"Me! I Disconnect from You" - Bruce Atchison

What's this title from a Gary Numan song doing here? One of my New Year's resolutions is to "disconnect" from my Internet-equipped PC when I'm doing serious writing. I'll still use it for e-mail and research but its easy access to the Internet is hampering my productivity.

Why such an extreme measure? First of all, it's too easy for me to goof off while using my main computer. The posts from the lists I belong to are so alluring. After all, they're more fun to read than sitting in front of a blank word processor screen and pondering what to write next.

Likewise, social media sites tempt me away from productive work. Even writing sites get me exploring rabbit-trail links instead of doing solid research.

Then there's all the maintenance I need to do with antivirus, spyware, and malware programs. Those activities, added to defragmenting and cleaning up junk files steal so much of my day. I'll leave those activities for the evening.Some folks might think I'm being extreme when I use a PC which isn't connected to the Internet. In fact, I find that my productivity increases with the use of older machines which don't nag me every few minutes to update this or that program. I can just hunker down in my front office, formerly a bedroom, and write.


By the way, I wrote my first three memoirs and scores of freelance articles on a DOS computer using WordPerfect 5.1. In spite of it's antiquity, the PC and program produced excellent results for me. I also made good use of the Lord's provision of older computers instead of junking them.

Whatever your writing goals are, I hope you take this advice to heart. Disconnecting from the Web for a time can be a great boost to your productivity. It also helps repurpose older computers or laptops.