iDiz Incorporated

My name’s Kent and I’m addicted to being online.

It happened when I got my first Palm, then it became an obsession when I got an iPhone. From the time I get out of bed in the morning until I place it in the charger at night, I never go anywhere without that little electronic window-on-the-world attached to my hip. I check email, the scores of last night’s games, Twitter, Facebook, multiple news sites, and even play an online game or two.

And I don’t do it just once a day, either. With my iPhone and an unlimited data plan, I can download anything, at any time. I’ve settled bets at the gym by Googling, I’ve looked up maps on my phone when I travel, gotten restaurant reviews, found recipes that actually use the last seven odd ingredients in the fridge, ordered from Amazon, and even reserved movies at the nearest redbox.

My addiction doesn’t get any better at work. If I wanted to, I could spend all morning at my desk and accomplish very little: check my email to see what I need to address today, answer the important ones, delete the spam, check all the CU and marketing blogs for anything interesting, check my email in-box again, reply, check the Twitter feed for CU-related tweets, check email, reply, check Facebook and chuckle at my friends who spend all their time playing silly games online. Then start all over again. Projects? What projects?

So I’m going on an internet diet.

I got the idea from Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin. He had the same problems with excessive emailing, and claims when he put himself on an Internet diet his productivity tripled. So I decided that I’m only going checking email five times a day and going online once a night for the rest of February. (Yes, I know I picked the shortest month of the year and not even a full month at that. Whaddaya  expect?) At the end of the month, I’ll let you know how it went.

If any of the rest of you recognize yourself in this post, feel free to join me in this experiment. And in the meantime, call me if I don’t respond to you quick enough.