Being Productive on the Internet vs Wasting Time

There are so many things you can do online, but making the most and being productive on the internet is a very useful habit that is hard to master.

I’ve realised, as I’ve gotten older, time becomes a finite resource, one that I wasted so much of looking back at my university / school days. So here’s my current most viewed sites, as well as places I should visit more often (not including emails).

Where I Actually Spend My Time

• Reddit
  • They call this place the front page of the internet
  • It’s a social news and bulletin board site, where users (posters and lurkers) vote (upvote / downvote) on the quality of the post
  • Those entries that are popular, both original submissions and comments, are placed higher up on the thread whilst those with downvotes get pushed to the bottom and become hidden
  • There’s a lot of entertainment that can be taken out of Reddit, my favourite ‘subreddits’ are AMA (Ask Me Anything), TIL (Today I Learned) and Ask Reddit
  • There are more subreddits for many niche interests
• OzBargain
  • I have a love/hate relationship with this site
  • It’s a great place to find a bargain
  • But it’s also a great place to waste your money on things you don’t necessarily need, but buy anyway because it’s just so cheap
• Facebook
  • No introduction or link needed
  • This is such a time sink, but I have gradually reduced the amount of time I actually spend here.
  • I just need to reduce the frequency now
  • I do feel that Facebook has made our generation much more narcissistic, and promotes anti-social behaviour (FB ‘investigating’ and jealousy through fear of missing out otherwise known as #FOMO)
• Feedly
  • This is probably my only ‘good habit’
  • Feedly is service which is known as an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader
  • What this means is that it ‘subscribes’ to websites and when they post new content, the RSS reader will grab that new post and collect it for you
  • This means you can read and watch all your favourite news / blogs / comics / videos from one place
  • Some of the news sites I’m subscribed to include: Inc, Lifehacker, Engadget, Ars Technica, Mashable, The Next Web, Wired and Gizmodo
  • Don’t forget to subscribe to my feed! – LINK
• YouTube
  • Moving pictures!
  • A tonne of fun that you can share with friends, but 95% a waste of time
  • There are some great educational videos, though there are better places to find these
  • I mainly watch videos on: dance, computer game playthroughs and basketball

Where I Should Spend More of My Time

• UDemy, Coursera and other Massive Online Open Courses
  • Further education and learning, it’s always good to continue learning after you’ve finished with formal education
  • A lot of courses are free, but premium content requires payment though a worthwhile investment
  • Courses include video recordings as well as other materials such as slide notes and links to further readings
• Codeacademy
  • A very useful skill which I’ve been trying to learn, but it takes a commitment and getting into the habit of doing some coding every day to really retain everything to be able to code in a practical sense
  • The lessons are very intuitive, and start from the most basic, so no prior knowledge is required to start learning
• Feedly (see above)
  • To keep up to date with news and what’s been happening in your area of interest and expertise
  • Ability to save articles that might be of use in the future
  • Convenient and quick – with its Android and iOS app, you can read on the fly
  • I’d advise those use it to familiarise yourself with the keyboard shortcuts (see image)
• TED
  • It stands for ‘Technology, Entertainment, Design’ with its slogan as ‘ideas with spreading’
  • The site is full of videos which are both inspiring and educational that open your eyes to ideas by some great speakers
  • There is a lot of discover, but one of the best parts are the speakers themselves who are so passion during their presentation
  • A great place to pick up some pointers in presentation skills whilst learning a thing or two

So where do you spend most of your time online? Any other places you’d like to spend that’ll make you more productive? Let me know what you think.