Since I started this blog nearly two years ago in July 2007, I have not had a month go by without blogging. I usually try to blog once a week on average and I’m posting this as a recap of the past month — a month during which I did not post a single entry to this blog.
This past month, I’ve had a lot to blog about, but my computer broke and I’ve had to resort to a new lifestyle. I actually delayed getting my computer fixed because I wanted to experiment life without a computer. It’s been very interesting to say the least. My cell phone has limited Internet and e-mail capabilities, SMS texting, and AIM capability, but no attachment ability or complex Internet access.Without a computer, I can only use public computers and I have to plan out my usage ahead of time.
The great part of this is that I spend WAY LESS time on a computer in a typical day and usually go over all of my e-mails and TO-DO items in one sitting. This has made me extremely efficient. The only way to really get an instant guaranteed hold of me is through phone calls — I don’t think I realized how little time I spend actually talking on the phone and instead through Twitter/Gchat/e-mail/AIM/SMS texting etc. The personal touch of a phone call is not to be underestimated.
The downside is that this makes it harder to blog something right away when it is fresh in my mind or to write draft blog posts for writing out in full at a later time. Also, my Twitter usage has shifted to my mobile device, which allows me to Tweet easily, but makes it harder for me to interact with others because I don’t get a constant stream of updates to my mobile phone (it’s not a Blackberry or an iPhone.) Also, I don’t always like my delayed ability to respond to e-mails — I try to respond to e-mails as fast as possible usually. Lastly, not having a computer makes it hard for last minute information gathering (i.e. directions, weather, etc.) or sending off some quick attachment via e-mail.
I think I’ll get my laptop fixed soon or get a new one altogether. But this experiment has definitely shown me the value of not being constantly connected by having a portable laptop. The efficiency losses have not been that bad, but the ability to have lots of interaction and the ability to be very flexible is a significant cost.
P.S. I hope to put up slides and video from my talk for PSL’s Entrepreneurs Unplugged shortly. If you missed the talk, you can get a recorded version from USTREAM here:
