Weekly Internet Fast
How often are you on the internet? How many times does your blackberry or computer beep at you in a week? How do you respond? When did you last turn them all off? Could you have a whole day off the internet?
Last week I took a few days away from my computer – away from internet, away from email. [If I had a blackberry I would have put that away too. I am really glad my work doesn't force it on me...especially since I believe they don't actually turn off!]
The first day was hard. I love my computer’s ability to ‘connect me’ into other worlds in a tangible sense. I love pressing send-receive and seeing new emails float into my inbox. I love getting emails…well usually. Maybe I just love that someone is thinking about me / wants my attention?
Yet The second day was great – I really got on with a whole other sort of task! And fun.
Now in my life I suppose I don’t love overflowing inbox and seemingly endless time it takes to respond when I should be doing something else. And I don’t always love those emails that shout at you to get to a particular task NOW. Nor how draining it can be to sit and stare at my screen most of the day.
Yet those negative factors seem to disappear from my memory whenever I get near my computer (or someone’s blackberry)…and then whole hours can disappear in a blur as I sit in front of the screen connected to the internet
…perhapsmy forgetting is my way of reducing the dissonance and justifying my relationship/dependence on the internet?
The two days off made me sensitive to how so much of my daily rhythms were revolving / being impacted around breaks for email check/send and write and maintain less than overflowing inbox. I see I am somewhat of an addict.
Friends have tried to highlight this to me – I rarely watch tv and make all sorts of jokes about it, yet I seem to have no challenge spending whole evenings in front of my computer.
I check email before bed often too. And when I rise.
To be fair a lot of my work tends to involve computer time. Yet taking a step back I would say often my whole day seems a series of internet and computer mediated rituals.
And I want something more.I want to get back to other (and preferred) means of communication as a first, not last resort. I always talk about appropriate use of technology so perhaps this is my way of reminding myself. A computer with the internet seems to have a surprisingly drawing in quality, but not always with the nourishment attached from say, a great conversation.
Maybe this is all an extension of my craving for a life and work less machine and more human in application?
How will I do it?
I tried the general moderation thing but see that I don’t stick to it enough…so I came to the idea of having weekly internet fast in addition to general moderation during my day-day. This is perhaps nothing new – my friend Thomer created an email lock out system to prevent him from checking emails too regularly, to prevent his procrastination a long while ago.
Yet I want something that goes beyond that- An imposed weekly ritual of 25hours of no touch of computer and it’s internet access (and anything else that connects me to internet).
Perhaps you feel not touching the computer itself is going to far, but when was the last time you turned on your computer and resist the urge of checking an email or looking something up online? Well for me I think it was before the internet.
And I think that will hold my weekly attempts for moderation accountable and serve as a physical and mental reminder – that while a machine can operate 24/7 I as a human need rest and reflection time to learn.
A physical switch off is likely to have a huge mental switch off impact. In physically turning off my computer I am saying mentally – turn off!
This rambling post also reflects and capture a thought I am playing with – reducing my dependence/addiction to a particular media/communication vehicle, while respecting and maintaining my love for it…finding a more balanced way to interact and incorporate the internet and computer and machines into my daily work, and in all truth and fairness, to find a more balanced way to incorporate work into my daily life.
A fast is an ancient lesson on taking rest from something, and making room - creating space. In this case, I imagine that the space is where one switches off connection to everything external, and hyper-external, and instead connects back to their internal self, and for me, back to those I love. A weekly reminder of priorities. A weekly reminder of my humaness of it all. And the humaness in me.
Interested in trying this? Either way I am really interested in hearing your own experiences with this concept – and what this musing sparks in you – I invite you to comment below.
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October 2nd, 2006 at 5:18 am
Usually I spend more time in front of a computer than I want to spend. Usually I drink more coffee than I want to drink, too. I justify both vices with the reasoning that when I’m busy it more energy to quit than it would to indulge, and that I don’t have said energy at the time. I promise myself I’ll quit, or cut back, later when I’m out of the woods.
I’ve quit coffee for a month at a time, finding quitting to be much easier than I thought it would be. One or two days of craving and headaches, then freedom. I’ve quit the computer for two or three days straight (ignoring certain crisis periods when I “quit” only because I had much more important things to do). Work always draws me back. Quitting the internet is about the same — one or two days of craving, then freedom.
I want to say that the internet is sufficient, but not necessary. You see that as soon as you stop using it for a few days.
I’ve had some difficult deadlines to hit this week and next. Three major things, all requiring me to sit in front of a computer and skip sleep. A lot of computer time and a lot of coffee. I expect that after this is over I’ll goof off on the internet and drink too much coffee for a while, until I resolve to cut back on those, and then just to get back to where I was before this crunch. That’s how it tends to work with me.
To quit using the computer and internet, I do two things. One is to remind myself that I want, but don’t need, the thing. The other is to put the laptop in a closet. I think that physically turning the machine off and putting it away, like you’d put away any other object or tool you have, is important. Who’s in charge here, anyway? Me? But when it beeps I run to get its power cord, and when it chirps I run to read that new email, and …So I decide that I’m in charge, I turn the machine off, and I put it away like I put a book on the shelf.
