Taking Stock when the Web Goes Down

June 30, 2010

My internet connection is down. I have deadlines, darnit. Today is the last day of school for my boys until September and this was my last solo weekday at home for a good long while so my to-do list was very ambitious. I don’t know why the net been down almost all morning but I do know I have a half a dozen things I could do without the net, if only I had downloaded the stuff to my hard drive yesterday. Sigh. Dear Internet, I love you. Come back.

Well, at least I can get some blog posts ready for when it’s back up.

The absence of my usual friendly home page has led me to take stock. Here are a few things on my mind at the moment:

  • There was life before the web. Freelance writers did business prior to the 1990’s when the web became commonplace. I could do this without the net. I could do those resumes due today if I had the client fax me the details. (Or messenger them to me prior to the fax). And, I could go to the good ‘ole library for research instead of hopping onto Google. When you can’t get things done the traditional way, it pays to think outside the box.

  • I could’ve written about a dozen articles I had prepped titles for in a Google docs spreadsheet (if I’d saved it to an Excel spreadsheet instead), I should keep things like that in mind when I get assignments in from clients. Maybe I should make it a habit to save them right away in case the web goes down for an extended amount of time.

  • A Smart Phone is a good investment for your business. I invested in an iPhone 2 months ago and it has changed my work life for the better. I don’t have to stress about email when I’m out and I even have a nifty little Paypal application on my phone that lets me transfer payments when they arrive. I can do my banking on the go. Even though I can’t do as much as usual without the web, I can at least send and receive emails on my mobile network, which is NOT down. I’m still not very adept at texting. I do type about 85 wpm on the keyboard but text at maybe 2 wpm ;) Knowing what’s going on in my inbox is comforting, even if there’s little I can do at the moment to action those messages. And, if it’s down for more than a little bit longer, I can email clients to tell them I’m running late. It dawned on me that my iPhone can be doubled as a modem. Too bad I can’t look up online how to make it do that. iPhone didn’t come with much of a manual. Note to self: disaster recovery planning does pay!

  • Disconnecting every once in a while might not be a bad thing. The web is distracting. If all I have open is a Word document, I have to focus on the task at hand. Maybe pretending the web is down is something I should do once in a while. I bet it would impact my daily earnings and the hours I work. Maybe that’s an experiment I ought to try out.

  • A down internet connection means a cleaner house. Off I go to scrub some more and hope it’s working again soon!

(Photo: Courtesty of me, Dana Prince. Taken with my iPhone, during a pledge of my undying devotion, when the web came back up! )