I’ve been doing my little productivity experiment for almost a week now and I’m actually getting some results out of it.
I’ve been pretty much 100% consistent with getting up at 7am and I’ll probably start getting up at 6 am soon as well.
Besides becoming an early riser, I was also supposed to cut down on reading e-mail, Facebooking, Twittering and randomly browsing the web.
Most of the time I’ve been able to limit the time I’m reading and responding to e-mail, keeping track of what’s going on on Facebook, Twitter etc. and instant messaging to one hour between 12 pm and 1 pm.
Something I haven’t yet figured out though is to be 100% consistent with this. It’s dead simple to avoid these things in the morning (I tend to be a lot more motivated and get more stuff done in the morning) but during evenings I find that I become pretty easily distracted and have a tendency to fire up Facebook or MSN Messenger and just waste time.
I can’t really figure out why it is this way, but it would be awesome to track down the reason. So during this week I’m going to challenge myself to find a way to stay productive and focused during evenings as well.
Do you have any tips and pointers on how to achieve this?
11 comments so far leave a comment ↓
Rachel
June 30th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I find it’s easy to get distracted by the computer or tv in the evenings so I like to go outside and remove myself from the temptation.
I might go to the gym or for a walk or swim. It’s also a great excuse to catch up with friends mid-week! I find that although it is still time out from GTD I feel healthier and refreshed afterwards and I’ve really enjoyed my evening rather than idly trawling Twitter or 800 cable channels! I’m convinced it’s helped my productivity levels. Perhaps if you do it enough to get out of the web surfing habit you’ll find you can stay in and work late sometimes as well?
Junior
July 1st, 2009 at 2:56 am
Dude i feel you.. To be honest get a nagging GF or just pull the plug.. but it aint easy any way :S
Sebastian Johnsson
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
@Rachel
Good tips! I usually go for a walk in the evening and usually it makes me more focused when I sit down to work or generally try to do stuff.
The funny thing is that this week I’ve actually been able to get a lot of stuff done in the evenings - without figuring out exactly why.
This whole Motivation vs. Procrastination thing is weird :)
Howard
July 17th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Twitter: I use Seesmic Desktop to collate all my important Twitter accounts. The userlist and searches are a real life saver.
Aislinn O'Connor
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I wish I knew the answer to this one - many of my best Twitter friends come online just when any sane person here is going to bed. I promise myself I’ll only have ten minutes with them… and then, several hours later, I promise it again.
At first I congratulated myself that at least I wasn’t wasting time watching the TV. Now, I realize that watching TV for a little while before I go to bed lets me wind down for the night. Tweeting till bedtime means I go to bed wide awake with my mind racing - and, of course, all the programs that I like to watch have long since finished.
Maybe what we need is for someone to invent a device that automatically turns the computer off for the night, and won’t let it restart till the next day.
Anybody know where I can find one?
Sebastian Johnsson
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm
@Aislinn:
Something you can try if you do want to cut down on tv is to read before you go to bed. Non-fiction (books about business, internet, marketing etc.) works for me but some people like to wind down with fiction.
Haha, you can probably put on a timer or something for a given electrical outlet so that there’s no power for the computer during the night. But, that doesn’t stop you if you have a laptop. I guess the best “device” is to unlearn the need to sit at the computer late at night. But hey, that’s a hard one :)
Steve Baik
September 5th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Sebastian,
Thanks for this post. I read it, and for some reason it kind of inspired me.
I think I’ll try cutting down on my internet time as well.
Regards,
Steve
LENNergy
March 16th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Exxcellent- I have been thinking about how addictive surfing is. Gonna surf a bit more and then take your advice. LOL
LENNergy
March 16th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Excellent- I have been thinking about how addictive surfing is. Gonna surf a bit more and then take your advice. LOL
traffic building
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:42 pm
These tasks can definitely be time burners.
However, I think a person who makes their living online needs to surf and look around from time to time in order to see what is happening out there. The KEY is learning to control and limit it ….
Mary
June 21st, 2010 at 7:56 pm
OH MY GOD, yes! i think yo should come with a outline how to cut down from social addition.
I agree with you, some tmes (most of the time lately) i was a lot of time just checking email, facebook, twitting, random browsing. Then when i check the time i have spend most of my productive hours, and im exhausted with no interest in starting up my projects or study ( i have about 2 certification seems trying to get and i just put social first). aaaaah
But now that i accidentally found your blog (on one of my random browsing). I started to think why we do this?
I think one aswers is the fact we work from home. Freelancers, consultants and enterprenuars. This is the problem, we cut of from the normal social interaction that we get at an office, so we are just humans, and we need that conection of camaredy to fullfilll that need. Im not saying we are needy people, and I’m perfectly find working at my home office and love the peace of been quite and alone while i work (which i cannot get in an office environment), but the fact that we are not constrain by time (we are our own boss and hours), well that also doesn’t help.
I guess at one point we have to do what you did, and acknowledged that this is waste of time, and make a list of TO DO THINGS AND STICK TO IT.
Well so right now im closing all my tabs and going to write an email im suppose to be writing to a potential client, instead of doing what im doing right now.. lol. see. aaaah.
PS. Sorry, i did not checkspell..