For now it’s back to the deadlines, though.
October 2nd, 2006 at 2:30 pm
After a 3 week break from work, computers and internet, I returned to thousands of backed up emails and masses of .pdf’s and other reading. I quickly realized just how exhausting it is – sitting in front of the computer for hours at a time.
Having a regular fast from technology – internet, TV and all other media that focuses us intensely – gives our minds and bodies the opportunity to once again gain some global perspective.
Lift your heads, look around, smell and touch reality. Let go. It’s delicious.
October 2nd, 2006 at 4:17 pm
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October 2nd, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Well said nat…i tend to also be the one who checks his/her mail often…before bed and upon rising…
this blog was so relevant that i have used it in my law assignment blog…thank you
October 2nd, 2006 at 7:05 pm
As part of the ongoing attempt to block my days out so I can focus on specific tasks one at a time, I have somehow trained myself to ignore emails as they come in. I only look at emails 2-3 times in a 24 hour period.
I think it helps a lot with stress management. When I was responding to each email as they come in, I found myself flitting between tasks and rushing to get on top of things as more and more requests pile in.
Now it is more a case of thinking about what needs to be done, priositising these tasks, putting them in my to-do list, and only doing what appears on the list for that day.
Email is like the phone. It will “ring”. But you dont have to answer or deal with the issue immediately. The computer/internet is a conduit to stuff that is work and non-work related. Or it is all work related, just in different degrees LOL.
Is this a matter of cultivating the mental discipline to separate work from non-work – so that you can turn on the computer and surf for fun, or write for fun, without looking at work emails or work-related sites.
Perhaps it is worthwhile looking at tried and tested addiction breaking techniques? Just out of interest…
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:59 am
It almost feels like the response should be silence!
Love
Marge
October 3rd, 2006 at 2:59 am
Natalie:
This is in line with the entrepreneurial time system that Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach has developed which suggests that free time really needs to be free time. So on a free day, you do what you are suggesting on an Internet fast. The other two kinds of days are focus days (where you are preparing for a client, seeing a client or selling to a client) and buffer days where you are doing all those other things that progress your practice (like meeting with staff or arranging appointments, sending invoices, etc.). Strategic Coach say that if you truly take your free days, you come back to work refreshed enough that your income automatically goes up 25%. It worked for me. And it’s certainly worth a try.
Blessings
Esther
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:34 pm
I agree with the idea of an e-mail fast. One day is probably not
enough. I understand that business pressures can keep you tied close
to the screen. However, despite me not ever having been employed by
anyone else other than myself, I do feel there is a dependence issue
which I feel affects me; and something that did not feature in my life
10 or so years ago.
If you need to use graphic or vector programs, or even a database, the
temptation to load up the mail-client too is extremely hard to resist.
Think. It surely can’t be any harder than eating and exercising properly. But, unlike doing exercise, can you get the endorphins
flowing by not checking your mail? Not per se, but the opportunity to
do something else can.
This is all down to organisation and discipline. I am thinking of closing down on Wednesdays and Saturdays. As I lack the discipline not to stay in touch, it will be hard.
October 3rd, 2006 at 1:36 pm
thank you ALL for your generous postings and great ideas/support and insights. like that there may even be some monetary/income benefits of this concept!
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:57 pm
i enjoyed this conversation. My interest is in PLERK (that is play and work)
I am continuously experimenting with the flow between rest and responsibillity- work and relaxation.
Most of what I hear suggests first you work and then you play or first you play and then you work.
Can we plerk?
How? what does a plerky day look like?
I am off for 40 days on a large sail boat.
My husband says no computer.
I say computer can be in our service it does not have to be the master.
However, I will be off e mail for the 40 days!
October 3rd, 2006 at 7:21 pm
I was in London for a week and had access to the web and email for one hour on Wednesday. Returned to US on the following Monday. So…I had no choice in the matter. I found myself waking up with cold sweats and violent shakes. I realized that I was totally dependent on connectivity. I was desperate. And then I found a way to feed the hunger surfing through my body.
Cocaine. Lots of cocaine!!!
October 6th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Nat, I agree…I literally had to move out of my house because my computer has no internet. How ridiculous that I have justified my absence because I simply can’t be without the internet. It would be scary to calculate how much time I do spend online, and just how much of that time is affective. Maybe computers, like internet cafes should have counters, so that we have a visable time frame of how long we are spending on the internet.
In terms of a fast, maybe we all should take up the whole day of rest, even though checking emails is oddly relaxing and second nature. Maybe the answer is for one day the internet just doesn’t work…I wonder what the world would be like…I say crazy!
October 17th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
I started turning off my computer which means I’m putting clearer boundaries around the different components of my life.
Thanks for stimulating that.
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:49 am
[...] mpacts and interaction of technology/context and change. [For example here, here, here and here.] And it is always to read someo [...]