Trust us, we know it’s hard: we love the internet just as much as you do. Disconnecting yourself from that wi-fi connection can feel as unnatural as swimming fully clothed or spending Saturday night at home watching a Lifetime movie with your parents. Still, if you allow yourself to work internet-free for an hour or two at a time, we promise you will be a markedly more productive person. In this heavy technological age, we have all become professional multitaskers, but one of the few exercises that really requires focus and isolation from outside distraction is writing, especially the creative kind. It may hurt a little at first, but give it a chance — commit to two timed hours of brainstorming/outlining/writing this weekend. You will be amazed at how many times your fingers subconsciously twitch to check for email, and how much easier it is to ignore that impulse when the rewards of obsessive internet monitoring are unavailable to you. After writing a few pages, uninterrupted, you’re officially allowed to log back on and watch thirty-nine YouTube videos of cute cats in a row.
