My Internet Addict Freedom Program

Heads Up: This post is also an hodge-podge of Internet meme’s and a great illustration of using FooBox creatively. Have fun!

As the sole proprietor of my life and business, I have several natural enemies that I have to face daily. They are real, like the Blerch:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• NyTimes
• BuzzFeed
• Any random crap on the internet that looks funny at the moment
• OK, THE WHOLE INTERNET IS MY ENEMY!!!

Seriously, I make a living with the internet, I communicate with and attract clients through the Internet, and yet… it can kill me with it’s wee beady little eyes. But in order for my children to be clothed and fed, I needed to conquer this ugly beast we call the Internet, all without the help of a computer pro or a Computer Technician. So here’s my Internet Addicts Anonymous Program in a nutshell:

1. Acknowledge that you’re an Internet Addict (IA)

If you think you consume content fed to you by the Internet, then you’re already long gone. Step one to Internet Freedom is acknowledging that Internet Addiction is real and that it eats you for breakfast every morning. Seriously, if you don’t already know this, then you might as well just kiss your income goodbye and each some cheetos with your favorite YouTube playlist with a crazy cat lover.

2. Get help from more powerful software

Fight fire with Fire. The internet lives in your browser, so make your browser a Productivity beast, rather than a time slurping succubus. These tools are your weapons of choice:

• StayFocused Chrome Extension
• Toggle Time Tracker
• TeuxDeux To-Do List (Wunderlist is not bad as well)

3. Pray to Anything You Deem Holy

This is a battle for your soul. If there are higher powers that you submit to, pray to them to have mercy on you and fend off all that is unholy from your life.

Freedom!

There you go. This is just the beginning. Eventually you’ll want to have a fellow addict call you up every 15 minutes to make sure you haven’t open an incognito window to avoid the StayFocused blocker (I NEVER do that!), or just manually enter in stuff into Toggle that you actually didn’t do just to make yourself feel better, or cross off stuff in TeuxDeux that are totally mundane (got out of bed = check; put on pants = check; woke computer up = check; watch 1.5 hours of Pentatonix videos = check). That would not be Freedom. Don’t do those things.