Have you ever got “that email?”
The email with eight paragraphs and eleven questions?
Or how about “that guy” who pops-up on your IM?
You have to frantically set your status to “busy” or “offline” or be prepared for an interruption.
These are two extremes that we face everyday online, but even legitimate uses of e-messaging can wreck your productivity.
Here’s how you can stop the Internet from wrecking your productivity!
Are You Part of the Problem?
The first thing you can do to stop the Internet from wrecking your productivity is, “don’t be that guy.”
- Don’t be the annoying IM-er.
- Don’t write books (aka: long emails).
- Don’t ask Google-able questions.
Either you’re part of the problem or part of the solution. If you value other peoples time more than your own, it will effect the online culture around you. Moreover, when you engage in online communication, people will listen closer. You won’t have “worn out your welcome.”
Turn off IM
Only turn your IM on when you need to have some real time communication with someone specifically. This may not be a prime strategy for you unless you have a lot of people on your contact list. You can also set your default IM status as, “Email if you want to IM” or something to that effect. This puts you in the drivers seat of IM communication.
As Aaron Shapiro said in his Fast Company post, 3 Proven Strategies To Keep The Internet From Killing Your Productivity:
IM is simply an invitation for people to interrupt your work and ask you trivial questions.
This can also be applied to smartphone use.
Email Checks
I admit it. I have email check-in syndrome. There are a number of ways to deal with email check-in syndrome, but one of the ways to to save time in your day is to turn off email notifications. Those few seconds you use checking to see if you’ve got new email or untracking your mind to notice the “new mail” pop-up add-up. Like skimming pennies off the dollar, you lose more time to email checks than you realize. Only check your email at certain times of the day. Set aside time dedicated to email communication.
That leads to another point regarding your email time.
If you have to write more than one paragraph, use the phone, and make it a rule to respond to an email after you read it. Otherwise, you’ll be reading the same email two or three times!
Social Media
Schedule time for social media. Get rid of the notifications, and only use social media at certain times of the day, otherwise, it will steal your day.
Once it’s a scheduled activity like anything else, it doesn’t become a filler that takes up your entire day.
About a year ago, I used a Google Chrome extension, Stay Focused. You can add any URL and tell it how much time you are allowed to spend at the URL per day. Once you reach your quota, it blocks the page. This was very effective for me and established some healthy online habits.
“Go Dark”
I’ve seen this as a growing trend on Twitter and even on the 8BIT team Yammer backchannel.
- “I’m going off the grid.”
- “Going dark, back tomorrow.”
- “Turning-off Twitter for the week. #headdown”
If you’re slammed on a project or coming up on a deadline, you may want to consider muting your social media channels.
How About You?
I would love to hear from you!
Tell me, how do you stop the Internet from wrecking your productivity?
Now, get back to work 😉
[via Fast Company | Image via monkeyc.net]
Peter says
oh my gosh Eric, your post really hit home because I have struggled with things that divert my attention for a long time, especially Twitter, e-mail, and reading tech news. I have Twitter and reading the news under control but e-mail is still sometimes a struggle. So now I do what you suggest and I “go dark” by completely closing Outlook.
One thing that I do recommend to all your readers that has been a tremendous help for me is investing in a Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It saves me a ton of time by not having to type e-mails, social media updates etc. because I can just speak everything. This has literally saved me 2 to 3 hours a day because it’s the equivalent of typing 100 words per minute!
Anyone interested can buy it from Dragon directly. They gave me $20 off my order when I called them and ordered over the phone. http://www.nuance.com/for-individuals/by-product/dragon-for-pc/home-version/index.htm
Eric Dye says
Cool! Thanks, Peter!
Jonathan Mould says
Definitely trying out the chrome extension… Facebook first on the list!
Eric Dye says
How is it working for you?
Eleanor says
I’ve been doing more dark time lately. It’s hard to train people on sometimes though – I tell people I’m going off email for an afternoon to write, but they’ll still send me emails they expect immediate response to. It’s worth it though, productivity-wise, in the long term.
Great list!
Eric Dye says
Thanks, Eleanor!
It’s scary when people start expecting immediate responses to email, eh!
Joanna says
When I have things to be one that require intense focus, all forms of chat are logged out. When I’m doing stuff that can be interrupted for something important, I set my facebook chat to only show me online to people listed as close friends. The close friends list is made up of people who may have some genuine need to talk to me (actual close friends, some of my study group and people I’m working with on ministry projects). It avoids getting sucked into those rambling conversations with people you have only seen twice in the last few years who just want to have pointless conversations.
For a while when I had a particularly tight run of writing deadlines, I used a firefox pluggin that blocked me out of social media and other distractions (google reader, phd comics, amazon ect.) during my normal working hours. I also had it set to lock me out late at night so I would be more likely to get offline and get a proper amount of sleep.
Eric Dye says
Awesome.
Way to be pro active!