I should probably have been climbing this rock behind me…
I have a confession to make: I’m addicted to my computer.
When I’m away from it for too long, something just doesn’t feel right. On any given day I may spend 8 to 10 hours sitting in front of this damn thing.
Now, if I was getting 8-10 hours of solid work in, that could actually be a pretty great thing for an entrepreneur. The problem?
I’m not.
If I were to answer honestly, I’d say probably 50% of my time on my computer is actually productive work. You know, creating things or doing activities that directly relate to the bottom line.
The rest of the time? Oh, what’s mom up to on Facebook? I need some interesting things to tweet about, let’s spend 2 hours cruising the web to find some good stuff. These You Tube videos are hilarious.
I spend way too much unfocused time in front of my computer, and you know why? Because I can. We all can. It’s really easy to trick ourselves into thinking we’re being productive. Oh, I did 15 minutes of work, time to take a little break. Before you know it that break turns into an hour and it’s difficult to get back into work mode.
It’s so easy to do, and I bet if you were to ask yourself honestly, you’d agree that a portion, if not the majority of your time at your computer is unproductive.
So let me ask you a question. What if you were to take those 4 hours a day where you’re not being productive and do something away from your computer? I often as myself questions like what if I spent 4 hours a day practicing my golf swing? Or learning piano? Or volunteering for those in need?
How much more enjoyable and fulfilled would my life be – and how many others could benefit in the process?
I’ve learned something. The more time I spend in front of my computer, the less I get done.
If I know I have exactly three hours to get a blog post out or prepare something for a client, I get it done. If I have all day to do the same amount of work, I get it done as well – it just takes me three times as long.
So what if we tried an experiment. What if for a week, you spent half your day doing something you really enjoy. Schedule it in to your day, consolidate any meetings into your work period, and get away from your computer.
I’m willing to bet you’ll end up more productive, happier, and more motivated to make things happen.
When you spend 10 hours a day at a computer but only a fraction of that time is productive, it’s really easy to get depressed and down on yourself. You want to work and be focused but you just can’t do it. It’s human nature these days. With so many shiny objects to distract you, only the absolute most disciplined people can get around it – and I know I’m not one of them.
The days where I sit in front of my computer, doing 15 minutes of work at a time, and convincing myself I’m working hard are the worst. There are times when I find it physically impossible to work. That lack of control makes me question my abilities as an entrepreneur, can lead to a lot of doubt about the trajectory of my business, and can suck the energy and momentum out of a business really quickly.
However, when I schedule time into my day to get away from my computer and do things I enjoy? Amazing things happen. I’m more creative, more motivated, and more excited about what I’m doing.
This is one of the main reasons I always try and choose play over work, because I know if I do so, I’ll still get big obligations done.
So quit kidding yourself. You’re not as productive as you tell yourself you are. You also aren’t doing as many things you could (or should) be doing that you enjoy. So why don’t you start? Schedule your working hours around the time you’re most productive and take the time you would be sitting at your computer and go do something else.
Come back in a week and let me know how you did, I’m willing to bet you’re even more productive than you thought you’d be.
Join The Discussion
Great post Sean. It’s so true too. I can spend all day in front of the computer and get hardly any work done. I like your idea of just blocking out a portion of time just for other activities. Simple but effective. Will definitely incorporate that into my daily routine.
Something that I’ve definitely considered related to this is just taking a day off from the computer and internet each week. I tend not to get as much work done on Saturday, so I try to just avoid the computer and pointless web surfing altogether.
Setting time to disconnect also helps temper expectations. If you’re in the mindset that you need to be working ALL the time, you’re just going to let yourself down since that’s unrealistic.
OMG, I’m glad I’m not the only one!
Because of various circumstances beyond my control, I recently had my internet time restricted to 2-3 hours a day. ALL my remote freelance work, business building, e-mail checking, and entertainment browsing had to be condensed into that time. And guess what? I managed to get everything done! (though I certainly sweated for those 2-3 hours :-p)
PERFECT example. I think forcing myself to try that would be a good little experiment
Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Great post and great reminder, Sean. Thanks!
Sorta works with stuff too doesn’t it? The more space we have, we just get more stuff to put it in! We lived in an RV (200 sq ft) for 6 months and let me tell you it has had a big impact on what I buy. I really had to think about “where am I going to put that” in the RV and it’s continued after I returned home. Now I rarely buy useless trinkets that before I probably would have cause it was “pretty”.
This is exactly what I’m setting myself up to do, I now have a new dog, a new mountain bike and a new trail motorcycle. I’m taking a little more time each day doing exactly what you mention. Stuff away from the computer. So I think cold turkey is hard, you need to be realistic and build into your own time management. Another thing I do is incorporate a mid day nap for like 1-2 hours if I will be in front of my PC that night anyway, i will be more productive and not lazy feeling.
I’ve suffered from the same problem Sean for many years. I’ve found just scheduling time for fun, and “squeezing in” your work so to speak can help, I also work full time, in addition to side projects.
Two programs really help me to paint a realistic picture: Toggl and RescueTime.
It takes being brutal when sitting down to work. Dividing your time worked by your income, and of course the longer spent at the computer, the lower that hourly rate goes.
It goes back to that whole asking myself what did I really get done today of any value….
I used to be the king of staying busy, to make it feel like I was putting my time in and working more so to speak.
