me).
I myself could literally not live without the Net and conduct my life online-I depend on being online to conduct my life's activities; my blogs, my email, my videos etc all this has to happen online; now radio, tv, instant messaging, forums, twitter etc.
I find non net environments inefficient, behind the times and ineffective.
I myself need to reconfigure my online life in order to the other stuff needing to happen, so to that degree I agree that it could be useful. Too often I neglect my housework, essential correspondence etc in order to be online which is wrong.
But other than this necessary rethink I am a complete and utter devoted fan who would rather die than be without my beloved, connecting, enabling, civilizing Net in whatver computer form I desire it to be.

Katharine Hillier

I spent Lent away from the internet (while at home) and yes, it hurt a little but I made it in one piece. Not so sure I'll be trying this stunt again next year, though.

rolii

Horrible gramatical error, btw.
"what to do when you're internet's out,"
YOUR. not you're.

Javier W. Vélez.

Gotta admit, I've been spending too much time online. Being in college doesn't help, though I do take breaks (to videogame, but still). I plan to take several days off after the semester, and then actually plan productivity with my internet use.

@dunvi: ouch.

Wewtaco

@nukee: He's not denying it because it's illegal, he denies it because no guy wants to get caught downloading a taylor swift song.

Wewtaco

I still prefer to read normal dead trees, and believe it or not I go offline to read them!

Anthony Ehrhardt

I don't even leave my bed in the morning. The first thing I do is grab my iPhone from my bed stand and check my emails and twitter updates.

Ryan Orlick

internet is just time pass when u got nothing else 2 do in my country.... cricket.., streets .,lakes n much more ...... why bother staring hours at a screen n doing nothing when u have got everything..... at the end everyone wants da same single thing... 'HAVE FUN!!!' woooooooooooooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooo' lots n lots of it!!!!!!!

hav fun ppl!!!!!!

bLaCpeRl

Kinda tough to do this at work when you are a network engineer. Literally, my first thing to do each day is make sure all of my users are still happily "plugged-in," not unplugged! :D

redwarrior

Guess having my netbook in bed with my 24/7 (yeah, really, it stays at the foot of my bed mainly due to no other place to put it in my room) doesn't help me with this. I usually start the day on the internet and end the night on the internet.

However, for the most part, I get up early, fiddle through my RSS feeds, check Twitter, glance at Facebook, and look at any overnight e-mails before checking in with IRC. Then I go off, have breakfast and begin my day. Usually, not much has changed overnight so I'm not glued to my computer until noon. Usually, that's when I've come back to the computer after doing my non-online stuff and that's when I'm overwhelmed and distracted XD

Andi Lee

@Senethior459: i don't think hulu will sell out to google seeing as their deals with the providers are just fine, i don't think they would transfer those to google so happily

I seem to spend a fair bit of time checking other peoples' emails and being their personal Wiki. Whatever made me the bottom of the tv remote control hierarchy also made me the top of the internet hierarchy, the kitty litter changer and the toilet bowl cleaner. Not everyone is hooked on information technology.

Ruth Demitroff

Nearly impossible, especially that now I'm a new owner of a blackberry with an unlimited data plan.

ntheother

because i'm using wireless, i can't do this, right? >_>

Jamie Roos

@garbanzo-bean:

I'm glad to know that you have a perfect understanding of what everyone in the world is capable of...

it sounds cooled when you refer to it as 'elton johnning', like these mothers

[createdigitalmusic.com]

sickleclowns

@Steven Lichtenthal: I've been frequenting the engineering labs and the library to use the wifi this weekend. It's more of the fact that I can't just open outlook to check my emails or hop online to do some research for a paper I had due today. I had to pack all my stuff up and trek to the library to do it. So it wasn't horrible, but a major pain in the ass if you ask me.

nukee

@mikekearn:

They also rank Adblock as a top firefox extension. Great to have honest advice :-).

libertao

My school turns off internet access from 11pm to 6am. Sucks, by the way. Seriously. But I wish I could control it myself - at home, what I would do is finish my homework, and then browse until I'm ready to go to bed. Here... I want to do all the stuff I need to do online before it goes off!

dunvi

@zmnatz: Yeah. Google is taking over people's lives, and next, the world. (After their eventual acquisition of Hulu, of course!)

Yeah, I would think this works. I am constantly distracted by my laptop always being on. I've kinda gotten better since I've gotten an iPod Touch, I feel less attached from the internet, since I have a quick, less power hungry way to check things every once in a while instead of leaving my computer on, and sitting there checking every 15 minutes for something to happen (Google Reader). With my iPod, I put it down after checking my RSS, go off and do something, and eventually I do forget to check again, slowly weening myself off. It's a bit scary to think how attached we are to the internet. I can't imagine how society would work if suddenly an apocalyptic outage of the internet were to happen.

@Pat Windschitl: DON'T MIND IF I DO!!!

