Written on 8/28/2008 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. You can catch him at Jeet Blog where he blogs about different Web 2.0 apps and online tools and how they can help you become more productive. Photo Credit: noii’s

For many of us, the internet is a primary source of recreation and a critical part of everyday work. No matter how you use it, it’s expected to be there – at all times.

When the connection goes down, sadness quickly fills the room. It’s funny just how addicted people are to the internet. We’re so hooked that the loss of connectivity seems life altering. I admit, when I lose connection, my frustration level skyrockets and I feel utterly helpless.

However, it’s important to remember that it isn’t data running through our veins, it’s blood. We don’t live and die online and there are loads of things we can do to keep busy while the ISP fixes the issue. So let’s not whine about it, let’s put the extra time to good use.

Here are some ideas:

Read ebooks

You surf online, come across a nice ebook, download it and save it in your ebooks folder to come back to it later. That ‘later’ is now. This is the time to open those PDF files and read them. If you have liked an ebook in the past, read it again. I’m sure you can get some valuable information in this process. Don’t have any ebooks? Check out Project Gutenberg where you can access thousands of books for free.

Catch up with friends

There’s no MySpace or Facebook, Google Talk or Yahoo to communicate or chat with your friends. So what do you do ? Simple – pick up the phone and call your friend next door with whom you have always found easier to chat on Facebook. This could be a nice time to meet your friends who stay in the same city.

Read magazines or newspaper thoroughly

Pick up and read that magazine or newspaper that you dismissively flipped through yesterday. I know it’s a shock – who has time to read the newspaper when you can get news in a click, right ? But the conventional way of reading news has its own charm and its own importance too. And yes, it’s always offline too 🙂

Clean your computer

The perfect time to unplug those cords from behind the computer tower, open the tower and start cleaning the heaps of dust that have accumulated over the past few weeks. Also you can clean and organize your entire desk and give it a new look.

Defragment your PC

Right time for windows users or in fact any computer user to do some offline maintenance work. One of them could be a disk cleanup and defragment. This process could take time, sometimes hours to get completed. But it’s one of the essential ways to maintain your computer. You could also try out other steps like going through the list of installed programs and getting rid of the unwanted ones.

Go for a run

You don’t need to sit with your eyes fixed on your computer when you are running the defrag or disk cleanup. Unless it’s bad weather outside, get your shoes on and go for a run. Kill two birds with one stone 🙂

Play a game…not a computer game

Good time to complete that unfinished chess game with your younger brother. You could also go out and join those teens for some basketball, tennis or a badminton knock.





Good time to complete that unfinished chess game with your younger brother. You could also go out and join those teens for some basketball, tennis or a badminton knock. Write ( or draw ) something

This time with pen and on paper. Write an article, write your thoughts, write a dream, write anything. It’ll feel different and nice to use the mighty pen, again. It gives a different feeling, a feeling which your keyboard could never give. And if you are good at art, this is a great time to sit and draw something really nice.

Get involved in creative pursuits

Get back to your once upon a time favorite but now neglected and dejected hobbies. If you like painting, do it now. If you love cooking , great time to cook your favorite recipe. So get involved in your creative pursuits or simply, what you ‘ liked ‘ to do before this internet thing overtook and overpowered you. 🙂

Complete pending chores

You could please your Mom or your wife by telling her that you are available to get the groceries or do some other household chores. You might hate doing it but it could have good returns for you later in the day, in the form of delicious food…or something else. 😉

On another note, this is also a good time to complete pending work like getting your car serviced or doing some repair work.

Meditate

Finally, if you are too frustrated and just can’t seem to do anything else, sit back, relax, take deep breaths and meditate. You may not find enlightenment like Buddha but you’ll feel better for sure 🙂

Cheers,

Abhijeet