<img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5548" title="MP900309021[1]" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/mp9003090211.jpg?w=199" alt="" width="199" height="300" />Ah, modern life. One long sequence of distractions. Do you write something hopefully worthwhile or catch up on some news? Fire off a line on Twitter or upload a few silly photos to Facebook?

These challenges seem such an integral part of the day that it’s hard to remember we never used to be dogged by them. I was a professional writer before the internet came along and changed everything. I remember walking stories down to the local office services company to have them faxed to America. Arguing with a movie producer about why I couldn't, honestly, fax an entire 400-page book to someone in Hollywood. Waiting, for days sometimes, in order to get the right person on the phone.

Before the web our days were shaped by what we couldn’t do. Now they’re controlled and shackled by the myriad things we can.

My response to this has probably been yours. Cut down on all this stuff. Do less of it and try to prioritise. Ration the digital noise around you. And know what? I was wrong. There’s an easier way, one I’ve been trying for a few months now. The routine is dead simple. Just stop things altogether and wait to see if you miss them enough to bring them back into your life.

How did I do?

<!--more-->

My first activity kill was one of the toughest. I worked for both <strong><em>The Times </em>and <em>Sunday Times </em></strong>for many years. We take the papers in the house. But for more than a decade I’ve been in the habit of reading news mostly online. <em>The Times</em> was how I started my day (I’m reaching an age where you have to check the obits regularly to see if there’s anyone there you know, yourself included.)

Then along came the paywall. I fully understand why Rupert Murdoch wants to make money out of news online. Newspapers have to somehow or they’ll cease to exist. I signed up for the free trial of the paywall. When that lapsed I deleted all the Times bookmarks in my browser and said to myself: see how long you can stick it. This is not about money. The paywall fees are modest. It’s more about time. I don’t want one more password and logon screen to manage. I’m fed up with those already. And you know what? You can get pretty much everything the <em>Times</em> sites provide elsewhere for free.

That was a good few weeks ago. How many times have I been tempted to sneak back in and pay to go back in the club?

Hand on heart: not once. Sorry Rupert, but I am gone.

My second ‘kill it don’t ration it’ experiment was <strong>Facebook</strong>. <a href="http://davidhewson.com/2010/04/25/bye-bye-facebook/" target="_blank">I quit back in April</a>, mainly over the shocking privacy issues that were then becoming apparent. Facebook is a classic example of how rationing doesn’t work. If you use it you have to go in there regularly. I can’t remember how many ‘friends’ I had at the end but it was a lot. Most were silent, a few – genuine friends in the main – were lovely, and a minority were a real pain, nagging for free books, stupid games or something else. Perhaps there was a way to filter out some of the nonsense but I never found it, and looking for those answers just took even more time.

Do I miss Facebook? No, but I regret losing contact with some of the people there. Something like Facebook ought to exist. It just isn’t Facebook. Will I ever go back? I doubt it. I value all that extra time in the day. Facebook's true worth seems to lie in its ability to be an address book spanning continents so that people can keep touch with their (real) friends over the years. If I was twenty two and just out of college I'd doubtless appreciate that. But I'm not and I don't.

My final experiment was with <strong>Apple</strong>. I’ve been using Macs since they came out in 1984 but, as I’ve outlined here in various posts, I’ve grown disillusioned with the company, and to some extent their products, in recent years. I really wanted a small laptop and Steve Jobs thought I shouldn’t have one. I craved a better word processor and Apple Pages never quite got there.

So I bought a cheap laptop and downloaded the beta – now release version – of Word 2010 for Windows. My eyes were opened. Both were lovely, and absolutely fitted the way I wanted to work.

At the time I had a Mac mini desktop, a MacBook Pro laptop and a MacBook Air. All of them, up to a point, capable of dual booting to Windows if I wanted. I tried this and it worked OK, with a few caveats. But there was always the temptation there, the question hanging in the air: which do I use?

This got tiresome so I went out and bought an HP desktop, a little Acer 11.3 inch tablet PC and a larger more substantial Lenovo laptop for more serious editing (all three cost me less than a single new MacBook Pro 15-inch). The Macs have never been booted up since and will soon find their way onto eBay or to a relative.

Do I miss anything? <a href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html" target="_blank">Scrivener</a>. That’s all. And it’s an open secret a version of that is on the way for Windows.

This was an interesting experiment all round. I’m now heartily in favour of dumping stuff instead of trying to keep it ticking over. All these decisions could be simply reversed if I wanted. So why dither?

I also recalled a story about my dear old Dad. He was fifty three when I was born, and I was a surprise to say the least. We lived in a council house in Yorkshire, dead poor, with him travelling to a night job in the steel factory by moped. His one luxury was cigarettes. He loved them and had since he was a teenager. On the day I was born he smoked his last one and said, ‘They're done with now.’

And never smoked another one, though he got through an awful lot of Polo mints.

Giving up Facebook, one single source of online news, and a brand of computer has to be a piece of cake next to that.