No Internet November: The Report

I survived 30 days offline. Here's how it went.

December 7, 2025

Key Insights 🔑
Thoughts finally stick. Without constant interruptions, my brain could actually hold on to ideas long enough to develop them.
Everyday life got richer. Slowing down made ordinary moments feel surprisingly full and meaningful.
Exploration over optimization. Stepping back from the internet freed me from trying to optimize everything, letting me just explore again.
Creating beats consuming. When I couldn’t passively scroll, actively making stuff became the most entertaining thing I could do.

Last month, I did something that most people would consider kind of extreme: I quit the internet for 30 days .

No browsing, no social media, no emails… no nothing.
With a few unavoidable exceptions for work, I otherwise went completely dark.

And no, I didn’t do this to cosplay as a Medievalist .

I did it because I was totally cooked. 🫠

I was losing hours to infinite scroll. I couldn’t even chill for a few minutes without my brain screaming for a dopamine hit.

Even worse, that constant pull made it impossible to focus on the things that actually mattered to me, like my game dev projects and my drawing, because my attention was always being hijacked by something else.

So I finally convinced myself and pulled the plug for a month to see what would happen.

Now I’m back online, and after a month offline, I’m ready to share what I learned.

Did I achieve enlightenment?
Or did I just miss out on a month’s worth of life-changing memes?

Here is my report.

By the way, you can read the blog post I wrote before starting this experiment here:

No Internet November: I'm Quitting the Internet for 30 Days

Breaking the Habit

I was ready for the first few days to be like hell, but they were actually great ngl.

I was worried about withdrawal, but I had no issues whatsoever.

I was able to focus on my work and my personal projects. I was able to read books and watch movies without the constant distraction of the internet.

No problem at all.

The crazy need to fill every second with meaningful noise evaporated. If I was going to miss out on some algorithm-fed trend I didn’t actually care about, then so be it.

The panic of FOMO completely faded as well.

Muscle memory was still betraying me tho. I would try to open tabs or apps just out of habit. It was totally unconscious. And that was when actually blocking the whole internet helped me. Because you can’t waste time opening tabs/apps if they don’t work in the first place. I really needed that “No internet connection” screen to slap me out of the trance.

What I Liked

Focus & Creation

With no YouTube or Reddit to distract me, I poured hours into art practice. I started studying and practicing drawing hands seriously.

And the result was amazing!

I produced 49 new sketches/studies this month, probably my most productive month by far.

Without the constant urge to check the internet, important ideas started sticking in the back of my mind instead of being pushed out by random noise. They had time to sit, connect, and slowly evolve, making it easier to build skills, spot patterns, and come up with solutions naturally.

Having fewer options also removed choice paralysis. With less to decide and fewer distractions competing for attention, it became easier to start, stay with a task, and build momentum.

It may sound paradoxical, but not having constant exposure to people way more skilled than me made a real difference. That kind of exposure sounds motivating in theory, but daily comparison skewed my sense of what was possible and tanked my motivation.

Time, Sleep, and Energy

Time itself started to feel slower. Days felt longer, and I could get more out of them without feeling rushed.

Sleep improved almost immediately. When it was time to go to bed, I actually went to bed instead of giving in to five more mins of revenge bedtime procrastination .

Quieter Mental Time and Space

Online discussions often turn into outrage machines, and stepping away from that for a month was a relief.

You can say something totally harmless like “You know, I don’t actually mind pineapple on pizza” and people won’t just disagree. Suddenly it becomes about hating Italian culture or being some kind of sociopath. That constant expectation to defend yourself is exhausting.

Between echo chambers and the decision paralysis caused by thousands of conflicting opinions, long exposure to the internet started to erode my ability to think clearly, or at least it did for me.

POMO (Peace Of Missing Out)

After thirty days of silence, I realized my FOMO was totally a lie.

What I thought I was missing quietly disappeared, and I finally had the mental bandwidth to think my own thoughts again.

More Present, Not More Isolated

I didn’t spend the month sitting in a dark room or checking out of the world. If anything, going offline made it easier to go out and actually be present.

Before cutting off the internet, I had already scheduled a few events for November, and I went to them:

Final Fantasy IX 25th Anniversary Exhibition (🥹) [ Gallery🎨 ]
JAXA Tsukuba Space Center Open Campus
Hiked Mt. Takao
Unreal Fest Tokyo 2025
Indie Developers Conference 2025

With my phone internet access blocked, there was no temptation to drift away mid-event. No quick checks, no compulsive scrolling. Just being there and basking in the vibe of the moment.

Being offline didn’t reduce what I did. It changed how I experienced it.

Btw, I’ll talk more in detail about those events in my yearly year-in-review blog post.

2025: Year in Review

Finite Entertainment

So with no internet, I could no longer entertain myself to death.

No Apple Music or Spotify , just music I had already chosen. No infinite recommendations. No buying new Kindle books before finishing the ones I had started.

