Optimizing Your Time Online

By Michael Fletcher On July 12, 2011 · 18 Comments

I find that my online time is often unstructured and extremely unexciting going through the same routine refreshing pages on social media sites and generally waiting for things to happen. It doesn’t have to be this way!

Why have a structured surfing schedule?

You have a truckload of goals, personal goals, professional goals, social goals and whole host of other goals I haven’t thought of. All the information you need is out there on the web. l haven’t seen it out there but I have faith that for pretty much any problem you encounter some helpful soul has posted a solution. The only reason you still haven’t found your solution? You haven’t been looking. In life we thrive on routine, achieving goals require chains of complex unrelated non-routine activities which quite frankly leave us all feeling uneasy.

Ok Ok so I need a web surfing schedule now what?

Go grab a pen and paper and write down the areas in which you have goals.
In most cases you are probably visiting a site on this topic already use Google to find similar sites buy using the “related” command in order to use it, just type related:<website> in the Google search box and it will give you a list of sites similar to the one you’ve selected. This is also a great tool to check out who your competition is if you have a website or blog.
Now schedule some time weekly to go web site scraping, no not the bad kind of scraping where you steal info. Go forth and scrape the sides and corner of the web looking for content.
Set a time limit on your social networking. Sites like twitter are very useful as they don’t require a huge investment of time however some other site can cause users to fall into the trap of sitting waiting for content. It’s the social networking equivalent of 500 tv stations and nothing to watch, so you end up app surfing bad plan. Approach your social networking with a plan. If everyone you know is online spend time catching up. if no one is online maybe send some personal messages to friends you haven’t spoken to in a while. Send the boss the link to an interesting site you visited. Send a proffessional message to a client reminding them you’re still alive and care about your relationship with them. Social media/networking can add a great deal of value to your life and business. Use it don’t let it use you.
Move work that doesn’t need to be done online offline. I’ve often popped online to update a post or write an e-mail only to end up being swept away down a river of unneccesary information by a single errant click. I find typing my e-mails and blog posts offline I can reduce the risk of being distracted by the bright shiny lights of the internet.
Do the most important things first. Start your schedule with items that have fixed times to them like writing a post or checking your web analytics. Leave more open ended tasks like checking your Rss feeds, researching a post or social networking for last. This way you know that the important things are done which will quieten your mind considerably and you won’t feel the time pressure to complete these tasks so you can move on to what you know must be done.
Share site you find with your network and encourage other to do the same. The web is huge don’t re-invent the wheel involve your contacts and find out what they’re tracking that you’re not it’ll save you heaps of time. Perhaps use your social media sites to pose the question, or start a group or a Lens asking the question “what site do you spend the majority of your time on” the sky is the limit.

I hope you find this list to be useful I believe if you can find more structure in the way you approach your time on the net you’ll soon start finding the web your best ally in achieving your goals rather than a distraction from it.

Update

I recently started using Evernote, see my Evernote Review. I have found this tool indispensible for capturing bits of text or even whole pages from sites I’d like to keep as reference. I highly recommend using Evernote to keep track of your reading material and even of your time online. Evernote’s biggest advantage is that everything is stored online so you can access your notes from virtually anywhere.