After a recent bout with no Internet access, I realized just how much I depend on the Internet for my day to day living. Here are five things that you need to prepare for in the event that you do not have access to the Internet.
1) If you work online or have other important contact information that you only have online, you need to have an alternate way to access either the Internet or the people who you are contacting. If you have a laptop many cafes have wireless Internet available to use. The public library is also a resource of free Internet access if you must send a message immediately.
2) If you pay your bills online or do any Internet banking, you will want to be prepared to handle these situations without the Internet. I personally would not want to access this information on a public network. You can visit your local branch or call the automated hotline to learn account information. You can also set up your bills to pay automatically each month. You may want to adjust and use snail mail in order to pay bills when you do not have access to the Internet.
3) If you rely on the Internet for your recipes you may want to print out your favorite so that you have them on hand when you do not have access to the Internet.
4) Be prepared to have withdrawal symptoms. It can be very frustrating to want to look up a specific topic, only to realize that you do not have access to the information currently. You will be surprised to realize just how much you are on the computer looking up information when you no longer have that option available to you.
5) If you home school and your child is completing an online class or just uses the internet to do research on a regular basis you should create a back up lesson plan that you can use to fill in those days. You should also store the contact information for that class, so that you can let the instructor know why you are not accessing the Internet.