Funny thing happened today

I decided to find a nice quiet place to sit and write today.

As a marketing consultant my optimal projects tend to the 90% writing, 5% listening and 5% talking. This ultimately means that I absolutely need to find a place to sit and be productive. In this case it was a coffee shop. (I’ve increasingly become a fan of the local public library as it presents free internet access with virtually no distractions. And by no distractions I mean inane conversations, hot women or frankly not having to worry about running into someone I know.) However regardless of how efficient I can be in working in a public place -- often with my iPod and headphones to eliminate aural distractions -- I find a large limiter is the efficiency of my laptop battery. Sometimes I can find a place to plug in but most times I can’t.

My best solution to the power problem is to simply turn off the wifi on my laptop. The resulting power savings will often translate into an additional three hours of battery life on a fully charged battery. Yes, I spend significant amount of time on my computer NOT connected to the Internet. Not distracted by the latest news, IMs, twitter feeds, etc. Just trying to write.

As I already mentioned the problem with a coffee shop is ultimately running into someone I know. The first response after the niceties is ultimately: “OMG You’re not connected!!” It wasn’t really that long ago when being connected meant a noisy modem connection. (Please, I really didn’t want to go back farther than that.) Now it’s simply expected that if you have a computer, cell phone, netbook, etc. you are connected to the Internet. Actually I believe the entire utility of a netbook is that you WILL be connected to the Internet at all times.

Why do we have that expectation? Creating content that makes the Web so much fun is all about doing something creative offline and sharing it online. Unfortunately there are so many distractions in everyday life that finding the time to create the content is impossible when email and IMs keeping ringing in. So, I’m disconnected. Don’t make that sound like a disease!