An experiment: I'm going dark

[Aaron Stroud]

I've decided to take drastic measures to become productive.

I'm turning my internet connection off.

You see, my life is very busy. I have made progress in recent years. GTD has helped me keep track of my many obligations and I don't procrastinate as much as I use to. However, I still seem to fritter what little free time I have.

So I am disconnecting from the internet for one week. My absence may be longer; I am going to do whatever it takes to finish the numerous writing projects cluttering my "on deck" folder.

Hopefully, this change will result in increased productivity in-front of the screen. And when I return, I will limit my online activities (newsreader, email, forums, etc) to specific times of the day and may even adopt a five.sentenc.es policy.


I'll be back to fill everyone in on how the experiment works out.

[nusuni]

Good luck with it, hopefully you get your work finished.

[Jen]

I'm eager to hear how this works out for you, Aaron. Might have to do something similar myself, like declaring 1 day a week to be "WiFi-free"...

[chrisgarrett]

I did this without intending to - it does make you more productive, just don't slip into old habits like I have right away

[Aaron Stroud]

Chris, a couple of months ago I did not have internet access. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reap any productivity rewards you did because I didn't have electricity or potable water either. Keeping two generators running (the bigger one was needed for the well), working on the new house, and watching a new baby took most of my time.

[Aaron Stroud]

You can't fight biology. I had the misguided impression that I would suddenly become productive with the internet off-limits. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

I am not a morning person. My regular routine involves a pot of coffee and a review of my newsreader. (Prior to discovering I have sleep apnea, my morning routine involved killer headaches, a pounding heart (w/ rushes of adrenaline), 1-2 pots of coffee black and thick enough to pass for oil, and a lot of time reading at the computer.)

You can't deny the reality of your life. I'm a stay at home dad. My days are filled with chasing my young daughter (another's on the way) and keeping the house in order. Naps never occur when I'm creative, and so my quiet productive time is limited to evenings and the night. I've had to learn to jot down ideas as they come to me.

Shutting off the internet is difficult. I have a confession; I broke my resolution early on. I have an excuse. My wife needed some pictures scanned and emailed. Naturally, I snuck a peak at my own email. It's a good thing I did, because I'd won an autographed book, but still needed to reply.

Well, I quickly rationalized further lapses over the next couple of days. First, I compromised by checking my email, you know, just encase I win another book. Then, I returned to my old morning newsreader routine with one twist: I would only check for new articles when I first woke up and I would close the newsreader for the rest of the day.

On the bright side, I did get some writing done. I had fewer distractions at the computer and so I buckled down did some writing. Here's what I'm going to do going forward.

• I'm going to rein in my newsfeed problem. I'll still wake up with my newsreader and coffee, but I'll close it by noon.
• I'll keep my email open whenever I'm not actively writing (or forcing myself to start). My spare time comes in little chunks throughout the day, so I can't afford to let email pile up. However, my free time in the evenings and at night is too valuable to let email intrude, so I'm going to shut it down in the evenings.
• I'm going to remind myself that the internet is not the problem---I am the problem. I'm the one choosing to be distracted and setting myself up for failure. By removing the opportunities for distraction, I'm forcing myself to acknowledge when I'm procrastinating. Once I've done that, I usually dig in.
• I'll probably include the couple of forums I frequent in my morning activities. I fear I'd lose too much time if I let them encroach on my evenings.

Any thoughts? Do you have any secrets, routines, or tricks for blocking out distractions? Are there any Getting Things Done adherents out there? I've found David Allen's system immensely useful for keeping track of projects and clearing my mind of "to do" distractions.

[Jen]

• I'm going to remind myself that the internet is not the problem---I am the problem.
  I'm the one choosing to be distracted...

Printing out this paragraph of yours, Aaron, and pinning it up on my office wall...
Right now, before I get distracted!

[Mohsin]

You can't fight biology. I had the misguided impression that I would suddenly become productive with the internet off-limits. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

I am not a morning person. My regular routine involves a pot of coffee and a review of my newsreader. (Prior to discovering I have sleep apnea, my morning routine involved killer headaches, a pounding heart (w/ rushes of adrenaline), 1-2 pots of coffee black and thick enough to pass for oil, and a lot of time reading at the computer.)

You can't deny the reality of your life. I'm a stay at home dad. My days are filled with chasing my young daughter (another's on the way) and keeping the house in order. Naps never occur when I'm creative, and so my quiet productive time is limited to evenings and the night. I've had to learn to jot down ideas as they come to me.

Shutting off the internet is difficult. I have a confession; I broke my resolution early on. I have an excuse. My wife needed some pictures scanned and emailed. Naturally, I snuck a peak at my own email. It's a good thing I did, because I'd won an autographed book, but still needed to reply.

Well, I quickly rationalized further lapses over the next couple of days. First, I compromised by checking my email, you know, just encase I win another book. Then, I returned to my old morning newsreader routine with one twist: I would only check for new articles when I first woke up and I would close the newsreader for the rest of the day.

On the bright side, I did get some writing done. I had fewer distractions at the computer and so I buckled down did some writing. Here's what I'm going to do going forward.

• I'm going to rein in my newsfeed problem. I'll still wake up with my newsreader and coffee, but I'll close it by noon.
• I'll keep my email open whenever I'm not actively writing (or forcing myself to start). My spare time comes in little chunks throughout the day, so I can't afford to let email pile up. However, my free time in the evenings and at night is too valuable to let email intrude, so I'm going to shut it down in the evenings.
• I'm going to remind myself that the internet is not the problem---I am the problem. I'm the one choosing to be distracted and setting myself up for failure. By removing the opportunities for distraction, I'm forcing myself to acknowledge when I'm procrastinating. Once I've done that, I usually dig in.
• I'll probably include the couple of forums I frequent in my morning activities. I fear I'd lose too much time if I let them encroach on my evenings.

Any thoughts? Do you have any secrets, routines, or tricks for blocking out distractions? Are there any Getting Things Done adherents out there? I've found David Allen's system immensely useful for keeping track of projects and clearing my mind of "to do" distractions.

I am a worshiper of Daivd Allen's GTD! In fact I am going to do a review of GTD on my blog and recommend it to my readers after I am done reading it (only about 5 percent to go).