Jun
Do You Really Need The Internet *That* Much?
We’re back in South Africa which means a limit of 2GB per month on the internet access front (even worse than the 3GB we had last time although we can always pay for more if we run out).
So once again online productivity is at the forefront of our minds and please do forgive my (what I’m sure will be) frequent moanings about the lack of decent internet access here…
What we’ve realised though is that we are *way* more productive when we don’t have always-on, constant access to the internet.
It makes us think carefully about how we use things like Twitter, Facebook and checking stats which are all too often nice-to-do but not necessarily crucial online daily activities which make a massive difference to our business success.
It makes me wonder with the continuing popularity of the productivity and anti-productivity blogs whether we all wouldn’t just be better off unplugging from the internet for 90% of the day to just GTD (Get Stuff Done).
Unfortunately that would mean showing some self-discipline and I know how hard that is when it comes to having unlimited internet access. But if I can do it when our business is run and marketed 100% online, then so can you – can’t you?
Having limited internet access is a good thing for productivity in my opinion. It really makes you concentrate on what you need to get done, as you’re noticing. I’ve experienced similar productivity motivations when traveling and there’s a limited amount of time at the airport before you need to disconnect while you’re in the air. The internet is a big help for getting things done. As long as you don’t get trapped in all the time-wasters that keep you from getting things done.
Michael – I *love* the internet and could happily spend all day on it and get nothing done :( I’m one of those people who needs a deadline to get anything done but fortunately work pretty well to my own self-set deadlines – with limited internet, we often only have an hour a day to get everything we need to do done – given our business is run and marketed almost exclusively on the internet, we have to be pretty damn quick to get it all done!!
Not sure why you have 2GB cap and at what ISP, but have a look at Telkom: their basic 384kbps ADSL comes with a 3GB cap – which usually results in 3 free extra GBs.
For additional Gbs, check out: http://www.axxess.co.za – R69,00 per GB – excellent customer service.
@Jacques – thanks for the info, unfortunately we don’t have control over the internet account here (or wherever we stay) as they usually come with the apartments we rent. This time round, we use a shared wireless service with a neighbour whose account is only 2GB :( Hoping that when we go to Cape Town in a few weeks, we’ll have an apartment that has unlimited wireless…oh how we can dream ;)
i’m seriously addicted to the internet – don’t know if i could live with only 2gb! :D