Maximize Your Internet Time

The web can be a great tool. Email makes communicating very convenient. Blogs and RSS feeds enable us to keep track of massive amounts of helpful content. All of these things are supposed to make life easier for us and save us time, but often they take more time than we should be devoting to them.

Scott Young shares some tips for how he cut 75% of his time on the Internet and maximized his productivity.

1. Make it Daily
   Find a specific time of day you will leave for internet time. . . . Consistency is crucial when making a pattern of behavior, so constantly changing the time or conditions I run the ritual would make it less effective.
2. Prioritize
   Write down on a piece of paper the numbers one through ten. Use this list to prioritize the importance of various sites, inboxes and forums you visit. . . .
3. Queue It Up
   Once I’ve created a list of internet sites to check, my next goal is to queue up all the places I will visit along my browsers toolbar. This cuts out time typing in address names or searching for a specific part of a larger site. . . .
4. Set a Time Limit
   Your ritual may be a little faster, but it won’t really improve your productivity unless you set a time limit. . . . Normally I keep my time limit between 30-45 minutes. . . .
5. Group all Internet Activity into One Point
   Grouping all your net activity onto your daily ritual keeps it from creeping out and stealing time from your day. . . .
6. Make it a Habit
   Take out a thirty day trial to help reinforce your new internet ritual. If you want tips on how to make it a habit, check out my Habitual Mastery series or stay tuned for my upcoming book, How to Change a Habit. . . .

Read the whole post.

HT: Brian Collins

You may also find these related posts helpful.

• Mark Goodacre: How access to the internet interferes with writing
• Jim West: Again, I’m Forced to Disagree with Mark
• Rick Brannan: To blog or not to blog? The answer is “yes”
• Mark Goodacre: I am not thinking of giving up blogging

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