The strange indulgence of being offline

So this week, I headed downtown to meet with my accountant to do writerly business-y type things. I discovered that the office was one block away from the statue of Mary Tyler Moore.

This felt fortuitous, so I had to stop to take a picture.

You’re going to make it after all.

My morning routine hasn’t really changed since I started this full-time writing thing. I pushed my wakeup time forward by half an hour. I don’t know if this is my optimal wakeup time, but it feels close.

It’s true I no longer rush in the mornings to get an hour (or less) of writing done. The other thing that’s changed?

I don’t go online until noon. This is starting to feel like a routine now. But at first? It was like I was breaking some sort of rule. After all, being accessible was part of my previous job.

It’s not like people can’t contact me in case of an emergency. I don’t silence my phone. But I don’t get a lot of calls or text messages to begin with, so I don’t need to. I also don’t have social media on my phone (10/10 would recommend not having social media on your phone).

I obviously need to be online for this writing thing. And there’s a lot I like about being online, friends, interesting things to read, and hey, look, I’m writing this blog.

But it’s also abundantly clear that there’s a billion-dollar industry that’s intent on capturing as much (all?) of our time and attention. Not giving into that feels like an indulgence, a luxury.

And that has given me pause this week.

If you’re dealing with the polar vortex this week, stay warm!