With distractions of all types just a single click away, completing tasks online in a timely manner can sometimes seem impossible today.
Many people would be the first to tell you that they’re “procrastinating on Facebook” or surfing the web aimlessly, but they might not realize how much time this takes up over the long run and what they might have accomplished otherwise.
Also, since an overwhelming percentage of jobs today involve computer and internet use, learning how to stay productive in a social web full of friends, fun and shiny objects is a vital skill in this day and age. This article will outline a few ideas for how to do it.
How to Avoid Digital Distractions and Increase Productivity
1. Write down a to-do list of tasks to accomplish
A key step to staying productive is to articulate exactly what tasks you need to do and go through the list sequentially.
If you don’t, it’s much easier to get sidetracked and then try to justify your actions afterward. (Yeah, I spent an hour and a half reading blogs but it was all research for my new post.)
Some people like to make a daily list while others prefer to separate it out by project and order tasks by priority.
This way, they avoid the negative feeling when a daily list doesn’t get completely checked off, which is often inevitable.
2. Stop checking email so often
This can often be a major issue because we receive important work messages through email. But does that really justify heading to our inboxes every 5 minutes?
And how many times have you started by responding to a message but then proceeding to read additional emails that don’t need immediate attention?
Once you get in the habit, checking email can be an obsession. Depending on your job, you might be need to be available for immediate reply at all times, but in the majority of situations, those emails aren’t quite as urgent as they might seem.
And if you’re a Gmail user, Gchat is sitting right there in your inbox, with the potential for even more distraction if you remain available.
3. When reading something for work purposes, avoid clicking on new stories
In many cases, we have to surf the internet to read articles for work purposes. But sticking to that one story can be extremely difficult, as all major websites are optimized to encourage clicking on additional pages and staying on the site as long as possible.
Keep your focus on the story in the center, not the sidebar featuring “top stories” or articles that your Facebook friends have shared.
If you do notice something that you really want to read, you can use a browser add-on such as Pocket or Evernote to quickly mark it for future reading. Then you can designate a set time of the day to go back through things you have saved.
4. Designate a period of time for personal surfing and social networks
Most of us enjoy perusing social networks and chatting with our friends, but this should be separated from work-related tasks (and also not done simultaneously to another task).
Rewarding yourself with some Facebook or blog reading time is fine after checking a few things off your to-do list, but keeping an eye on the clock is always a good idea.
5. Consider disconnecting from the internet entirely when doing something important.
A final idea is to actually pull the plug and disconnect from your network when you’re in the middle of an important task.
This is something I’ve resorted to on a few occasions when I kept finding myself heading back to the web for “research” or to see if that important email had arrived.
When writing a big article, for example, I’d pull up any resources I needed beforehand, so I didn’t need to be online to access them.
Hopefully this post gives you some ideas for staying productive on the social web. If you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
Awesome, Michael! I think the email reduction is a great idea; it can really take up so much of your time without even really noticing. I agree that it can be a big step to ditch the cell, but maybe once you get going you’ll feel even more inspired! Definitely let us know how it all goes for you.
I’ve started working as a freelancer years ago, and I can confirm that time management is an important aspect of the success this kind of work might bring. The distractions caused me tons of problems as well, but I learned to cope with them. Not long ago I decided to outsource several things to other freelancers and I have an employee monitor software to make sure I am not being scammed and to prevent them from being distracted by unnecessary things while working, too. They responded well to this software and said it helps them focus because they know someone is watching over them. I guess controlling yourself is the hardest part of working from your own home.
I’ve started working as a freelancer years ago, and I can confirm that time management is an important aspect of the success this kind of work might bring. The distractions caused me tons of problems as well, but I learned to cope with them. Not long ago I decided to outsource several things to other freelancers and I have an employee monitor software to make sure I am not being scammed and to prevent them from being distracted by unnecessary things while working, too. They responded well to this software and said it helps them focus because they know someone is watching over them. I guess controlling yourself is the hardest part of working from your own home.
