Would I be more productive without the internet?
January 29, 2007
I suspect most work places have a policy in place regarding acceptable use of the internet whilst at work.
My own personal policy on internet use is fairly lenient: as long as it doesn’t interfere with my productivity, as long as I can still fructify and am not causing anybody else’s work to be needlessly tardy, using the internet at any time should be acceptable.
What I consider inappropriate internet use at work:
::online gambling
::looking at inappropriate pictures / reading inappropriate material [sexually explicit or related to violence or hate mongering]
::anything that involves the use of the internet to make money [running a side business, for example]
And then there are those things that I probably shouldn’t do, and I’m not saying that I do them ;), but they aren’t quite grave enough to make the above list:
::chatting via a web-based messenger system
::blogging or reading blogs
::reading postings / making postings on forums or newsgroups
::emailing from a private email account [non-work related material]
Although some purists like my father don’t believe in taking a break from work to surf the internet, I’m sure studies have been done on the benefit of taking a step away from a particularly thorny problem by emailing a friend about the evening’s plans. Or responding to a forum post about breakdancing. Or wishing your friend whose online name says “Interview in 2 hours!” a quick good luck. The change of pace might be just what was needed to unclog the mental block.
Another way to measure acceptable use is if you find that you’re spending more time online than doing your work, that’s probably unacceptable. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that.
oooh. wordygurdy word of the day: fructify
and also, as I'm responding to this whilst at work, and surfing the net, whist at work, would the fact that this may not be acceptable work-related internet usage disqualify me from any potential prize?
Gotta be fructify!
Sadly, I used to have a job that required me to hunt down internet abusers like you and execute them. Now, I stay at home and surf the internet all day. I'm sure my husband would like to impose some internet usage rules on me so that more housework gets done!
fruit the fly is the word. Ive noticed your not online with the google gmail?
are you cutting back on the online chatting?
Fructify is my guess too!
Yeah – the did actually did a study, and found that in an average workday (7.5 hours) people surfed the net for 2.5 hours. yup, One third of the "productive" work time. I heard this on the radio a couple of years back – so I don't remember the day of the study. Although… a few kids have loaned out parts of their memory to me – so we'll see, maybe it'll hit me.