turn off the computer

The first way, which has been very successful, is to turn off the computer on week nights when I go to bed. This helps because it makes it less likely I’ll get on the computer if I get up in the middle of the night to let my dog out. It helps even more in the morning because I don’t get on the computer before work anymore. I used to be late to work a lot. Now I’m usually early.

The second way is that about one night a week, I leave it off in the evening. I allow myself to check my e-mail and twitter on my iPod, but it’s a pain to surf the Web on that little device, so it doesn’t suck me in. On some of those nights, I’m productive in the way of house cleaning. Some nights, I watch TV (trading one box for another, as a friend said). Some nights, I read. No matter what I do, it feels good to put away the computer addiction for a while.

Should I write them here on 43things?

Should they take the form of 3rd person Facebook status updates? Emily is happy she got to walk instead of taking the bus. Emily ’s apartment is too warm – again. Emily was pleasantly surprised that the guacamole was homemade. (Yes, I actually caught myself thinking in status updates today, at least a couple of times.)

Should they be written in LOLspeak?
Job burnout – I haz it.

Or should I just turn off the computer already – once in a while, anyway, before the Interwebs gets a chance to eat the rest of my brain?

Gaah.

It happened right here, this morning. I realized I was done peeking at all my regular internet stops, and the thought of standing up and getting on with my morning was just too unpleasant to bear, so I tried desperately to come up with more sites to look at, to quell how unhappy I was about confronting my “real-life” options.

In a way, I think I do that on a slightly subconscious level all the time. The internet has become a drug, though one that has very few side effects… or does it?

Kthxbye.

now.

and it was nice seeing a blank screen on the computer after starting up, instead of 15 firefox windows open with 10 tabs in each.

i think i web surf a little less too when i turn off my laptop. yay!

ooh, turning off my computer also prevents me from having a zillion windows open of articles that ‘i’ll read later’.

this isn’t too hard. i think 2 weeks should be enough to make it a habit.

(how much you ask?)

also, hopefully i won’t websurf so much if i have to wait for my laptop to start up in order to check email or google a question. impatience is good for something!

Its 6 pm now and I am going to try and keep it off untill tomrrow at 9 I think that a good start.. May be I will even get some homework done

have much less use for the Internet, at least, than I did a few weeks ago.

At work, I keep gmail open, and Outlook, and will search for things as I need them, but other than that I have no impulse to check the NYTimes, 43T, or Facebook repeatedly; in fact, I can’t be bothered even to try to remember my passwords so I can log in.

It occurs to me that I don’t know how to log into my work email from home. Oh well…

is not working terribly well. Tomorrow, though, I am going to work in the library, and leave the ‘puter at home.