One of the best things that happened to me as a grad student was
receiving the gift of a laptop from my brother-in-law. What was great
about it was that what was a new computer to me was not, in fact, a
new computer at all. In fact, it was quite old: five or six years old.
What was so great about this? It didn't have a wireless card in it, so I
couldn't get on the Internet. That meant that when I needed to find
something online, I had to leave my dissertation study, lock the door,
go down several floors in the library, find a computer to jump on,
locate what I was looking for, and then go all the way back upstairs.
Doing this was such a pain, that I typically found myself staying put
and writing for several hours at a time.
It's no longer convenient for me to work with that computer, but there are plenty of times when I miss the freedom that old computer gave me from the temptations of email, Twitter, and the rest of the Internet. Figuring out how to free yourself from distractions so you can do your best work (pace Merlin Mann ) is something that all academics—and all writers—need to learn how to do.
To read the full, original article click on this link: 6 Ways to Avoid Letting Your Computer Distract You - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author: Brian Croxall