Hi Leonard, I agree that now a day’s employee monitoring a very much useful for it can help employers to take a glimpse of employees on how they use their computer at work. I also agree that using these tools can help employees to stay focus on work and improve productivity. However, there are things you should also consider in order to manage employees effectively. There are different approaches to employee monitoring and not of it is useful. One good reason that employees are against with employee monitoring is it invade employees privacy that can low morale of employees as well as their productivity. You can check this article that discusses what is ethical monitoring? It can give you ideas on how to monitor employees without invading employee’s privacy.
Hi Leonard, I agree that now a day’s employee monitoring a very much useful for it can help employers to take a glimpse of employees on how they use their computer at work. I also agree that using these tools can help employees to stay focus on work and improve productivity. However, there are things you should also consider in order to manage employees effectively. There are different approaches to employee monitoring and not of it is useful. One good reason that employees are against with employee monitoring is it invade employees privacy that can low morale of employees as well as their productivity. You can check this article that discusses what is ethical monitoring? It can give you ideas on how to monitor employees without invading employee’s privacy.
Staying productive is another best option for the work approach. And being online is the coolest line of segment I think. Normally people choose out for a plenty of reasons to be productive and practically streamlined in the possible sense of achieving the goal but with the same approach I think that the usage of tool which makes a better sense makes a good understanding. The one such thing that I prefer to be the best option in terms of the productivity is time management.
I’m starting my email-habit change today! One hour in the morning, one in the evening, that’s it. Let’s see how much it increases my productivity…
Next step, find a way to turn off my cell phone during my work hours.. might have to build up to that one tho 😉
Awesome, Michael! I think the email reduction is a great idea; it can really take up so much of your time without even really noticing. I agree that it can be a big step to ditch the cell, but maybe once you get going you’ll feel even more inspired! Definitely let us know how it all goes for you.
I think the email is my personal weakness. i feel like it can get out of control if I let it build up. But then maybe I should work on that?
Nice blog!
Thanks, Bradley! I’d definitely say email is one of the toughest to manage effectively.
I’ve started working as a freelancer years ago, and I can confirm that time management is an important aspect of the success this kind of work might bring. The distractions caused me tons of problems as well, but I learned to cope with them. Not long ago I decided to outsource several things to other freelancers and I have an employee monitor software to make sure I am not being scammed and to prevent them from being distracted by unnecessary things while working, too. They responded well to this software and said it helps them focus because they know someone is watching over them. I guess controlling yourself is the hardest part of working from your own home.
I’ve started working as a freelancer years ago, and I can confirm that time management is an important aspect of the success this kind of work might bring. The distractions caused me tons of problems as well, but I learned to cope with them. Not long ago I decided to outsource several things to other freelancers and I have an employee monitor software to make sure I am not being scammed and to prevent them from being distracted by unnecessary things while working, too. They responded well to this software and said it helps them focus because they know someone is watching over them. I guess controlling yourself is the hardest part of working from your own home.
Hi Leonard, I agree that now a day’s employee monitoring a very much useful for it can help employers to take a glimpse of employees on how they use their computer at work. I also agree that using these tools can help employees to stay focus on work and improve productivity. However, there are things you should also consider in order to manage employees effectively. There are different approaches to employee monitoring and not of it is useful. One good reason that employees are against with employee monitoring is it invade employees privacy that can low morale of employees as well as their productivity. You can check this article that discusses what is ethical monitoring? It can give you ideas on how to monitor employees without invading employee’s privacy.
Hi Leonard, I agree that now a day’s employee monitoring a very much useful for it can help employers to take a glimpse of employees on how they use their computer at work. I also agree that using these tools can help employees to stay focus on work and improve productivity. However, there are things you should also consider in order to manage employees effectively. There are different approaches to employee monitoring and not of it is useful. One good reason that employees are against with employee monitoring is it invade employees privacy that can low morale of employees as well as their productivity. You can check this article that discusses what is ethical monitoring? It can give you ideas on how to monitor employees without invading employee’s privacy.
Staying productive is another best option for the work approach. And being online is the coolest line of segment I think. Normally people choose out for a plenty of reasons to be productive and practically streamlined in the possible sense of achieving the goal but with the same approach I think that the usage of tool which makes a better sense makes a good understanding. The one such thing that I prefer to be the best option in terms of the productivity is time management.