Usually I don’t like not being able to connect to the Internet.
It’s often because it provides a lot of value to what I do with my computer on a day-to-day basis. It’s also (by far) the primary function of my machine.
But it can prove to do you good to disconnect for a session of work.
Over the last hour I’ve been dishing out UI designs for a particular aspect of Surveyar. It’s been quite fun to explore lots of different designs I’ve had floating around in my head, and I’ve ended up with something I’m quite happy with very quickly.
I suspect the reason this has happened so quickly is the fact that I’m sitting in a kitchen, late at night with no wireless. There are no distractions, but perhaps more importantly, there is no Internet to tempt me away from fully concentrating on the matter at hand.
However, I must say the only reason I’m in this Internet-less situation is because I’ve been forced into it. I probably wouldn’t just turn off the Internet by choice, regardless of how different it makes me work.
Perhaps, if you have a laptop, the solution is to not just turn it off but to actually put it out of reach; going to another room without wireless or something like that. Nowadays, that can be hard to find. I can think of one or two places, though…