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
Jake says
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.
Matt says
I will be referring to this list often.
Chris says
Great list! I’ll be going through it for sure.
Farouk says
hahahah, i like the semi working idea , doesn’t sound stressful yet its useful
Saurabh says
Great help!!!
Richard | RichardShelmerdine.com says
I am always on SkyDrive. It’s so addictive. You can’t beat 25gb online.
Craig Thomas says
Nice list. I tend to do similar things while putting off projects – it’s a bugger!
Steve-Personal Success Factors says
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 😉
Laura says
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!
Jessica says
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!
Anthony Feint says
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.
Howeezy says
My gf has a severe addiction to stumbleupon.
Amit Sodha - The Power Of Choice says
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.
Timo says
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
Marc Winitz says
Great list. #30 should be nothing. Sometimes that’s just as productive.//Marc
Avish Parashar - Motivational Smart Ass says
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!
Murthy says
That’s a great list. I find StumbleUpon also a great means of finding relevant information when I am trying to kill time..
Meg at Demanding Joy says
Yeah – StumbleUpon is like crack. Now that I have this list, I may never work again.
TomJanneck says
Glad I browsed over this awesome list. It will be sure to entertain for hours…
Thanx,
tom
Patrick says
Great article… a virtual What’s What of the world wide web.
Mike says
That’s nice but it should be few,,,,,,
Less the better 🙂
Blogger Den says
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
@marun2 on Twitter says
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.
mitch morrill says
Good refference Material to check out, especially during this snowout!
Steven Rossi says
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! 😉
Carrie says
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.
Success says
@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 –
Tony Noland says
Terrific list. I browse Instructables a lot, but I love rainymood.com. Great!
Miguel Regedor says
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!
SM says
Great tips. Thanks!
Faizan Tahir says
Woooooooo ! i love this
Fresh Cut Peonies says
I like the idea of searching for tags like “useful” and “entrepreneurship”. I’ll have to try that and see what I find.
Vita Reid says
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
WILLIS says
i just go to stumbleupon.com 🙂
Curtis says
Great list of sites.. many of which I haven’t heard of. This will keep me busy for hours in my downtime. Thanks!
subin says
Thanks for the guidance, and I’ll keep in mind to refer it to others.
Bill says
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.)
Jay Willingham - CampusByte says
It’s funny how I stumbled upon this article while I’m avoiding real work. Seems like stumble is trying to tell me something….
Allen says
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.
Jim Bob says
Another to add to #2 is SlideShare. Lots of great presentations.
Another to add to the list, answer questions on LinkedIn.
cosmica says
wow awesome list i love it!
Jackie says
….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
hawran says
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!!!
Katie says
I work on my goal list at http://www.43things.com
Tyler Wainright says
Great list – I’m always looking for productive ways to kill time online and I’ll refer to this list over and over again.
Lindsey says
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!
Himachaltravel says
Nice post coz you’ve given a lot of information. the list seems good will surely try some of the things…
jyoseph says
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!
Vanita says
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
Ted Rex says
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