[veranadine]

Sean,

I completely feel for you. For years in college, when ones HAS to be online much of the time, I wasted away and got sucked into the net.

Once I started my own business the problem got progressively worse, until a dear friend saw my struggles and decided to help me sort it out.

I am a Grade A Procrastinator and the internet had become my enabler.

Here are the changes that I gradually put into place that helped me:

1. I took a ten-day No PC Fast, emailed everyone to say I'd be on a PC vacation, and just plain unplugged it. No work, no games, no internet.

2. When I returned from this Fast, I implemented a micro-tasking approach. I would write down what work I had to do on the PC and then break it into micro-tasks, write how long they should each take and then set an egg timer. Once the time was up, ten minutes would be set for "research" (ie. goofing off online.) The when the timer went off, on to the next work task with the timer etc... *There is a great, easy to use, task management software for this called My Life Organized.*

3. I eventually adopted a system where I allow myself two hours of free online time, between 6:30-8:30pm. Whenever something occurs to me during the day that I would just like to check really quickly online, I just write it on a notepad and save it to be done in those two hours. I only go online now to post for my blog and do marketing for the same.

I don't know if any of these will help you but, once I got used to them they began to help me immensely.

Now I even get out and walk each day, go to town, visit people. It's an amazing world out there!

Blessings,