Dick Logan

The Internet is crammed with so much information and entertainment that it constantly distracts you from your productivity goals and ultimately leaves you with no money at the end of the day. Here are the top 5 sites that destroy productivity:

5. Gmail

Believe it or not, e-mail may not seem like a productivity waster but all that occasional checking really adds up. I know friends that check their e-mail inbox 70 to 80 times per day. With such frequent checking, it’s nearly impossible for them to get any work done.

Solution:

Luckily, the solution for constant mail checking is easy. Download Google’s Gmail Notifier and you’ll be notified from your taskbar every time you receive a new message. Voila, no more wasted productivity checking mail.

4. Web-Browser Based Games

Browser-based games are not only fun but addicting, most averaging you at least an hour or more of lost productivity time per day. My two favorite browser-based games could cause me to go all day without getting any work done at all if I let them. For the sake of your own good, I’ve decided not to mention them here in case you’re not addicted to them already.

Solution:

Fixing this isn’t going to be as easy as just downloading some program. Take the game in moderation, set a fixed start and stop time for yourself and stick with it. You’re allowed to have fun, but too much fun will never bring home a paycheck.

3. Facebook

Facebook is the grand-daddy of social networking productivity killers. People spend hours browsing through their friends and their friend’s friend’s profiles while they should be doing something more productive like homework or web development. Now with the addition of Facebook apps, there seems to be an unlimited amount of excuses to keep checking back.

Solution:

Fortunately for some, facebooking does get a bit old after a while. I now only log into facebook once a day to check other people’s status or wall posts, surfing through profiles has just become too much. If you’re interest hasn’t faded, try to limit yourself to only half the amount of times you visit in a day (e.g. If you usually log in ten times a day cut it down to five). Keep doing this until you feel you’ve reached a good medium. It would also be a really good idea to forward facebook notification emails to your spam folder so you’re not tempted to log back in. If that still doesn’t work, you could always consider the drastic measure of *gasp* inactivating your account.

2. Youtube

Youtube is a huge productivity drain because you can spend hours and hours of watching videos on it and not gain a single slice of knowledge or information from it. Although the videos may be entertaining, how are you going to improve yourself and be motivated to create something worthwhile by watching Mr. Pregnant?

Solution:

Refrain from browsing through the related videos when you came there to watch just one. Usually the related videos are not as exciting or as good as the one you came to view there anyways. If the site has the Youtube player embedded, play the video on the site instead of having to visit Youtube so you can avoid the temptation of watching the countless other videos posted.

1. Digg

Digg is one of the most if not most informative site on the Internet. However, just because it’s informative doesn’t mean it’s good for productivity. Digg’s thought-provoking articles will cause you to think about one thing and then the next something completely different. With all this thinking going on, there’s no time for doing, like solving an article’s problem or completing your work. Knowledge is power but worthless if you don’t do anything with it.

Solution:

Wait until the end of the day to read the topics on Digg. The biggest problem with Digg as with many productivity wasters is that it’s continually updated every few minutes. This causes people to keep hitting refresh over and over again until a new story pops up, wasting your time. By reading at night you won’t have to wait for the next article to appear because you’ll be satisfied with all of the stories presented earlier in the day.

Don’t forget to remove your bookmarks for all of these sites as well. You’ll be less likely to visit if you have to type in the address instead of clicking a button. Follow these tips you’ll definitely find yourself with more productivity time.