How to spend less time on the Internet?
 

I find myself wasting my valueble time on Internet compulsively doing nothing, constantly checking message forums, and email. I don't want to stop using ther Internet altogether but can anyone offer any advice to help pull myself away so I be more productive?

Go to a small beach town with no internet cafes, I did for the last ten days and didn't send a single email.

Iv started taking one day a week and keeping it electronic free, I find myself getting around to finishing paintings, reading, fixing my porsche (hell, I probaly wouldn't stop if money and weather weren't in my way) and working out. Just decided that 1 of 7 days will be electronic free, about the only thing I will still use is the telephone, I leave my pda, pc, xbox, tv, speakers, stereo and cellphone at home and off.

Take certain days and don't turn the computer on at all.

I'm betting that posting the question on such an internet forum isn't exactly going to start you down the road to recovery.

That's how I got over using the internet too much. I was getting up to 3 hours a day, which was WAAY too much. Now I only use my computer for like an hour a day, and not every day.

Easiest way to not spent time on the internet is to get dialup, you will be so disgusted with the speed that you will give up the internet entirely.

If not, you will have a psychotic episode and waste even more tiem begging for it to go faster.

I think I'm just going to try to use my computer less each day. No way I'm ever going back to dial-up.

push the keyboard away....

turn off the machine.

don't turn it back on for 24 hours.

:lol: That's what my thought was when I read the title to the thread!

Get a hobby. Do something outdoors. Make new friends.

really. uncomfortable. chair. ;)

I just plan activities that take me away from the house or keep me so occupied that I don't think of the computer. I'm an Internet addict, so I constantly have to work at this.

hehe i spend a lotta time on my computer to... due to the fact that it's in my room and whenever i'm bored, which seems to be often... i turn it on. I dont think it's a bad thing... just something to pass the time when there's nothin better to do

Shut the power off to your house.

Whatever you decied to do, take it gradually. If you try to make to big a move you will find it very hard to stick with. Committ to taking an hour of each day you would normally spend online and find something to pass the time. Read a book. Learn to meditate. Go for a walk. Then slowly work your way up to doing more things away from the computer. Mostly, have a plan or goal and stick to it as best you can. Either that or get counciling. :D

the electronic free days thing works.

Take up painting or artistic release. I was recently given my first sketch book (26, graduate student, never had a sketch book, go figure) and i recently started putting in thoughts and pictures adn drawings and stuff every morning and i've found that i spend more and more time doing that. It's really enjoyable and allows me more release than the internet....

Get a girlfriend!

I blame the TFP for my need to go on the net.

I used to have hobbies ;) Still find time to draw/write/game and chat.

I like the really uncomfortable chair idea. before i got a computer chair, i was sitting on the floor with the keyboard on my lap. Needless to say, I wasn't on for too long when I started to develop a huge crick in my neck.

I know this works. While at college, I have fast internet and use it all the time, but while at home with dial-up, I only go on everyother day to check mail.

Thanks for asking! I'm trying to cut back on my internet and cpu usage as well! I found that turning off the cpu never worked for me because all of my music is on my cpu. I'm trying to cut back but the TFP is where I'm spending all my free time and then some, so I find it really hard... I did cut back some by spending time writing things by hand rather than in word, and spending more time in places away from my cpu. Some of the ideas here are really good! Thanks!

Don't mean to be an ass but your CPU is the Central Processing Unit of your Computer, and all your music is own your Hard Disk Drives :)

Some people refer to the PC itself as the CPU as opposed to the monitor, keyboard and mouse. I do it all the time.

make yourself get diarrhea, I gaurantee you will be spending more time away from the PC :)

What really sucks is to go to work and be surrounded by computers all day! I have both a PC and a Mac (arggh!) in my office, and I can't work without them.

It would be nice just to pick Friday as an "electronics free" day. If my boss asks I'll tell them it was your idea.

How about you use some self discipline and just stay away. Go be with people instead of a machine. Figure out why it is so much more interesting than people and find the right type of people to hang with.

Most people are boring though. The interesting people are just as busy as me and we only get to hang out on the weekends. I think moderation is only way I can kick the habit..maybe..

so, you seem to be suggesting that 'cpu' is shorter/more efficient than 'monitor, keyboard and mouse'.

ok.

but, instead of cpu which is one of my big pet peeves tbh. sorry. how about PC (for Personal Computer) or Computer or puter or 'puter ... all shorter and correct terms.

/ and now back to the thread...

I've not much advise, really, being a big inet junkie myself (and sometimes it does get annoying/boring/the same thing over and over etc...)

but, just tear yourself away. find some activity. clean/organise something in your house, if you're into that kind of stuff.

or, make your computer time more productive. do some useful things with your computer. use it as a tool of some sort.

good luck.

hmmm...I spend WAY too much online, too. (as does my husband...) I like the idea of an electronics free day...I wonder if I can talk him into no computer *OR* TV for a whole day? :D

Hmmm...I'm online about 9 hrs a day...my comp's online 24/7 though.

OK, I have a different version of the problem.

When Im working, doing HW and stuff, I use my PC, and when I use my PC I usually wander in the Net doing nothing, fooling around instead of working. Now how could I correct that? Because I cant get away fromm the computer, because I need it to make my HW..

13 hours online today so far, mind you I was away for a good deal.

during the exmas, i dissc my mouse and give it to my neighbour for safekeeping :D

What if he has a laptop? ;)

What about just removing the ball inside? Or make somebody put a password on startup...

1. i've seen people remove the ball and use the rollers inside with great efficiency, also, there are lots of keyboard shortcuts....also, my mouse is optical

2. The jackass that puts in the password will conveniently "forget" it

i have an optical mouse
i dont trust ppl here with my pwd
god knows what they might do to my comp
i host the college's forums and radio server so i dont want ne1 messing with my comp

Remember what life was like before you jumped on the internet. Recall the hobbies that you enjoy or places you went and go there, do those things.

I'm a RIA(recovering internet addict lol). It's much easier to spend less time away from the net when you actually have exciting things going on in your life or a life in general.

Exactly. All the people like me who love computers are always on them. And all my friends who are available are so computer illiterate I don't really know why I hang out with them.

There's my excuse..