So, after reading your post, I definitely think you need to go hiking with me and possibly Kat tomorrow. You will be so much more productive and healthier for it
)
Go-to-the-train-station-now.
Really love this post, as it just fit right into my day of……o i should take a break from work and check out what Sean is up to. You caught me haha. Play over work for sure.
I left my work to….. check my feedly……. to fill up my BufferApp……….. so I could post some good stuff on Twitter…… when I should have ONLY been working on a client……. and I found your latest article.
Oh, the irony.
Great post. I know what you mean about feeling down after sitting in front of a computer for many hours but not feeling like you got that much accomplished.
One way I’ve found to get a very solid and productive hour of work in is to:
1) close all browser tabs not related to what I am working on. so no interruptions from gmail or facebook can happen.
2) exit out of Skype and IM clients so no interruptions from friends or questions from coworkers.
3) put my phone on airplane mode so no text messages or phone calls to interrupt
4) set a timer on my phone for 60 minutes and start working
60 minutes sounds like a long time but i’m always surprised how quickly it passes. the hour is always very productive and my level of concentration very high. and to reward myself, i move on to the final step:
5) immediately undo steps 1-4 and see what you missed in the world while you were being productive
I love this post. I can’t tell how many times I have sit at my computer for hours and at the end it feels like I got nothing accomplished.
My solution is to use a timer. I eliminate all distractions not related to the task and set the timer for 50 minutes. I try to do 4-6 (50 minute sessions) per day. I then reward myself only if I was totally focused during the time I set aside to work.
That’s worked for me in the past too – not sure why I dont do that on a more regular basis. Great tip.
I tend to do what Emile does, close email, G+, twitter, FB and any and all social media and communication apps. Phone isn’t even in the room with me either, it’s in the other room plugged in charging and on silent mode.
Some days I do better than others and I usually find that’s days when I have to also run errands or have a client meeting or something else on top of trying to get a blog post done or work on photos, etc. What I’ve been doing lately that’s working on email while I watch TV or a movie with my husband. So I’m doing double duty – time with spouse and doing email end of day. Then I answer and don’t look at it again until the next evening if I can. That way it’s always 24 hours to an answer.
Or I do it at work like now, LOL.
But great post Sean I’ve been trying to get in some Spanish lessons and never seem to find time, plus I’m doing a blog course by Corbett Barr (start a blog that matters) so far is really helpful even if you have one and have been doing it for a while. I’m going to put those into my calendar for the next week and report back! Thanks for the good kick in the hiney!
I echo an earlier commenter – download RescueTime (free to signup etc) and it will completely traumatise you – there’s nothing so awful as seeing in black and white, the number of hours you’ve spend on facebook/internet/watching tv shows etc..
It is also, however, one of the best things I’ve ever downloaded – with the right attitude, it will spur you to be more productive.
What a timely post. I was just thinking about this very problem earlier today as I was “working” remotely. On the days that I actually accomplish a lot of work, I feel great and feel rewarded by browsing Facebook and Reddit. But on days like today, where I get maybe 30 minutes of solid work in and mindlessly surf the tubes, it just makes me feel like crap. Time to finally get started on that mix I’ve been neglecting
This is so true, and though it has probably been said 200 times before in different ways, reading this now comes at the right time for me. I’ve tricked myself into believing I work hard on those long days behind the laptop and discovered I momentarily forgot what I used to do when not working. That usually comes down to other chores, like cleaning the house. In the back of my mind, I want to use my work hours more productively, spend way more time on my blog, free up more time for… yeah, for what? Time to rebalance (again).
By the way, I really like the clean look of your site.
Yes yes yes yes yes!!!! Isn’t it amazing that so many workplaces are still attached to the concept of people sitting in front of a computer for (at minimum) 8 hours a day? I would love to see a study on how much more productive businesses are that let go of that sort of ridiculousness. I’m so interested right now in how play inspires better “work”… thanks for sharing this, Sean!
For the past two days, I have accomplished nothing related to work. I sat in front of my computer and pretended I was hard at work when really, I wasn’t. I wasted two days.
I didn’t want to go out because I was “busy.”
It’s amazing, you know, the amount of bull we can tell ourselves.
I understand this post completely.
Thanks for reminding me that i do have to play and not just work.
Great plan – I’m definitely going to give it a whirl.
I’m getting pretty good at batching my tasks so I get through them quicker and I’m restricting myself to checking email twice a day, which is all going well, but the idea of working hard through the day to allow me to do the things I most want to do after that is a great one.
Here’s to early mornings, productive days and more activity, fun and frolics.
Keep smiling!
I can only concur with everybody above. I’m a freelancer and, whenever the pages I’m working on load slowly, I “just get a look” at FB, Twitter or something else while the page is looaaading. Needless to say, it kills the productivity mood and sometimes 10min ago before I go back to the page (that had finished loading 9min ago)…
I was wondering, anyone knows of a free application that would block FB after one hour of daily use? I’m getting rescue time, but a bit more help wouldn’t be bad
thanks just the boost I needed, I’d be happy with 50% productivity
Solid post Sean.
I spend a lot of time doing unproductive things with my time on my computer. It takes a ton of focus and commitment sticking to doing just work and only work without getting distracted. Having ADD doesn’t help when my business requires me to be on my laptop all day, and….. uhh, what was I talking about again? Ah well, maybe I’ll remember after I check out some YouTube vids.