Sep 03 2007
Become a Champion Time Waster Just Like Me
WARNING - If you have no self control and are easily distracted do not read the following post.
Self discipline has never been one of my strong points and I’m not sure that bodes well considering that in starting in December the internet will be my only source of income. In an effort to try and see how much time I waste I’ve compiled a list of the usual suspects. I’ve really got to do something about my wandering mind because I don’t think checking stats, posting to Facebook and commenting on blogs pays very well.
The culprits:
- Google Adsense - Back when I was earning $0.40 per day I checked Adsense a million times a day. Now that I’m making more, it’s up to about a zillion.
- Google Analytics - I don’t understand most of the stats this thing spews forth but I like looking at the pretty graphs.
- Email - I am hooked on checking my email and having a whole load of different accounts really doesn’t do me any favours.
- Affiliate Sales Stats - I’ve got about 6 different affiliate programs going at the moment with only one really earning me any money. I still log into all of them a few times a day with my fingers crossed that I’ve made some massive sales. I like to live in hope.
- Blogs - I only really like blogs about blogging or travel but that still leaves plenty of choice and I’ve been discovering lots of little gems over the past few weeks to provide me with plenty of distractions.
- Forums - Before my discovery of blogs I would do the rounds on a handful of travel and webmaster forums learning a few things here and there but mostly just avoiding doing any work.
- Facebook - Crackbook. Need I say more?
- MyBlogLog - Clicking on little pictures is fun.
- 103 Bees - This cool little gadget lets me know, in minute details, what search terms people are using to find my websites. Why I need to know this or what I can do with this information I do not know.
- Technorati - I haven’t quite figured this one out yet but it looks primed to become another top tool in my quest to waste time.
- Feedburner - This is a new one and had been serving as a distraction 473 times per day but now I feel really dumb because I think it’s only updated daily proving that I truly am a master time waster.
I need to come up with some kind of plan to keep myself away from these little goodies because at the moment I think I’m wasting some serious amounts of time. Are there 12 step programs to ween me off of these highly addictive distractions?
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
When you list all the sites out like that (and I can identify with so many) it’s a wonder we can get anything done!
I’m doing some work at the moment and wanted to kill time so came back to this list to remind myself which sites to visit. Crap. I’m not sure this post was such a good idea!
I know it’s difficult but you need to make a list of the things you want to get done before you start using your computer. Cross off each item before you start checking your email etc. Start reading forums when you feel like you have added something new of value to your sites. I also need to follow this advice. Although I have gotten better and rarely check my affiliate stats these days.
Thanks for the tip Mike. I’m aiming to be productive tonight so I think I’ll give your method a try. I’ve got a section to add to my London site so no playing around until it’s done.
Starting……. now!
Try googling adsense notifier, it puts your adsense stats in your firefox toolbar.
As for facebook I’m getting tempted to close my account cause I waste so much time on it.
Aaaah… sneaky! I’ll do that, thanks for the trip. Now I just need to get into the habit of using FF. Since they banned Facebook at work I don’t have as much to do with it as I used to so hopefully I’ll be able to slowly ween myself off it because it makes too good a distraction!
Have you read Tim Ferriss’ book (The 4-Hour Work Week)? I’m just as obsessive as you with all of the above time-wasters and his book really put many of those obsessions in check.