Going Unplugged

I recently spent an entire day (other than about an hour) unplugged--from the internet. This was a drastic step for me. I like to have access to Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, and to be able to do some quick internet research on something I'm writing if needed. Oh yeah, and I also like to incessantly check my email, jump over to Facebook and waste time there, drop in to Twitter to post something really quick and then end up spending an hour in a conversation with someone, and explore blogs on writing and publishing and the world of agents.

I could literally waste an entire day, just by playing around on the internet. I've done it plenty of times. And then I'll sit and wonder what could have been if only I'd taken that hour I was playing on Facebook, and used it on my WIP instead.

Well, I did it. I allowed myself an hour--one hour, to check my email, read blogs, check Facebook, and all those other things that I tend to do. And then I pulled the plug. I literally unplugged the internet.

You know what happened? I got a ton of studying done (finals are next week at my university), and I wrote over 6,000 words on my WIP. Yes, that's right. More than SIX THOUSAND words. I've never written that much in a day before. Not even days where I've devoted the entire day to writing, plugging away at my keyboard--but then getting distracted by that spot of research, or a lot of emails in my inbox, or . . . you get the drift. The next day, I managed 4,000 words. Not too shabby.

I noticed something else, too, while I was doing this experiment. I spent more time reading that I normally would. And I still spent my usual amount of time watching the television, so that wasn't affected.

So I've decided to do this pretty much every day, from now through the end of finals, at least. I've got a lot I need to get done, and I really want to finish this draft of my WIP. Can I do it in a week? Probably not. We'll see. But I know that I've got a much better chance of doing it if I'm not online.

I'm going unplugged.

Hmm. I wonder what could happen if I cut the TV out, too?

What about you? What are your big time wasters in life (online or otherwise)? How do you combat them?

**Originally published at Lady Scribes**