Decrease Your Procrastination, Increase Your Productivity
Internet procrastination became a real problem, to me and probably to many other people spending a lot of time in front of a computer. Dozens of online news site, social networks, and social news sites (not forget about email) are very popular and at the same time can be very addictive. I’m not a person who does not enjoy a funny picture or strange news story — quite the contrary! However, I realised that my online habits started to affect my work and I had to change something. What I wrote down in this post are the lessons I learned and techniques I used to decrease my procrastination and increase my productivity.
Three Realisations
1. The first thing to realise is, that the Internet (and similarly TV) is never going to stop providing you with new input (or distractions). It’s a black hole — there will always be new funny pictures available on your favorite news site, your colleagues will always have a new awkward YouTube video ready and there will always be a new NSFW link showing the beauty of nature. This is undoubtedly entertaining until it’s becoming an addiction. People (including me) get addicted to, what I call, short-term thrill of new stuff, more pics, and more breaking news.
You can tell you are addicted when it’s not anymore about content but simply about satisfying this urge to see new things quickly. Do you remember the last four links you looked up on your social news site? I certainly don’t.
2. The second thing you need to realise is, that all of this short-term gratification is not providing you with any value. The next link, next video, next comic has no real value to you, except distracting you from your work, eating your time and taking away your focus and motivation to get stuff done. At the end of the day, your confidence is heavily influenced by what you personally achieve (even if it’s just small stuff). Getting stuff done is much more satisfying and rewarding than wasting time online.
3. The third realisation is, that it’s still going to be there tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. You don’t miss anything by not looking at it now. Cats with captions are still funny tomorrow .. you really don’t need it now. That’s a big one. I think all self-aware, but addicted, people will say that this urge of “missing something” is certainly one cause (or symptom?) of the procrastinating habit. Believe me, it’s still going to be there tomorrow. And if it’s real big news you will hear it through CNN, BBC, or your news paper.
Three Cures
What I noticed first when realising my “addiction” was that my thoughts are rushing without being focused. I couldn’t read a written paragraph anymore because it wasn’t giving me the quick input I was looking for. You need to try to slow down your perception in order to increase your attention span.
1. So my first cure-like tip, quite a strange tip when thinking about productivity, is: slow down. Just slow down your thoughts. When you are on a news page like digg or reddit, read the title and register the meaning in your brain. Do I want to click this link? Do I really want to read this news story because of its content? Most of the time, the answer is no. Pick five stories from the front page, load them up in separate tabs and then close the news page. Now read the stories, look at the picture, register them. When you had enough, close them. Don’t go back to the news page.
2. If the first cure is not enough, it’s time to setup some more drastic measures: blocking them. For Firefox, there are a few add-ons which let you block or time-constraint certain pages/domains. I didn’t think it was helping me, but it did a lot. Blocking news pages is probably a bit like throwing away cigarette packs.
The benefits of blocking pages it two-fold: Firstly, you actually have to make a bigger effort (like loading up another browser) to view your news page. Secondly, you realise your urge when the site does not load up but the blocked stub pops up on your screen.
3. The third cure is for people who have trouble starting with their work, e.g. in the morning. The start is always the biggest hurdle, for projects, reports, and similar matter.
The idea how to tackle startup procrastination is quite simple: Start immediately with your first task when you are at work/at your computer/wherever. Don’t check who’s online, what mails you got, whats on the frontpage of news sites. Start right immediately working on your task for say 10 minutes. Then allow yourself to procrastinate a bit, whatever it is what you want, then go back to another focused session of work.
This is similar (but less spartanic) to the technique (10+2)*5 of 42folders.
Now stop reading this page, and get stuff done :)
March 7th, 2009 at 5:45 am
Interesting. I’ll give it a try. If it works, great. If not you’ll have made a powerful enemy!
April 24th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I think that the internet culture most likely has the worst time with fighting procrastination. We’d definately be making more money if we stopped procrastinating and just got it done :)
Easy Google Profit
April 27th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
I think I have a problem with internet procrastination. But this is my main form of entertainment. I don’t see too much wrong with it. Other people will waste time on the phone and such. Everyone’s got their thing. Now, time to stop procrastinating and get back to work :-(
April 30th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I suppose there are worse ways to procrastinate. I’m always really bad at getting my taxes done on time. That could land you in jail. Or how about putting off your yearly physical. That could kill you. Just my two cents, though.
May 17th, 2009 at 11:46 am
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May 30th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Really interesting facts but true ones.
The amount of time we all are spending on TV and on internet is somehow killing the business. It is better for those who have online business but people who have physical business, they are in trouble with these habits.