February 8th, 2010 @ 1:05 am by: Marc
29 Semi-Productive Things I Do Online When I’m Trying to Avoid Real Work
You don’t always have to work hard to be productive. Productivity can simply be the side effect of doing the right things.
So here’s a list of 29 semi-productive things I do online when my mind is set on avoiding ‘real work.’
- Check delicious popular tags like ‘useful,’ ‘tutorials,’ ‘tips,’ ‘howto,’ ‘advice,’ ‘entrepreneurship,’ etc. for interesting, educational articles to read.
- Watch one of the thousands of educational videos streaming at TED.com, Academic Earth and Teacher Tube.
- Read an online book list and find a new book to grab next time I’m at the library. Here’s another list. And another. And another.
- Read a classic book online for free at Project Gutenberg, Planet eBook, or the E-books Directory.
- Research a new Do It Yourself project at DIY Network, Instructables, eHow, or WikiHow.
- Add to, delete from, or just generally sort my ongoing to-do list at Remember The Milk.
- Create a cool graphical mind map of some of my recent ideas at bubbl.us.
- Email a close friend or family member I haven’t spoken to in awhile.
- Backup my recent photos, documents, and other important files online using Microsoft’s free 25 gig SkyDrive.
- Use Wikipedia’s random article function to pick a random article to read.
- Touch up on my math and science skills over a the Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, or LearningScience.org.
- Send a paper greeting card directly to a friend or relative at enGreet.
- Start learning a new language online for free at BBC Languages or Livemocha.
- Watch one of the insightful 6 minute and 40 second presentations at Ignite Show.
- Use Memorize Now to memorize a cool joke, or poem, or whatever.
- Use Media Convert to convert video files I have on my computer into a format I can view on my iPhone or iPod later on.
- Listen to an educational podcast over at Odeo or via iTunes on iTunes U.
- Read one of the academic journals at the Directory of Open Access Journals.
- Share my favorite mp3s, photos, videos, etc. with friends and family using drop.io.
- Get a free college education online using this guide from Lifehacker (or read one of the other useful articles on Lifehacker).
- Inspire and spark my creative mind by looking at a rolling slideshow of the highest rated photos on Flickr for the last 7 days.
- Catch up on a short history lesson at HyperHistory or The Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Or find out what happened today in history.
- Take a fun, educational online quiz at Quizlet.
- Play an educational online game at Lumosity, Sporcle, Games for the Brain, or Math Run.
- Add a little gentle rain to my environment using RainyMood.com and then simply meditate and relax in my computer chair for 10 minutes.
- Sell old stuff I no longer need on eBay and make a little extra cash.
- Find a new musical artist to listen to based on music I like at Grooveshark, Pandora, last.fm, or Deezer.
- Find out what’s happening in our world from quality international news sources like BBC News and Reuters.
- Write a blog post like this one.
What kind of semi-productive things do you do online in your off-time? Please share them with us in the comments section below.
Photo by: Colorblind Picaso
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63 Comments
February 8th, 2010 at 1:14 am
This is a nice list to check out even though I’m trying to focus my productivity towards my blog. However these are a more productive alternative to checking stats, random surfing, etc.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:30 am
I will be referring to this list often.
February 8th, 2010 at 2:34 am
Great list! I’ll be going through it for sure.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:37 am
hahahah, i like the semi working idea , doesn’t sound stressful yet its useful
February 8th, 2010 at 4:56 am
Great help!!!
February 8th, 2010 at 5:32 am
I am always on SkyDrive. It’s so addictive. You can’t beat 25gb online.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Nice list. I tend to do similar things while putting off projects - it’s a bugger!
February 8th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I like your book list, and enGreet. I’m also intrigued by the free college education I can tap into
Very interesting resources: you must have had a lot of semi-productive hours to cull all this information 
February 8th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Haha, this list was both great and horrible! I have a similar habit of finding semi productive things to use for procrastination…and you may have just added some more options for me!
