7 ways to keep the computer from ruling your life

I know I need to work on spending less time on the computer—especially when I need to be paying attention to my kids—and I doubt I’m the only one. So I’ve come up with a few ways to get off the computer—keep the computer from ruling my life.

Make it harder to get on

• Put away the laptop

It doesn’t seem like much, but closing a laptop and sliding it under the couch are two “barriers to entry” that make it harder to just sit down and get lost in the Internet. Similarly, for a desktop:

• Turn off the monitor and/or CPU

Okay, it’s not hard to turn on a monitor or a computer and wait for it to boot up—but just those few extra seconds may make it less “worth it” to flop into the chair and shake the mouse for instant gratification.

Get productive while you’re on the computer
Like I said, I’m not going to tell you to abandon the computer altogether. But by focusing on the useful aspects of the computer, we can take advantage of them without getting lost in the Internet.

• Keep a list of tasks

Whenever I’m careful about not using the computer, I find myself often thinking, “oh, I should look that up,” “oh, I need to remember to go to this site,” or “oh, I need to check that.” But then I sit down and can’t remember a single one. So I try to keep a handwritten list of things I want to do on the computer/Internet.

• Pre-plan

Along those lines, you can plan out things you need to do while on the computer—whether that’s writing another scene in your manuscript, making your rounds on blogs or crafting a post of your own. Believe it or not, paper and pen still work for brainstorming, charting, planning, outlining, drafting, etc., etc.

• Use a timer

If you have something more than just a simple “look this word up” or “check on the status of this bill”—like, for example, a blog post—using a timer can help you to focus. If you’ve ever done FlyLady, you know how using a timer can help for a short burst of activity and productivity. I can attest to this even for creative purposes—the fasts I’ve ever written was with the Write or Die timer—933 words in 15 minutes. (For some people, of course, the pressure might stifle the creativity they need, but you can give it a shot.)

And get off the computer
Harder than it sounds.

• Recognize when you’re no longer “using” the computer

Using the Internet can be an addictive behavior. I know that I use it as an emotional retreat and avoidance mechanism when I feel overwhelmed by my kids or other responsibilities. (It doesn’t help.) But if we learn to tell the difference between using the computer as a tool versus using it as an emotional crutch, we can stop ourselves.

• Recognize when your family needs you

You can tell when your kids need you—they pester you, they make bigger and bigger messes, they argue and escalate, and every other sentence out of your mouth is, “One more minute—I just have to finish this.”

---

Changing habits to keep ourselves from defaulting to that behavior, and focusing while we are on the computer can help us to limit our time on the compute rand the Internet and get out there to live our lives instead of just blogging about them 😉 .

What do you think? How do you get off the computer?

Photo by Federico Morando