What I Learnt From Living Without Wifi
And how I survived a life of disconnectedness in this digital age.
[Originally published on my old account, Jan 26, 2016]
Since basing ourselves in Istanbul, myself and Camille, my co-founder/girlfriend have gone without wifi in our new flat for well over a month now. Along with no gas, no heating, no hot water, no furniture and on occasion no electricity. But I found the lack of wifi presented itself as one of the biggest issues, having always been connected everywhere I go when living in London this lack of connectivity needed a bit of adapting to.
What I discovered is the amount of wasted time. Yes, everyone says they’re aware of the time they waste but few really act. Having no wifi at home meant that in order to plug in and check my phone or use my laptop I had to get out, head to the nearest cafe and use the wifi there, which on occasion was slow and/or cut-off depending on the amount of people inside. As the days without wifi passed by these visits to the cafe become less frequent and far more focussed. I set aside only a few hours of the day where I’d have my time to plug in and started to use my online privileges far more effectively.
Somehow, the act of getting out my way to look semi-presentable, grab my laptop and make the 2-minute walk to my nearest cafe triggered me into work mode. I no longer had the need to watch that random video of a ‘drunk’ panda trying to make it up a hill. I just wanted to get all my work done before the ‘after work’ folks started flowing in and the wifi starts slowing down.
The biggest change was what happened at home. No wifi meant I was barely on my laptop, and never checked my phone. I went from an environment where I was always connected, scrolling through my news feed while boiling the kettle, reading emails in bed, checking Snapchat while on the loo (you know you do it too 👀), to all of a sudden not having the choice but to use my time for something else. Of course, there is still a lot of work that can be done without wifi, but that’s the point, my time was spent working not browsing. Before I’d leave the cafe I’d download essays to read or set tasks to complete like writing this article or finishing up a client’s proposal.
I began reading more (currently halfway through ‘Lean In’), listening to audiobooks (if you haven’t already download ‘Trust me I’m Lying’) and even found the time to start painting, although it’s nothing you’ll see in a gallery anytime soon. Previously I always struggled to ‘find the time’ to do things I’ve wanted and needed to, like yoga or cooking. When you’re always connected you forget how much time you spend on your devices, the little moments on Snapchat, reading that extra post or article and so on really add up and can take up a surprisingly large amount of your daily time.
To summarise it made me appreciate my time better.
We’re still without wifi, gas or hot water for now but we should have them up by the end of the week. Whether or not I’ll carry on adopting these techniques, I’m not yet sure. But we have set one rule which we’ll both be sticking to which is no devices in the bedroom, nada, just books & notebooks. It allows us to make the bedroom truly a place of relaxation, helped me get to sleep quicker and follows from the advice of many successful entrepreneurs.
Now I’m not saying to everyone, go find your router and burn it 🔥. Instead, be conscious of the time you spend unnecessarily on your devices at home and if you really ‘can’t find the time’ to focus on other activities you’ve always wanted to do, maybe think about setting an hour or two when at home to be completely unconnected and focus on these.
Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear of your own experiences living without wifi as digital nomads and remote workers — comment below and let me know! If you enjoyed the article please give it a ❤, share and follow us on twitter for more articles to come!
[Update: It’s been 3 months since writing this and I just wanted to share how my goals have been going. I’m still mindful of the time I spend online but definitely the temptation of browsing the internet is strong . My solution to this? Factor in browsing 3 times a day at 15–30 minute intervals. Once in the morning, once at lunch and once at the evening. This way the rest of my time spent online is focussed purely on work. Also still going strong with the ‘no electronic devices in bed’ challenge and couldn’t be happier — so much extra time for activities!]
Written as part of my series, “What I Learnt from..” where I try to learn things from random experiences I end up in. Read another lesson learned:
Arman Anaturk
Knows how to cook a Ratatouille. Very occasional writer. Co-Founder at OneRoof.Agency
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