Do they have a patch for this?

I did it.

This morning, I got to work, replied to some e-mails and then relocated my notes, my laptop and myself to the conference room.

I did not bring the ethernet cord.

This is a monumental step for me. For the past many, many months, I have been a slave to the Internet. Namely, Gmail, latimes.com, nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com, azcentral.com, Xanga, michellewoo.com (obviously), blogs of people I know, blogs of people I don’t know, Google (you know, the search engine), the 24 Hour Fitness online class schedule, MySpace and now the bottomless pit of a website they call Facebook (And no, Des, I don’t want to join your Ninja cult!). Yes, I do owe the Internet much praise and gratitude for providing me with life-altering gems such as this, but as a writer who has procrastination tendencies embedded in her neurosystem, it has also been the source of my downfall.

I believe my work has been suffering due to my a-a-addiction (OK, I SAID IT! Now, sit in a circle and clap for me) to the Internet. I mean it’s still awesome (obviously), but I just can’t get in the zone on cue like I used to. I’m constantly distracted (“Hmmmm, maaaaaybe instead of writing, I should refresh Angry Asian Man for any news I might have missed.”) And for someone who aspires to be The Most Famous Michelle Woo In The World, this isn’t OK.

So today I sat in stillness, surrounded only by the motivational Post-It notes I laid out for myself. I did a good amount of writing, even though I kind of took two lunch breaks (We’ll go through the 10-step recovery program for my food addiction next time). For now, I will try to limit my obsessive online behavior. I will check my personal e-mail only 3 to 7 times a day. I will visit Facebook only 2 to 4 times a day. I will not read blogs I know will probably be boring, anyway. I will be strong. I will take back my life.

Starting now. Or maybe tomorrow.

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