At the moment when I’m typing up this post, it is exactly 10:18 PM PST, exactly 1 hour and 3 minutes after the internet returned. The ironic thing was I was going to do a 1 week offline challenge later in September to see what is taking up my time and it was yesterday when I thought of the idea of doing so. The reason was sometimes going offline for a while can help you spot out the things that is taking your time that is preventing you from maximizing your productivity. Because before you can truly be productive, you must first know what exactly is keeping you from being productive.
When I woke up this morning, I started to work on SEO optimizing the Goal Striver website more as well as some additional research. Luckily, I had a productive morning, and managed to finish all the core tasks I had planned for today before lunch.
After I finished lunch, I turned on the computer, the time was 1:15 PM, and bam! All of a sudden as if lightning struck a tree, the internet disconnected. Not only that, it lasted for exactly 8 hours long. Immediately, I called my ISP (internet service provider) Charter to ask what was going on, and apparently they were doing some upgrades on their end at my area – so I wasn’t the only one.
From this experience, I learned a lot about how I spent my time, as well as how dependent I am on technology – precisely speaking, the internet. Not only that, it allowed me to better understand how productive I really was with my time.
Initial Thoughts
At first, I thought I wasn’t able to do anything since the internet was disconnected. This was partially true since most of the stuff I was focusing on were internet based. After a few minutes of disappointment, with the internet not returning any time soon, I then realized there are actually stuff I can do offline. One of my goals that I had set was to redesign and redevelop my personal website after Goal Striver was launched. I found this to be the perfect opportunity to push the deadline back a little. Fortunately, programming does not require internet access.
Lessons Learned
1. Sometimes I Am Not Always Productive On The Right Things
I noticed that half of the tasks I’ve done daily aren’t getting me closer towards the more important goals I want to accomplish, and I need to better balance my priority of focus. It’s easy to fall into the trap of being productive on the wrong things.
2. I Have A Lot More Time Than Expected
Since the internet went down, I noticed that I had a lot of free time to focus on more important things. Also, it made me realize that the internet was a primary source of distraction in my day-to-day lifestyle.
3. The Internet Is One Of Many Main Distractions I Have
Again, the internet is one of my many main distractions, and I learned that I should go offline for a few hours daily.
Now I Challenge You…
Okay, now that I’ve shared with you my experience, I challenge you to spend a single day without internet access of any kind (just simply turn off the signal). Try to write down, record or keep track of what you did with that time offline. What were some of the tasks you noticed that you would normally do that you didn’t do? Were you able to accomplish more things than usual? What did you learn about how you spent your time? Did you notice that you had a lot more free time than usual?
Let me know in the comments below. Feel free to link me to your blog post if you own a blog via the comments below. I’ll be glad to check it out!