Ah, internet connectivity…my greatest frienemy.  Over the past 6 months as a Digital Nomad, internet access has been my closest travel companion and at times, my worst enemy. And here in the state of Kerala, India, power outages and weak connectivity are now an expected part of my work day.

Before & After - Finding Out the Internet Is Out

Fear not fellow internet-addicts, for not all hope is lost! I’ve found that time away from “my precious” can be  more valuable than uninterupted connectivity.

From my experience working throughout Europe and India’s most remote parts, here are 10 things any web worker can do keep productivity high when the internet is out.

10 Ways to Stay Productive When the Internet is Down:

1. Make a List: Take the time to get organized and write down what you need to accomplish that day. When you’re online again, you’ll be able to work at full-speed.
2. Queue up Emails: Writing the email takes much longer that the act of sending it, so queue up your emails in Outlook or in Word so they are ready to hit send or copy/paste in as soon as you’re connected.
3. Work on a Presentation: Use the “quiet time” to work on business requirements or put together your next presentation.
4. Meet in Person or Over the Phone: Keep the project moving forward by talking in-person, either over the phone or at their desk.
5. Work Through a Problem: Without the temptation to check your email, you’ll have full mental bandwidth to put your best thinking forward. Get out the whiteboard or take a walk and dig into the root of the problem.
6. Plan for the Future: Time away from the internet can will give you a chance to step back and think about how your business should be run. Forget about today’s minutia, and think about the year ahead.
7. Catch Up on Industry News: Use Evernote to bookmark articles for later. Mark them as a “favorite” and read them when you’re offline.
8. Organize Your Office Space & PC Desktop: If you ever thought you had more important things to do, now you don’t. Take five minutes to organize your work environment or clean up the files on your desktop.
9. Take a Junior Associate to Lunch: Invest in the future of a junior colleague. Advise them on their career path or simply listen. Work outside the office? Give them a call.
10. Write a Handwritten Thank You Note: Call upon the lost art of handwriting and write a thank you note to a vendor or a colleague, thanking them for their hard work. The gesture will not be quickly forgotten.

How do you keep business moving forward when offline?