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Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#31

Post by menloparkbum »

bobp wrote: post #29
teaquaffer wrote: post #8

Is the problem that you spend to much time online, or that you don't like what you're working on?

You nailed it. Lately I've been bored by my work. When I'm excited about what I'm working on, the problem is much less serious.

Try to avoid extraneous sites (and email and IM, if possible) until you've gotten something done. I.e. don't start your day off with surfing and email. If you are bored by your work it is too easy to not get started and just continue reading stuff online. The effect of this is that by the time you get around to doing work, your brain is totally scrambled by all the stuff you just piped into it - making it even harder to finish the boring stuff you need to do, and more tempting to just return to the distractions.

At least that is how it is for me. I've found that if I have boring work stuff to do, the ONLY way I can get it done in any sort of reasonable time frame is to just immediately dive into it and barrel through it as soon as I wake up. (actually after I wake up and do a bit of exercise)

Of course any super rich and successful person will tell you the real way to solve the boring work problem is to convince someone else to do it for you, so you can spend more time keeping up on things. :)

Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#33

Post by abijlani »

Create a list of 4 tasks to get done for that day. If you get all 4 done, reward yourself by being able to view the sites you love. If you get them done really quickly then of course you would need a longer list. I find 4 to be my magic number. Oh and these tasks have to have the highest priority.

Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#34

Post by Tichy »

I recently took on a new Java consulting job and I was very intent not to surf the internet while surfing. However, the work once again turned out so be so mind-numbing that I quickly gave up on that (for example waiting minutes for maven builds - what's a brain to do with itself??).

I need the news to have at least some interesting input to my mind occasionally. It is like coffee breaks for me (I'd like to wean off coffee, too, but I don't see how I could stand 8 hours at the office without it). Like coffee, I suppose the effects of web surfing are not entirely negative.

The other day an interesting problem came up at work and I was able to concentrate on it without the surfing breaks. So it really depends on what you are doing (at least for me).

Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#35

Post by klahnako »

warwick wrote: post #13

Any site I find myself spending too much time on gets blocked in my hosts file. I still have them available on my iPod Touch. When it's time to work I put the Touch across the room. Since the temptation to read news usually only lasts a second or two, this keeps me on task.

I do the same. I have a script that will update my hosts file at the start and end of each day. All my bookmarked sites are blocked during the work day.

Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#36

Post by yef »

I like to use a timer particularly when I haven't gotten my day started yet. I set it for, say, 15 minutes, and that's my web time. Then I set it for 5 minutes, pick a small task, and try and get it done within that time without losing focus. Repeat that until I'm in the zone.

Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#38

Post by bluelu »

klahnako wrote: post #35
warwick wrote: post #13

Any site I find myself spending too much time on gets blocked in my hosts file. I still have them available on my iPod Touch. When it's time to work I put the Touch across the room. Since the temptation to read news usually only lasts a second or two, this keeps me on task.

I do the same. I have a script that will update my hosts file at the start and end of each day. All my bookmarked sites are blocked during the work day.

This reminds me of me playing games. When I was playing a game too much, I deleted it right away with all the save games so the hussle of reinstalling was too big and I lost interest.

Re: Ask YC: How do you avoid wasting too much time online?

#39

Post by Dylanfm »

I have a few strategies aimed towards reigning in my drifting focus.

> I focus best in 2.5-3 hour blocks. Each day I lock in 2 of these, each focusing on an important task/project. I learned of this with an analogy from my Grandfather - if you have a jar and fill it with sand, nothing else fits in. If you fill a jar with pebbles, all the sand fills in the gaps. The strategy in having these two blocks of focus is that all the sand/smaller tasks fill in the gaps.

> Each week maintain a "top of mind" list containing all the things that are on the top of your mind

> Have a "possibilities" list - the things you want to do, but may not need to right now.

Regarding this constant flow of information:

> I prune RSS feeds by looking at the most active and least needed

> I check RSS feeds before and after work

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