No Internet Saturday Deconstructed

On Friday afternoon, I, quite abruptly and randomly, decided that no business weekends weren’t enough: I had to shuck the draw of the Internet completely and take a break. Thus, NO INTERNET SATURDAY was born.

Yes, the all caps are necessary.

If you’re addicted to the Internet like I am, you know that it’s hard to walk away. What if you miss something? The constant stream of information begs to be digested. There are people to talk to. Funny posts to be read. Time to be wasted.

And when it’s hard to walk away from my computer, it’s easy to justify “I’m just going to do this one thing” that results in doing a lot of other things. Worky things. Non-relaxing things.

If I’m not working on my business, I’m usually working on my book blog. And even though it’s a hobby, it’s a productive hobby. One that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to relaxing unless I’m doing the reading part of it. (Which I often don’t do. Because I get sucked into my business.)

I realized during NO INTERNET SATURDAY that disconnecting myself from the Internet on normal days is difficult. It makes me edgy, anxious to get back. There’s a sense of urgency following me, urging me to check my phone or pop on my netbook.

Because when I wasn’t allowed to go on the Internet? I’m not allowed to be on the Internet. That edginess goes away. Relaxation settles in because my time becomes MY TIME.

Even if all I do is watch TV all day. Sometimes the utter mindlessness is necessary because I overspend my time and energy on other activities. Activities that aren’t worth ALL my time and energy. Activities that suck, not replenish.

NO INTERNET SATURDAY taught me that I’m too connected and that being too connected can lead to other problems, like BURNOUT or daily tension headaches. Neither of which is good.

Because on NO INTERNET SATURDAY, I watched TV. I reread my Camp NaNo story and found it wasn’t as terrible as I remembered. I wrote another 1,000 words in it. I spent time with the boyfriend without feeling like I needed to be checking my phone.

And that? That was pretty cool.

Disconnecting is good. I know myself well enough to know that partial disconnecting won’t happen–that’s why I needed NO INTERNET SATURDAY. It’s an all or nothing kind of thing. But I also feel like spending time off the Internet can teach me how to disconnect more easily during the week too.

I need that. Desperately. I don’t know if I’ll be doing NO INTERNET SATURDAY every week–it requires a bit of planning on my part (since I often use Saturdays to get book blogging work done for Sunday), but I want to see all that I can accomplish without being tethered to the Internet.

And there’s more. No one fucking cares if you’re gone for a day. People probably won’t even notice. Social media moves so fast that one day doesn’t make much of an impact, no matter how much people love interacting with you. And making another sale on my ebook goes to show you (me) that life and sales and business goes on without babysitting numbers.

In keeping with the NO INTERNET SATURDAY spirit, I’m going to sign off and get some reading done.

NO INTERNET SATURDAY shenanigans.
Me: “I think jack is missing an S.”
Boyfriend: “Every man…oh.”