I only had a handful of books, a few CDs and offline media, and a small selection of games. And I enjoyed them.

Entertainment was finite, but intentional, and it never felt like a chore. Limiting my options made those moments more enjoyable, not less. When you know something will end, you actually show up for it.

What Was a Mixed Bag

Removing stimulation doesn’t magically make shallow interactions meaningful

One thing I expected was that cutting off the internet would magically make everyday conversations feel deeper.

It didn’t.

Being offline didn’t turn small talk into something profound. Conversations about work logistics or weekend plans were still… fine? Not bad. Just not really engaging.

The experiment didn’t suddenly rewire my brain to find meaning in them.

That realization mattered. The internet wasn’t the only factor. Some interactions are limited in depth. Detoxing doesn’t fix that. What changed was tolerance: less phone, more boredom, more intentional conversations.

This isn’t a judgment on people. Solitude comes easily. Small talk, less so. Disconnecting didn’t change that. It just clarified priorities.

What I Didn’t Like

Inconvenience

I actually missed some very innocent apps, like the weather app.

You know, the kind that do exactly what they’re supposed to do, don’t waste your time, and genuinely make life better.

But they still need an internet connection, and more importantly, they live on my phone.

I could have unblocked them, but that would have meant picking up my phone just to check one thing. And once the phone was in my hand, the effort was gone.

Instead, using my TV to check the weather was a conscious action. Picking up my phone never is. That difference mattered enough that I chose inconvenience on purpose.

Knowledge

I really missed broad searching. Stuff like Wikipedia .

I planned to download it for offline use and then, of course, I completely forgot to do so. 🥲

I felt that gap more than I expected. Some information just doesn’t exist offline, no matter how much you prepare or ask around. Some questions just remain unanswered.

That really hit me last month, when I beat Pokémon Yellow , a game I hadn’t touched in maybe twenty-five years, and had no idea where Mewtwo ’s cave was. I was too lazy to search the entire map, so I started asking friends and family where Mewtwo actually was. Nobody remembered. At one point I even went to Akihabara to look for vintage Pokémon guidebooks and still came up empty. 🥲

Events

I probably missed out on some interesting events.

That one hurt a bit, especially since going to cool events was one of the reasons I moved to Tokyo in the first place.

Or maybe that’s just the price you pay sometimes.

Right After the Experiment

Midnight, Dec 1: I finally reconnected to the internet and… experienced immediate choice paralysis. 🥲

During November, my choice of options was limited: Draw, Work, Eat, Chill, Sleep.

Now, the menu was infinite: Watch YouTube, Check Reddit, Play Games, Research Random Crap, Search for songs on Apple Music, Look at Website Stats, Check Discord.

My brain kinda froze.
Was I back to my old self?

Thank God I found the energy and courage to resist the junk choices temptation.

I noticed how often I used to feel the urge to instantly check out anything that caught my interest. Being offline gave my brain enough space to pause and ask:

Do I really need this right now?
Can it wait?
Or can I just let it go?

Now, after a week of the experiment, I barely watch any YouTube videos, or online content in general.

Because of that shift, my sense of time changed. Thirty-minute YouTube videos that could’ve been five now feel like a waste. It’s wild to realize how much my brain used to crave that stuff, and how fast the craving disappeared once I stopped constantly feeding it.

Yes, I still check Reddit from time to time to see if there’s anything new.
Can’t escape that can’t I lol. 🫠

But let’s hope to keep it at a minimum. 🤞

What To Do Now

The internet is indispensable. It’s packed with incredible cool things that can make life easier, more fun, or just… better.

But it’s also riddled with time traps and pointless crap. 💩
Honestly, nowadays it feels like 90% noise, and maybe 10% actual value.

So, what now?

I’ve been thinking about two main ways to handle this:

Idea 1: The Internet Laundry List

The plan is to step back before diving in. First, I write down what I actually need to look up. Then, I schedule a proper slot for it. During that time, I focus like a hawk: nothing extra, nothing distracting. Just mindful searching.

Idea 2: The Internet Limit

I’ve realized that cutting the internet after 10 PM doesn’t work for me, by then my brain is total mush. 🫠
On the other hand, allowing it only after 10 PM would just trigger some serious bedtime revenge.

So, I’m thinking about other boundaries. Internet on weekends only, maybe? Or just the last week of the month. Enough time to sort things out and plan ahead without getting sucked into endless rabbit holes.

In the End

Severing from the internet for a month was incredible. It gave me space to think, focus, and just… be myself.

That said, I’m not advocating becoming a digital hermit.

Going 100% offline comes at a cost: you lose access to those life-changing nuggets of info and global perspectives you simply can’t find easily in the real world.

I grew up in a quiet, little mountain town, and I’m glad I had the internet. It opened up a whole new world to me.

I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Heck, I might have ended up in prison—or even dead—if I hadn’t had the ability to learn stuff online.