Fire and Knowledge

Stephen Elliott has written an interesting article about spending a month offline. Here are some excerpts:

My first week offline was mostly spent in a state of withdrawal. I suffered from bouts of extreme boredom. I realized I hadn’t been bored in years because I’d gotten in the habit of never giving myself the chance…. It was only in the fourth week that things started coming together. I wasn’t just breaking the Internet habit, I was breaking the habits I had learned on the Internet: that addiction to continual bursts of small information.

I started reading a lot more books, which is good for me since I’m a person who writes books. And I read more challenging books. I would read and write all morning, take a lunch break, and then write until evening. I could feel my attention span lengthening. I would think about problems until I figured them out….

While I was offline, those who really wanted to get in touch with me did so through other means. In fact, when I got back online, the most surprising thing was how little I had missed. I had 370 e-mails but most of them didn’t say anything. The most significant inconvenience of my not using the Internet had nothing to do with people getting in touch with me; it had to do with my needing to reach others.

Being offline for a month is bound to make someone change their online habits. So what did he change?

The first thing I did was replace my blog with an advertisement for my books. Why did I think I needed a blog? I resolved to stay away from MySpace and LiveJournal. I don’t go online on the weekends. Also, I don’t use the Internet while I’m at home. I leave my computer in my office (I brought the word processor home with me). Since I’m most creative in the mornings, I’ve decided no Internet until after lunch. That basically leaves my potential online time as 1 PM to 5 PM during weekdays. But that’s still way more than I need. Most people don’t need to be online four hours a day; most e-mails don’t need an immediate response.

I suggest this as a routine for people who must spend their days in front of a computer and want to accomplish more: Divide your day into online and offline. Studies have consistently shown that people with more screens open get less done. Multitasking slows down productivity.