February 8th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Can’t leave out stumbleupon.com
- perfect for when you want a cool site on a particular topic but don’t want to start from a pool as huge as google!
February 8th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
I do many of the same things. One thing I like to do, is stumble through blogs in my niche finding new ones in the comments section.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:08 am
My gf has a severe addiction to stumbleupon.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Exactly, who’s to define what productivity is? If you’re doing something to improve your language skills or brain power, that is in no way not being productive.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
A very good list, many new things for me to check out! Nobody should claim that random surfing is a waste of time.
My additions:
* Check http://www.kiva.org and help someone change their life.
* Design a T-shirt and try to sell it through skreened.com
February 10th, 2010 at 2:10 am
Great list. #30 should be nothing. Sometimes that’s just as productive.//Marc
February 10th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Great list. Of course my goal has been to become *more* productive and *less* distracted - your post will help me in that goal not at all…:-) But I do appreciate the fact that you have many links I have not checked out before - thanks!
February 11th, 2010 at 9:09 am
That’s a great list. I find StumbleUpon also a great means of finding relevant information when I am trying to kill time..
February 12th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Yeah - StumbleUpon is like crack. Now that I have this list, I may never work again.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Glad I browsed over this awesome list. It will be sure to entertain for hours…
Thanx,
tom
February 13th, 2010 at 12:50 am
Great article… a virtual What’s What of the world wide web.
February 13th, 2010 at 7:25 am
That’s nice but it should be few,,,,,,
Less the better
February 13th, 2010 at 10:50 am
My usual routine is visiting all the forums I frequently post on and updating my threads, plus commenting on any new ones I find interesting. This can easily kill a couple of hours, plus is really useful for building my links and getting my name out there
February 13th, 2010 at 11:52 am
I like the part about browsing delicious tags. I do that too. In addition I visit sites like ‘SAT question of the day’ and ‘Museum of Modern Betas (MoMB)’ as a form of semi-productive browsing.
February 13th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Good refference Material to check out, especially during this snowout!
February 13th, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Why would you do this to me? I have a hard enough time working, I don’t know if I can handle all these new ideas!
February 13th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Thank you, i am always looking for productive things that are not really the productive things I should be doing ! I’d never find all of these by myself.
February 13th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
@Mike, I agree that less is better however…
As an information and Internet addict (like I’m sure many of you are as well), this is an awesome list to add to my arsenal.
I never knew about MemorizeNow so thank you for sharing. I love enhancing my memory skills whenever possible
- Justin Popovic -
February 13th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Terrific list. I browse Instructables a lot, but I love rainymood.com. Great!
February 13th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I end up reading your article, when I was “trying” to avoid real work. Bahh… there is no need to “try”, your list shows how easy is to avoid the work. Hard is to be focus and relax at the same time, while trying to do the real on work in time! keep safe!
February 14th, 2010 at 5:12 am
Great tips. Thanks!
February 14th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Woooooooo ! i love this
February 14th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
I like the idea of searching for tags like “useful” and “entrepreneurship”. I’ll have to try that and see what I find.
February 14th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
This is clearly one of the most comprehensive lists I’ve ever encountered. Now I’m a Semi-Productive Procrastinator. I even like the sound of it.
Thanks so much for the list.
Vita Reid - The One Minute Minimalist
February 14th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
i just go to stumbleupon.com
February 14th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Great list of sites.. many of which I haven’t heard of. This will keep me busy for hours in my downtime. Thanks!
February 14th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for the guidance, and I’ll keep in mind to refer it to others.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Thanks for the language links. I’m trying to learn Gaelic and the language CD’s I bought just aren’t cutting it for me. They want me to learn like an infant would; without reading. But I’m not an infant; I can already read and have a long-standing reliance on reading to generate comprehension.
Without the printed form of the words spoken, it’s tough for me to know if I even heard the thickly accented voices correctly. Hopefully, at least one of the two freebie sites will combine sound with the printed word. (Hey … how about following the dancing ball? That’s how we used to learn the words to songs with Mitch Miller.)
