Perhaps one of the biggest distractions we may have while working with a computer is internet. There are tons of websites to read, notifications to be checked, email and twitter streams to follow.

It takes a lot of discipline to get back to work once you start browsing your favorite websites, and even when you’re working, you are often tempted to check what’s new online. Sounds familiar?

Turns out there’s a simple solution to that. Turn off the internet. Now, I know that this solution is very drastic, but it works. If you don’t have internet access you’ll finally:

  • Stop checking email notifications every 5 minutes.
  • Have to close facebook and twitter.
  • Get something done.

That last point is crucial. When you are forced to do something, you’ll get something done.

The rest of this article are just tips for working offline, but the take home tip is: work offline when you can.

Productivity tips for working offline

You could simply turn off the internet connection, but let’s face it, you might need internet access sometimes, and it would be too easy to turn it on if you get bored.

Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to limit these situations:

  • Plan in advance. What are you going to get done while offline? How much time do you think you’ll need? It’s very important that you know in advance what you’re going to need to get your work done. You want to avoid at all costs being stuck offline and having nothing to do because what you needed is online. Fortunately, this situation is very rare and you can usually find something else that needs to get done if necessary.
  • Use software. Disconnecting from the wireless access point is easy, but it’s also even more easy to reconnect. A better solution is to use software that does that for you. For mac os x there are two programs worth trying, one is called self control and the other is called freedom. The difference between the two is that the first one allows you to define certain websites that you don’t want to visit, while the second one will block every website or service. Note that there’s also a windows version of freedom available. Linux users: /etc/hosts is your friend.

Ideally, you want to block internet access for the time you’ll need to get your work done, but you can also use this technique so that you are forced to go out for a walk or for exercising.

I know that this solution might hurt someone, but give it a try. It really works and the world will not end if you’re not online for a couple of hours.