8 valuable lessons from having no internet connection for a week (and counting…)
The title of this week’s blog could easily be “How life is just a series of challenges for you to overcome”.
As you can work out from the title, I’ve had a deeply frustrating week being completely disconnected from all forms of the internet.
Yep, you read that right, no internet at home, no internet at work (because work is home) and no internet on my phone when out and about (the near perfect storm).
Before I get to how this came about let me mix things up and outline from the start the top 8 lessons I’ve taken from this incident
Having limited internet really makes you realise:
- How much you really depend on it and how anxious you get without it — it turns out I am very much addicted to the internet; from listening to internet radio first thing in the morning to filling my day with virtual work meetings to using google maps to navigate between places to relaxing with some streaming services in the evening
- How people assume you are ignoring them — in our always connected world, people expect you to reply asap (or at least within a day or two) but when you are unaware that they have even messaged this can be challenging and has caused a bit of friction with different individuals
- Having a nearby work around is a life saver (be it friends, family or just a local coffee shop) and something we should all have at the ready
- Asking your neighbours to share their Wifi isn’t as scary as it seems
- What the truly valuable internet-related activities in your life are — as I only got access to internet sporadically, when I did I had to make sure I used my time wisely (no doom scrolling, no aimless surfing)
- How much longer it takes to do some basic tasks when you have only piecemeal internet — something like updating my address on a bank website took me an hour one evening because the limited wifi meant I kept getting timed out
- How analogue activities come to the rescue — Netflix, iPlayer, mobile games, Whatsapp messaging were all out as evening activities so instead in came good old-fashioned phonecalls, book reading, ironing and newspaper puzzles
- Having no end date for when the situation might be resolved is just as frustrating as not having internet at all
So, what’s the story?
It’s been quite a couple of weeks for me; regular blog readers will know that I recently had to move home (you can read more about that here and here) and I did that straight after a 2 week trip to Ethiopia (you can see more about that here, here and here).
House moves are a great test of your EQ, as stressful situation after stressful situation piles up.
Just finding companies/people to help you with packing up your items (maybe sorting them out a little first), moving them and unpacking them is quite a task even before you do the actual packing, moving and unpacking.
If you are also leaving one rental for another then you also have to contend with inventories, cleaning regimes and liaising with 2 sets of landlords at the same time #stressful 😣
So, having done all that, I was really looking forward to settling into the new Shiageto Towers 🔪🏠 and wasn’t expecting my next challenge… Having no connection to the web at all.
How did this happen?
Before I moved out of my old flat, I established that my broadband company could not provide services in my new flat so no problems I found a company that could and rang them on the first day that I moved in.
The only problem was that it would take them over 2 weeks to install and activate my service.
In the meantime, I planned on using my mobile phone as a mobile hotspot only for the very next day my phone to stop connecting to the internet (this was definitely not good and is still being looked into by my mobile phone network with no resolution date as yet).
This did not add up to a good set of events for me having to run my business and get on with life.
I first realised that there was a problem when I woke up one morning and I realised that my emails hadn’t synced in over 8 hours [imagine the panic 😲]. I tried to manually refresh and nothing; I then tried various apps and error messages kept appearing.
Despite attempting the usual trick of turning it off and turning it back on again, the problem persisted.
With an imminent set of important meetings coming up, there was nothing for it but to rush to my parents’ house to work from there for the day.
As lovely as this was, it wasn’t sustainable for a variety of reasons and, having been assured by my mobile network that they would resolve this within the day, I regrouped for day 2 at my sister’s flat (she was out of town).
This proved a much better solution, even if the commute was 30 mins (not great on the day I had a 6:00am start for my first client virtual session), and so I proceeded to head there during the days.
However that still left the evenings as devoid from internet (and that is the time you most miss it) so after 2 evenings without, I decided just to knock on my new neighbour’s door (with a bag of Ethiopian coffee in hand) and politely ask if I can use their WiFi — despite my worries, they said “Yes, no problems!”
It’s not all good news though; because of the distance from their router, I literally only get a connection when I stand in the hallway so this is not a solution for working during the day or even watching something on streaming in the evening. It’s a safety net to check messages sporadically.
So, that brings me to solving the problem more concretely.
Unfortunately, Hutchinson Three (my network provider) tell me that I am not the only one this has happened to and that they are working on it but have no timescale for resolution 🤷♂️
Aggggghgghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
Summary — the impact on EQ, IQ and FQ
Losing access to the web is frustrating enough if it happens for a day but having it happen for a week (and counting) just after I moved to a new place has really compounded the negative experience (and slightly soured my move). The direct and indirect impact to my EQ is definitely having a negative effect on my personal and professional lives.
I’ve also seen an impact on my IQ as I am cut off from the wealth of knowledge and shortcuts that the internet provides meaning that I suspect the quality of some of my work has gone down.
Lastly, it has impacted my FQ (focus quotient) but in competing ways. On the one hand, I’ve not been able to achieve as much as I normally do because things take longer and I have less access to many tools that would help.
On the plus side though, I’ve definitely had to be more intentional with what I work on when I do have a connection which has helped shed some of the focus distractors that exist in all our lives (such as aimless surfing — although the amount I still think about them, they could still be classified as distractors of a sort and, unless this goes on for months, I’m sure they will be back soon enough).
All in all, I will be exceptionally happy to get past this challenge but as things stand that might not be for another week when I finally get broadband installed in my flat.
Wish me luck in the meantime….
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness.
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