February 14th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
It’s funny how I stumbled upon this article while I’m avoiding real work. Seems like stumble is trying to tell me something….
February 15th, 2010 at 10:09 am
try adding this:
http://slashdot.org/
News for nerds. Stuff that matters.
It has some of the most insightful and entertaining comments I’ve ever seen on the net.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Another to add to #2 is SlideShare. Lots of great presentations.
Another to add to the list, answer questions on LinkedIn.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
wow awesome list i love it!
February 17th, 2010 at 4:42 am
….another wonderful time waster if you love wildlife vids is the Nat Geo site, esp. this one called The Secret Forest Halequin Ducks. Howzat for a name!
http://natgeowildtv.com.au/programmes/wild-russia/videos/the-secret-forest-harlequin-ducks
February 17th, 2010 at 10:21 am
hey! I was overwhelmed already… and you’ve posted SO nice list… that i will perhaps take vacation just to go through it all
thanks!!!
February 17th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I work on my goal list at http://www.43things.com
February 17th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Great list - I’m always looking for productive ways to kill time online and I’ll refer to this list over and over again.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Thats a great list! I’m always looking for things to do at work….other than work:) Here is another site that keeps me entertained! http://www.shareitfitness.com Enjoy!
February 18th, 2010 at 1:02 am
Nice post coz you’ve given a lot of information. the list seems good will surely try some of the things…
February 18th, 2010 at 2:54 am
I use gqueues.com to as my “getting things done” system.
I also read useful blogs like this using my feed reader at feedly.com!
February 18th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Looks like this list is more productive than a whole bunch of things most people do in their productive time…great list to add to my hours of exploring the net..Thanks
February 18th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Great collection; reading it made me feel so productive!
I made this one of my three links on today’s Other Thought for the Day blog:
http://otherthoughtfortheday.blogspot.com/2010/02/02-18-best-college-cars-larp-sort-of.html
All the best, Ted
February 19th, 2010 at 2:34 am
Hi, Thanks for your instructive knowledge and sites.
February 19th, 2010 at 6:25 am
I go through StumbleUpon and find new sites (like this one!), brainstorm / map for future blog posts or, like you, read!
February 19th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Wow, love this! I love the RainyMood.com, the AcademicEarth.org, and KhanAcademy.org. Thanks a million!
February 20th, 2010 at 2:06 am
I have an overwhelming feeling that this will all become extremely useful to me starting now. Stumbling upon sites like this remind of the positivity that exists in so many people and places in the world. Thank you much.
February 20th, 2010 at 9:15 am
I write lenses on squidoo, supervise my category on wikianswers, sell on ebay, share photos on RedGage.com, share photos on Photobucket.com, chat in the Forum.com, play scrabble, IM on AOL, blog, research for my next lens, am a member of RocketMoms, member of Helium.com, buy Amazon stuff, belong to many other online groups such as docrafts.com..i do sooo much online that i would be here all day if i tried listing everything.
February 20th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
With regard to Step Number Five, here is an offshoot of wikihow, which is really fun to while away some time with!
http://www.wikihowl.com
February 21st, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I love your list!!!! Thank you vey much!
Greetings from Costa Rica
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Excellent List. Makes me think. Its the type of list and website that you can take a quick look at and it will get you thinking about what you can improve on and what you want to take on next.
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Thanks for new ideas for surfing the web. I was spending to much time on facebook… now I can watch edicational videos.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:30 am
Great list thanks for the awesome links. One for you http://www.wordle.net
is great for using to get a great looking word cloud. I have put my cv through it with interesting results.
Will keep searching and keep up the good work
February 27th, 2010 at 2:03 am
Too good… This list is super exhaustive, you must be totally organized.
February 28th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Great list! I tend to do a lot of productive things too, but never gave myself credit for actually being productive. This is great inspiration and quite a useful list of fabulous links too. Thank you for sharing your interests and ideas.
March 1st, 2010 at 8:39 pm
You can probably add watching forex tickers and charts.
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