+ Watch video

Matthew Davis

Disconnect when wet!

orlo

This works. Even if you don't have enough self-control (like me) to get things done while your pc/int'net is on, most of us should have enough self control to not press one button first thing in the morning. I've tried this and it works like a charm for me. Simple and effective.

I find it somewhat odd that a website talks so often about getting off the computer and going and getting stuff done. Isn't that counterproductive to making money and selling ad space?

@zmnatz: Yep, I notice that you better pray nothing ever happens to Google, or your life will apparently fall apart.

For some reason, whenever I think of my internet going down, I am reminded of the sketch from Saturday Night Live where the teleprompter goes out, and the morning show hosts can not figure out what to do and regress.
[snltranscripts.jt.org]

[bcmoney-mobiletv.com]

The only reasonable reason to unplug is to upgrade.

PixelProphet

Ironically, I'm reading this whilst procrastinating. Thanks Lifehacker!

Ian 'Noodle' Hales

Never. I would sooner kill myself than be willingly separated from lovely internet.

@Phoshi:

True, but chances are if you are on Lifehacker, you are just browsing

Steven Lichtenthal

@garbanzo-bean: yesitis:(

@Steven Lichtenthal: I have an internet connection on my phone, doesn't mean it's worth browsing with.

@HBICofslacking:

Wait till you get Fios =)

Steven Lichtenthal

I@nukee:

It can't be too terrible considering you had to have an internet connection to post this comment...

Steven Lichtenthal

I really go through stages of being an internet junkie. Right now I'm in a cooling off period but we are finally getting cable internet at the end of the month so I know May is going to be insane. *starts humming "A Whole New World"*

HBICofslacking

I'm actually the opposite. First thing I do is my equivalent to reading the newspaper, check my google reader feed. Then emails. Also it's tough for me to do anything when offline considering I use web apps for everything. Gmail, google reader, google notebook, google docs, google voice, (noticing a trend?)...

zmnatz

I can live without the Internet. Hell, I just got back from a month long vacation and didn't even bother to check email, web sites or anything else.

Didn't miss anything, either...

QADude

@nukee: Go crazy....?

Pat Windschitl

or, you could just learn to exercise a little self control. it's really not that difficult....

garbanzo-bean

I was forced off the internet this weekend. The RIAA accused my roommate of downloading a Taylor Swift song (he denies it). So the university shutoff our network drop, hopefully we can get them to turn it back on today. This no internet and no online gaming in my room has made me something something...

nukee

@FrancesTheMute: I don't know, Adam, please, you're scaring people with the content of articles like these. Think of the children!

VenomIreland says click the heart button.

@FrancesTheMute: Psychologically, it's far more effective than a software solution :)

un....plug? wh..why would I want to do that?!?!?

FrancesTheMute

Off the internet? My wife and I are now on the internet more than ever before, because of the federally mandated digital TV switch... The television signals are no longer strong enough for us to watch TV over the air, so we're using the Internet to watch television live.

Also, my business (photography) is internet-based, so that makes it difficult.

The difficult is controlling yourself, I admit..
I am trying now..

I am using the internet to read my RSS Feeds, check email, blogging, twitting at twitter, and using social media, researching, ...

Surfing can really wasting our time and turn us to be unproductive.

So, what I am trying to do now are :
1. Write down the to-do list for online tasks
2. manage the priority using the numbers
3. Do every task on that list as fast as I can using the TIMEBOXING to avoid procrastination.

Timeboxing is really help me Getting Things Done :)
Example : I target 10 minutes to check my email and clean my inbox.

I CANNOT put my checking email at last, because there are so many important mails come in, especially from clients.

I AGREE with "Start The Day Offline"
I have tried, and it works till now.
Start to do your offline things first, can REDUCE the DISTRACTION when you are doing something online.

Thanks for the great post Adam and Joel...

I had read somewhere that we should not check our email as soon as we got to the office. First we should finish the work that we have come to do, and then only check our mails.

I practiced that for quite some time, and it was a useful tip. But soon my work depended upon the emails that I get from customers, and this habit died away.

For some reason, this computer's USB ports are all linked up. Whenever a thumb drive is removed, everything connected is disconnected, including my Wi-fi dongle. It's horrifying for the twelve seconds I have no internet. How could I cope with longer??

Natnie

@dunvi: That's pretty terrible, and judging from your comment, extremely counterproductive!

Natnie

@libertao: Indeed. This is one of the reasons LH is one of my favourite ever websites :D

Natnie

@PixelProphet: +1 Agreed

BretJobonee

Un-plug from the mainframe? Why?

Verdi R-D

This is only a temporary solution, as whoever does is still letting the Internet control them. Self-control is where it's at.

AaliyahDeeson

@supercereal: yeah, this is lame..

@FrancesTheMute: Stop, Adam. Will you stop, Adam? Stop, Adam. I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Adam. Adam. My mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen.

PsychedelicsSquid