Right off the top, this post is not a need for many of you. For most broadband users, the amount of data you use month by month is not a concern. Until I moved to a more rural location, that was the case for me.

But for those who are like me — living in a location without broadband access — data transfer can be an issue. I’d like to take a look at three ways to make the best of the situation.

Anyone who has to access the Internet via Satellite or through a mobile network (3G, HSPA etc.) knows that in these cases, the more you use, the more you pay. I went from a broadband user who paid $40 per month and used  8 GB of data per month on average. After the move and switching to a HSPA network, the same data usage would cost me approximately $175 per month.

Obviously, this is a disadvantage to my more simplistic, rural living. But as someone who runs a business via the Internet, being online is a necessity. I immediately started to look at ways I could reduce my bandwidth usage each month.

Here are my tips so far.

Monitor

Get to the bottom of your usage.

First things first — you need to identify what activities and applications are using all the bandwidth. Which of your day-to-day acitivities require you to download or upload a lot of data? Which applications are quietly transferring data in the background without your knowledge?

You can’t improve the situation if you don’t know the answer to those questions.

For OS X users, there are apps such as Little Snitch and SurplusMeter that you can use to tell you how much bandwidth you use.

Change Your Habits

Once you establish where the data is being used, you can then look for habits to change to reduce the amount.

In my case, there are not a few of activities that take big chunks of my bandwidth. I don’t download movies or a lot of music. It’s more a case of death by a thousand cuts.

We use Dropbox extensively at Fusion. It’s a great addition for a young startup with co-founders on the opposite ends of the country. But I started to wonder how much bandwidth I was using with each Command + S.

A simple change to working on files locally and then using a CRON job to automate the syncing of my local copy to Dropbox is just one example of how I’m attempting to decrease my overall usage.

Get Out of the Home Office

Another option is to work from another location from time to time. Not only will that cut down on your usage, but it can be a refreshing change of scenery.

Take advantage of free wifi where possible.

Luckily for me, my contract with my carrier gives me unlimited free wifi from any Starbucks across the country (the True North Strong and Free that is). And so I’ve updated my routine — once a week I head to one of the Starbucks locations in town, order a Grande bold roast, and settle down to work.

This opens up another opportunity for me — I queue up all the items for download from the course of the week. Big items like operating system updates, music, and new software to fiddle with all get downloaded on the free wifi.

Not only does it cut down on my bandwidth at home, but it also helps me to stay on focus 4 days of the week. Playing with shiny new software is saved up for the day away from home base.

Do You Really Need to Watch That YouTube Video?

In the end, my productivity has increased as I weigh the cost of clicking on each link that comes across my Twitter-stream. Part of me is thankful for this unwanted restriction.

In the end, if you are in a similar cirucmstance, take a step back and look at your work week with a critical eye. With some forward thinking, you can make the most of the situation.