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.
- Share my favorite mp3s, photos, videos, etc. with friends and family using Dropbox.
- 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.
- 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.
Oh, and ever since I bought my new (super sexy) Apple iPad, I’ve been enjoying all of these sites on the go and catching looks from almost everyone who passes me while I browse.
So 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 Party Casino
Angelia2041 says
Hi, Thanks for your instructive knowledge and sites.
Cherrye at My Bella Vita says
I go through StumbleUpon and find new sites (like this one!), brainstorm / map for future blog posts or, like you, read!
Mike G. Kennedy says
Wow, love this! I love the RainyMood.com, the AcademicEarth.org, and KhanAcademy.org. Thanks a million!
Jens says
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.
Tina says
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.
tina says
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
Eduardo ARce says
I love your list!!!! Thank you vey much!
Greetings from Costa Rica
Sean H says
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.
Ecigarette says
Thanks for new ideas for surfing the web. I was spending to much time on facebook… now I can watch edicational videos.
Strategicallyblonde says
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
varun says
Too good… This list is super exhaustive, you must be totally organized.
Diane says
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.
Daniel says
You can probably add watching forex tickers and charts.
Be Happy in LIFE says
Wow, what a great list of resources. I LOVE ted.com too, but I’m not much of a news person.
Lots of little gold nuggets in this post!
Tim says
You know what?! You are just a procrastination enabler, I love you.
John says
Yea that really nice and interesting things to do, when you are doing nothing online 🙂
Ken says
Stop looking over my shoulder! :^) (nice list…looks VERY familiar.) You left out Stumbling for random insights!
Dillon Martin says
Gee thanks! Now you’ve given me plenty of new semi-productive links to explore.
Here’s my list:
upload photos from iPhoto to my .mac library
look at new WordPress templates
check my adsense account
facebook
Elaine says
Thanks so much for this list…You’ve given me lots more to do than visit Facebook..and so much better for my brain..I, too, love stumbleupon but will certainly enjoy using your list.
Damola says
This is the best , most informational post I have seen in a while. It will definitely change my online life someway and I’m eager to engage in semi productive activities than non-productive ;-).
Matthew says
I like to check out http://www.charlierose.com/, he interviews some of the most important and interesting people in the world. All free.
Great list btw! I’m completely going to be using this
Schahryar Fekri says
Nice list!
Camilo Rueda Lopez says
30. Get back to work =)
Ed Parton says
I am so jealous. You have achieved what I have marginally attempted.
Marjorie says
I love this list! I was thinking today that I need to spend less time online because it’s not productive. Thanks for the fantastic ideas!
Sarah says
Gotta make a list like this as well. I am also doing half-productive tasks like this occasionally.
Holly says
check out MIT World too if you use iTunes U and are familiar with Open Course Ware..
mitworld.mit.edu
“MIT World is a free and open site that provides on demand video of significant public events at MIT.”
More than 725 lectures, including 33 nobel laureates.
Giving advice says
Don’t forget Advicenators.com. When you have a second you might do what I do and spend some time improving somebody else’s life just a tad. 🙂
Thank you for the excellent list! I get into TED and I am there for days.
Kaleena says
How fun! So many more distractions to check out!!!
Sierra says
Stumble Upon is a great source for procrastination 🙂 You should check it out.
Neil says
I love this!
Jessica says
For more free education stuff check out Yale University’s “Open Yale Courses” at http://oyc.yale.edu/
I burned the audio to CD and listen to the lectures in my car. It’s great!
Abby says
Love the list! To add to it, freerice.com quizzes you on subjects like vocabulary, foreign language, art, math, geography, or chemistry, and every question you get right they give 10 grains of rice to the hungry.
Fady says
Great list! Thanks.
Angel says
Cool list. Thanks.
AKA says
I am taking a free online typing lesson in my spare time……
Lacey says
Sigh… I knew that taking those extra classes online to boost my GPA was a bad idea. Now I’m REALLY never going to get anything done. Thank you SO MUCH!
JP says
This is probably thee MOST HELPFUL thingamajig list I have EVER come across. My daily “check back” manual. thank you.
Terry Elisabeth says
Nice list. I’ll give it to my boyfriend so he has something to do, anything, while he hangs home.
sander says
..press Stumble! and run into pages like this one (for which I gave a Thumbs Up).
Arun Dhiman says
Really nice one.. thank you for sharing such a nice to do list in free time..:-)
Sean says
this is incredible. thank you so much for putting this together. like i saw in one comment, i will be referring to this often. what you just supplied me will probably occupy and enrich my online surfing for the next year.
wow
Ibrahim Hussein says
I am amazed at the similarities between me and you, The only thing that I can add is that I check reddit and sometimes use stumbleupon (thats how i found your list). The only two websites I never heard of before are rainymood.com and memorizenow.com
Again I am baffled, Great List.
Opinion8dsngr says
Go to http://www.thehungersite.org once a day and donate food and support to good causes (for free). Go to http://www.freerice.com and learn more vocabulary and geography while earning food donations for people who need them.
Ruth R. Alexander says
Most of the things on the net these days are Interesting, informative, educational as well as inspiring. What works for one may not work for other as each person is different in temperament, predisposition and aptitude. By and large, in the larger sense, I find myself in concurrence and agreement with most of the semi-productive things you have listed hereinwith. My favorite sites to visit for productive timepass are satire/comedy cartoon sites like Dilbert, knowledge-tingler sites like SAT question of the day, and videos featuring Rube Goldberg machines and automatic Rubiks cube solvers.
Ben Koshkin says
More people need to avail themselves of your list.
Ben Koshkin
gramathon says
Thank you so much for this. Very Helpful
mrjuls says
This is simply one of the best articles I’ve ever read! Awesome!
Zuroo says
This has got to be THE most useful thing I have come across in the Internet. It points you to all the right directions!! Thanks so much.
Anwar says
#9 I have to checkout. Free storage is always good. I already use Grooveshark because I must have my music therapy.
There’s so much good tips here. I just try to find things to read and contribute to online as semi productive.