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How to Stop Internet Surfing While Working on Your Computer in 5 Seconds or Less
By Carlon Haas | July 13, 2007
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Time is the one thing you can never get back. I firmly believe that in order to live your life to the fullest, you need to eliminate distraction to get the most from your time.
But forget time management. I’ve never believed in the concept. (I’ll detail this in a later blog post). The key is to possess less distraction by eliminating it. And for all the conveniences modern society has given us, one thing we have more of is distraction. And the biggest distraction for many people is the computer…more specifically—the internet.
The last few days, I’ve talked about the 3 things that murdered my production and work efficiency. I offered some solutions to this as well. But did you notice all 3 of them shared one things in common—an internet connection.
There is one solution I stumbled upon that will not only take care of the distractions of e-mail, instant messengers, and those pesky news sites but also every internet-related distraction you can think of.
And it’s so simple, you can take care of it in 5 seconds or less.
And that solution is…
…unplug yourself from the internet.
I know it’s sacrilege to say this, but when you are in the middle of a project or need to take some time to write (like I do) just reach your hand behind your computer and unplug your internet cable.
Have a wireless connection?
Go to your system tray, right-cick on the internet connection icon, and disable the connection.
I found that my actually having to go behind my computer and plug the cable back in, it forced me to ask myself, “Do I really need to get on the internet?” Because doing so meant I had to get up, reach my hand around, grope for the cable, and take time to find the right connection port. It may take 5 seconds or less to unplug the connection, but it always seemed to take longer to plug it back in.
9 times out of 10, it wasn’t worth it…no matter how much I wanted to check box scores.
You may be thinking a couple of things:
#1 “Duh! Why bog about something so blatently obvious.” Well…sometimes the simplest solutions are the most obvious and the most frequently overlooked. Like the person who calls tech support about his computer not working only to discover that he had not turned on the power.
#2 “But I need the internet on to research. It’s impossible for me to turn it off.” In that case, disable it on your system tray. And ONLY enable it when you absolutely have to be online and then quickly disable it again. It don’t like this solution as much as unplugging it because you can get online much too easily. But for some of you who absolutely have to use the internet, it can boost your productivity by leaps and bounds if you disciplined enough.
Next week, I’ll delve into the heart of the possess Less Exist More Message and talk about what is really means to be wealthy and successful (and it has absolutely nothing to do with how much money you earn).
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Topics: Eliminating Clutter, Productivity, Time Management |
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5 Responses to “How to Stop Internet Surfing While Working on Your Computer in 5 Seconds or Less”
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« The Stealth Murderer of Productivity Part 3 of How to Be More Productive And Eliminate Useless Activities That Murder Efficiency | Home | How to be Somebody in 10 Seconds or Less »
July 13th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Carlon,
I always enjoy reading your blog. I think what you have to write about next time is “how to unclutter your wife”!!! Yeah, you know what I am talking about.
I am always very happy and excited to see how you are working on the whole “possess less and exist more” concept. Although I said it, you are the one who is living it and making it work.
So thank you very much for taking up the philosophy and making it real and be heard. I guess we can call it our baby #2. Because without your real work and flawless writing skill, it would’ve been never made it to the world.
I always deeply respect you and love you very much.
Your headache,
HJ
July 13th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Oh, BTW, you know that I have been trying to post responses, for whatever reasons, I haven’t been able to do it. I commented on this one way before, so, here we go again.
I noticed your comment saying that you will save “Hannah” first. Hmmm.. So where do I fit in? So, I guess I am like other things that you can replace????
You know Eun-sil and her husband had a huge ordeal on a very similiar subject.
Be careful what you say. I’m “WATCHING” you.
Nah… Honey, it is a joke. I just wanted to fuss a little since I haven’t been able to do it to your face for 1 month.
You are the world’s greatest daddy.
Don’t forget to give a huge hug to Hannah for me.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Good stuff, Carlon!
It can be very easy to continuously succumb to the distractions made available because of the ease of online access. Thank you for pointing out such an elegantly simple approach to being focused when working on the computer.
P.S. Howdy, Heejeong! :o)
August 24th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
[…] Haas presents How to Stop Internet Surfing While Working on Your Computer in 5 Seconds or Less | Possess Less Exis… posted at Possess Less Exist […]
September 1st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Good one! I’d add these tips of yours to my list!