The internet is without a doubt our world’s biggest time suck. Whether it’s surfing, playing online games, shopping, or watching videos, the internet has it all, and the internet has you!!
Okay. Maybe that’s dramatic. But it’s true. The internet is supposed to be a tool, but for many of us, it’s become our life. People are being diagnosed quite seriously with internet addiction disorder. But we can fight back!
So how can we beat the internet?
There are hundreds of ways—these are some of my favorites. #1-3 are quick and dirty. They’ll take 5 minutes total. The last one is a more substantial habit change you can work toward…
1. Destroy Your Home
Landing and homepages serve two purposes: to keep you sucked into the internet, and to poorly mimic services that are well implemented elsewhere. Homepages like iGoogle try to do everything [e-mail, rss reader, local weather, search bar], but don’t actually do anything well.
You can’t actually read your e-mail, check the weather, play Bejeweled, and read today’s comic at the same time…why would you try? Homepages serve as a place to crash when you don’t know what else to surf for. When you reach that point, you should step away from the computer, but a homepage keeps you from doing that by making you feel like you have so much to accomplish on the web…but you don’t.
Your home is not on the internet.
Remove your home button or set your homepage to a blank screen.
2. Kill Your E-mail Notification Alerts
Who WOULDN’T want a little buzzer to go off twenty, fifty times a day, letting you know that there’s a 6% chance that you’ve received a message you may or may not care about?
I don’t. And I don’t think you do either!
All these little nag-buzzers do is pull you away from whatever you’re doing so you can click a button, glance over a probably insignificant bit of text, sort the message, and pat yourself on the back for playing the e-mail game.
Get rid of e-mail alerts and notification programs. All they do is distract and keep you in a nervous state of “beep-anticipation.”
3. Disable Chatting
This is a tough one. Some people enjoy chatting with friends online, and I know I do. But a few months ago I decided that leaving my e-mail or Facebook page open with chat on wasn’t worth it. It was a reason to hesitate and sit online in the hopes that someone would write me instead of do something meaningful.
Not that online chatting can’t be meaningful, but if you really want to talk with a friend, call them! If you want to write, you can write them an e-mail.
If you’re concerned about your social life, I personally haven’t noticed any negative impact on mine since turning off chats.
Disabling chats will remove the distracting anticipation of “maybe someone will log on!” And it will allow you to step away from the internet more readily.
4. Keep A Surfing List
This one’s a bit more involved than the others, but it’s one of the best ways to force compulsive internet use into submission!
Instead of running to the computer every time some trivial whim pops into your mind, keep a list on your computer or by your bed or in your notebook. Whenever you want to look something up, write it at the bottom of the list. Once a day go down your list, item by item, check on all the fascinating facts and research those great new shoes. Give each item a time limit…5 or 10 minutes each…then cross them off as you go and be done with it!
Best thing about the internet:
You can look up whatever you want at any moment.
Worst thing about the internet:
You can look up whatever you want at any moment.
It’s far too easy to abuse this. How often do you put your life on pause because you were suddenly curious what a baby rabbit is called, only to find yourself still surfing the web an hour later? [They’re called kittens by the way!! Awww!!]
Keep a to-surf list. In this way, you’ll clump all your trivial browsing together, get it done faster, with more purpose, and your life won’t be interrupted by the web every time some fancy strikes you.
More To Come…
Before you surf off to your next destination, why don’t you actually do a few of these?! Get rid of your homepage, disable your chat box, and remove your e-mail notifications! It’ll only take two minutes…I’ll wait…
Do at least one? For me?! It’ll do you good.
By implementing these tricks, or even just one of them, you’ll bring more intention and awareness to your browsing…and if you liked these, subscribe by rss or by e-mail, because I’m going to be putting out another article with a few more similar tricks soon!
And if you have any related tips you’d like to share, leave a comment!
] chloe [
