The Internet is an invention that both exponentially economized productivity and also made productivity secondary. The siren call of Facebook, the gravitational pull of Blogger, the thousands of Groupon-type emails in my inbox, just begging to be clicked and web-window-shopped. It's damn near inconceivable to attempt tackling a to-do list. The Internet Gods mock your to-do list. They laugh at your futile peasant ways. You are not getting anything done, and you know it.
This is a problem for me, this distraction. So I went to a coffee shop tonight to get some writing done, out of the reach of wi-fi. Well, turns out the place did have wi-fi, but I just logged in real quick, to check my email. No big deal, barely even counts. I disconnected, sipped my latte, opened a new Word doc, and stared at it. Turned the Internet back on and
posted a quick blog post. Disconnected again. Stared some more. Started typing.
Lo and behold, I accomplished some writing. I set a goal to write five pages. I wrote two paragraphs, then the coffee shop closed. I went home and extended it to a full page. A page I don't hate. In fact, it might be pretty good, possibly. We'll see.
I'm making a resolution to turn off the Internet for an hour a day. I'm delaying sleep to record this resolution, which means I'm taking it very seriously, because I take sleep very seriously. The Internet is a fickle mistress, and I estimate the physical action of turning off the wi-fi connection will be therapeutic. I'll create a space dedicated to offline personal literacy in an attempt to become more fluent and articulate.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
