I gave up cable tv over two years ago. I don’t even have a TV antenna. The only shows I get to watch now are those I buy in DVD’s or those I download from P2P. I can, for the last two years, schedule my purely entertainment viewing without interfering with more important tasks. My new time-waster: Mindlessly devouring content on every internet link I can click on.
It’s not uncommon for me to google for a zip code to a particular address and find myself, two hours later, googling anecdotes for a little-known war hero, murdered by his own men during his sleep, who lived in that town.
It’s literally television all over again.
I’ve recently implemented adjustments to my online reading habits so I can continue to enjoy reading interesting stuff without impinging on other things I need to get done.
Maybe you’d like to implement the same or start from them and create your own.
1. Finish reading an article FIRST before clicking on any links in the page
This was the crucial first step as clicking on every interesting link has become, to me, the internet counterpart of mindlessly surfing tv channels. Tabbed browsing has allowed this to become convenient and it’s an extremely easy trap to fall into.
Additionally, websites are always trying to get you to stay longer in their site, or view discussions from friendly sites, as a way to maximize pageviews and foster friendly relatinships with other internet authors, so they are intentionally structured to get you to click again and again to all sorts of different places.
If it’s a primarily content website, all the info you need is likely on the main article and the links are mere supplementation or clarification. if it’s one of those human newsbot weblogs (of fine hypertext links), as Guy Kawasaki refers to it, just click on the main link and ignore the rant.
2. Download entire websites for offline viewing
I use HTTrack for this. I’ve done this with long-running blogs that I’ve only recently discovered and whose posts I intend to read in their entirety. I view them literally offline - on a machine with no internet connection - so there are no outlinks whatsoever.
3. Take notes instead of opening links immediately
I use another software, Keynote, for writing down various points as well as relevant links for later checking. It’s a three-dimensional notepad with tabs and nodes, allows text formatting, and exports to RTF. I only open one Keynote and do all my writing from there, as opposed to 10 notepads and 5 word documents. It’s one of the most useful tools in my desktops.
Instead of clicking on link after link, I just copy each link in a tab called, say, User-editable HTML Grids, under a node called Links.
If I finish the article and I still have some questions, I check the links for seeming relevancy and open them one by one.
4. For reading new posts and updates, use a newsfeed software
Download a newsfeed software from the internet. There are tons of them, some free, some with low cost, but they are really a great help. I personally use an older version of FeedDemon, which is not freeware.
While I have groupings to organize the feeds I subscribe to, I have a “Page 1″ Group which is the default group my feedreader opens to. This contains all the websites I frequently check like Stevepavlina, Problogger and Lifehack.
I also check the titles first. If the title interests me, I read the rest. If not, I skip. While I’m sure I’m missing some good content because of it, I don’t lose any sleep. I read latest posts mostly for my amusement anyway.
5. Set schedules
There’s seriously no point to me in reading every website I fancy or posting to every forum I am a member of every single day.
So I manage them. I check my newsfeeds every morning, drag all the titles I like to my news bin and schedule them for later reading. I post to forums only twice, at most three times a week.
IN CONCLUSION
If you notice yourself using the internet like you used the TV in the past, it’s time to do some reorganizing. You can follow my personal guidelines above or create your own. The important thing is to be conscious of how you are using the medium, minimize passive browsing, and use it as aid to maximize your important efforts instead of delay it.
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