Five Sites Freelancers Should Avoid at All Costs
Have you visited a certain website, browsed through it, and realized 3 hours later that you haven’t done anything productive? Here are five sites I try to avoid while working. These websites are time-wasters not because they’re dangerous or pointless. Rather, it’s their addictiveness that make them the bane of anyone trying to get things done.
Wikipedia. You know what I mean. First you read about Freelancing, then click on the link leading to Mercenary. Before you know it, you’re reading about the Weimar Republic, and it’s already sunrise!
YouTube. You watch your favorite videos, click on a related video, and repeat the process ad infinitum. A great way to waste time, especially if you have to wait for the videos to load.
News Sites. So you’re wondering if Hillary will concede to Obama. Then an article on the latest Obama “controversy” piques your interest. Pretty soon, you’ll know what’s happening in the US election, but you’re also no closer to finishing anything useful.
Digg. By their very nature, the articles that reach the front page are remarkable enough for you to click on them. But you don’t want to miss out on the other popular items, so you go through them too. Not a great way to spend your time when deadlines are looming.
Social Networking Sites. Since you want to keep up on what’s happening within your social network, you’ll have to click through all those updates and read about what’s up with your friends. And even if you don’t have a lot of contacts, that already represents some productive time down the drain.
In short, you should avoid sites with a lot of content to process. It really doesn’t help that many of these sites are designed in such a way that you have no choice but to click through links as you encounter them. There’s nothing wrong with following the links of course, but only when you have nothing pending. What other sites should freelancers avoid, for the sake of productivity?
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Productivity Drivers
3 opinions for Five Sites Freelancers Should Avoid at All Costs
Laptop Battery Productivity Hack: Get More Done Within an Hour or Two
May 15, 2008 at 8:47 am
[…] game requires the right mindset, an outlook that will concentrate on the tasks at hand and avoid indulging in distractions. Think of the laptop battery productivity hack as a guide of sorts; it won’t work unless […]
How to Keep Twitter From Killing Your Productivity
May 25, 2008 at 9:13 am
[…] be an unnecessary distraction that keeps you from accomplishing anything meaningful. Just like the sites that every freelancer should avoid, Twitter will waste hours of your time as you attempt to stay on top of the numerous personalities […]
Should Fantasy be Banned for Freelancers?
Aug 15, 2008 at 8:31 am
[…] wiki entries on protagonists, allies, and of course, villains. It’s as dealing with the sites freelancers should avoid taught me […]
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: